The ''Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium'' (Deeds of the Abbots of Fontenelle), also called the ''Gesta sanctorum patrum Fontanellensis coenobii'' (Deeds of the Holy Fathers of the Monastery of Fontenelle), is an anonymous

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

chronicle of the

Abbey of Fontenelle Fontenelle Abbey or the Abbey of St. Wandrille is a Benedictine monastery in the commune of Rives-en-Seine. It was founded in 649 near Caudebec-en-Caux in Seine-Maritime, Normandy, France. First foundation It was founded by Wandregisel or Sa ...

written in phases between 823 and 867. It is the earliest monastic chronicle from western Europe. It is organized around the lives and deeds of the abbots from the abbey's foundation by

Wandregisel Saint Wandregisel (french: Wandrille) (c. 605–668 AD) was a Frankish courtier, monk, and abbot. Life The son of Walchisus, a kinsman of Pepin of Landen, he was born around 605, near Verdun in the region then known as Austrasia. He was educate ...

in 649 until the abbacy of

Ansegisus Saint Ansegisus (c. 770 – 20 July 833 or 834) was a monastic reformer of the Franks. Born about 770, of noble parentage, at the age of eighteen he entered the monastery of Fontenelle (also called St Wandrille after the name of its founder ...

in 823–833. The work itself was commissioned by Ansegisus and then revised and expanded after his death. It is the work of a single author, possibly the abbey's archivist. It can be divided into three parts. The first part covers the abbacy of Wandregisel, but his three successors— Lantbert,

Ansbert Ansbert (died c. 695), sometimes called Ansbert of Chaussy, was a Frankish monk, abbot and bishop of Rouen, today regarded as a saint in the Catholic Church. Early life Ansbert was born at Chaussy-sur-Epte, a village in the Norman historical ar ...

and Hildebert—are missing. This gap corresponds to 668–701. The second part goes down to 806, but then the abbacies of Trasarus (806–17) and

Einhard Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart; la, E(g)inhardus; 775 – 14 March 840) was a Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the ''Vita ...

(818–23) are missing. The third part covers the abbacy of Ansegisus. A fourth part, an addendum to the main chronicle, contains summary notices of the deaths of Ansegisus' three successors and was written between 850 and 867.

Philip Grierson Philip Grierson, FBA (15 November 1910 – 15 January 2006) was a British historian and numismatist, emeritus professor of numismatics at Cambridge University and a fellow of Gonville and Caius College for over seventy years. During his long an ...

, "Abbot Fulco and the Date of the ''Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium''", ''English Historical Review'', 55, 218 (1940): 275–284.

Editions

*S. Loewenfeld
''Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empire ...

, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum. Hanover: Hahn, 1886. *F. Lohier and J. Laporte. ''Gesta sanctorum patrum Fontanellensis coenobii''. Rouen and Paris: 1931.

Notes

{{reflist 9th-century Latin books Carolingian historiography Abbey of Saint Wandrille