![PaulusDiaconus Plut](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/PaulusDiaconus_Plut.65.35.jpg)
Paul the Deacon ( 720s 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as ''Paulus Diaconus'', ''Warnefridus'', ''Barnefridus'', or ''Winfridus'', and sometimes
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
ed ''Cassinensis'' (''i.e.'' "of
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...
"), was a
Benedictine monk
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, found ...
,
scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
, and
historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
of the
Lombards
The Lombards () or Langobards ( la, Langobardi) were a Germanic people who ruled most of the Italian Peninsula from 568 to 774.
The medieval Lombard historian Paul the Deacon wrote in the ''History of the Lombards'' (written between 787 and ...
.
Life
An ancestor of Paulus's named Leupichis emigrated to Italy in 568 in the train of
Alboin
Alboin (530s – 28 June 572) was king of the Lombards from about 560 until 572. During his reign the Lombards ended their migrations by settling in Italy, the northern part of which Alboin conquered between 569 and 572. He had a lasting effe ...
, King of the Lombards. There, he was granted lands at or near ''Forum Julii'' (
Cividale del Friuli
Cividale del Friuli ( fur, Cividât (locally ); german: Östrich; sl, Čedad) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Udine, part of the North-Italian Friuli Venezia Giulia ''regione''. The town lies above sea-level in the foothills of the e ...
). During an invasion by the
Avars, Leupichis's five sons were carried away to
Pannonia
Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...
, but one of them, his namesake, returned to
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
and restored the ruined fortunes of his house. The grandson of the younger Leupichis was Warnefrid, who by his wife Theodelinda became the father of Paul. Paulus was his monastic name; he was born Winfrid, son of Warnefrid, between 720 and 735 in the
Duchy of Friuli
The Duchy of Friuli was a Lombard duchy in present-day Friuli, the first to be established after the conquest of the Italian peninsula in 568. It was one of the largest domains in ''Langobardia Major'' and an important buffer between the Lombard ...
.
Thanks to the possible noble status of his family, Paul received an exceptionally good education, probably at the court of the Lombard king
Ratchis in
Pavia
Pavia (, , , ; la, Ticinum; Medieval Latin: ) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy in northern Italy, south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It has a population of c. 73,086. The city was the capit ...
, learning the rudiments of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
from a teacher named Flavian. Flavian was probably the secretary of the Lombard king
Desiderius
Desiderius, also known as Daufer or Dauferius (born – died ), was king of the Lombards in northern Italy, ruling from 756 to 774. The Frankish king of renown, Charlemagne, married Desiderius's daughter and subsequently conquered his realm. Des ...
, a successor of Ratchis; Desiderius's daughter
Adelperga
Adelperga (born c. 740 – died after 787) was a Lombard noblewoman, Duchess of Benevento by marriage to Arechis II of Benevento. She acted as regent of Benevento for her son Grimoald in 787-788. She was the third of four daughters of Deside ...
was his pupil. After Adelperga had married
Arichis II, duke of Benevento, Paul at her request wrote his continuation of
Eutropius's ''Summary of Roman History'' (
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 ...
: ''Breviarium Historiae Romanae'').
He lived at the court of
Benevento
Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...
for at least several years before 774, when
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
captured Pavia, and he may have fled the city during that conquest. Eventually he entered a monastery on
Lake Como
Lake Como ( it, Lago di Como , ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh de Còmm , ''Cómm'' or ''Cùmm'' ), also known as Lario (; after the la, Larius Lacus), is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. It has an area of , making it the thir ...
, and before 782 he entered the great
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, foun ...
house of
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...
, where he made the acquaintance of Charlemagne. Around 776, Paul's brother Arichis was carried off to
Francia
Francia, also called the Kingdom of the Franks ( la, Regnum Francorum), Frankish Kingdom, Frankland or Frankish Empire ( la, Imperium Francorum), was the largest post-Roman barbarian kingdom in Western Europe. It was ruled by the Franks dur ...
as a prisoner; when Charlemagne visited
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
five years later, Paul wrote to him on behalf of Arichis, who was then freed.
After Paul's literary achievements had drawn the attention of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
, he became an important contributor to the
Carolingian Renaissance
The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. It occurred from the late 8th century to the 9th century, taking inspiration from the State church of the Roman Emp ...
. In 787 he returned to Monte Cassino, where he died on 13 April in one of the years between 796 and 799. His epithet ''Diaconus'' indicates that he took orders as a
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
; and some believe he was a
monk
A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...
before the fall of the
Lombard Kingdom
The Kingdom of the Lombards ( la, Regnum Langobardorum; it, Regno dei Longobardi; lmo, Regn di Lombard) also known as the Lombard Kingdom; later the Kingdom of (all) Italy ( la, Regnum totius Italiae), was an early medieval state established ...
.
Works
Paul's chief work is his ''
Historia Langobardorum
The ''History of the Lombards'' or the ''History of the Langobards'' ( la, Historia Langobardorum) is the chief work by Paul the Deacon, written in the late 8th century. This incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate ...
'', an incomplete history in six books that he wrote after 787 but no later than 795–96. It covers the history of the Langobards from their legendary origins in the north (in "Scadinavia") and their subsequent migrations—notably to Italy in 568–69—to the death of
King Liutprand
Liutprand was the king of the Lombards from 712 to 744 and is chiefly remembered for his multiple phases of law-giving, in fifteen separate sessions from 713 to 735 inclusive, and his long reign, which brought him into a series of conflicts, mos ...
in 744. The books contain much information about the
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
, the Franks, and other peoples. The history is written from a Lombardian point of view and is especially valuable for its depictions of the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. It begins:
Among Paul's sources were the fradocument called the ''
Origo gentis Langobardorum'', the ''
Liber pontificalis
The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adrian II (867 ...
'', the lost history of
Secundus of Trent, and the lost annals of
Benevento
Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...
. He also heavily drew upon the works of
Bede
Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...
,
Gregory of Tours
Gregory of Tours (30 November 538 – 17 November 594 AD) was a Gallo-Roman historian and Bishop of Tours, which made him a leading prelate of the area that had been previously referred to as Gaul by the Romans. He was born Georgius Florenti ...
, and
Isidore of Seville
Isidore of Seville ( la, Isidorus Hispalensis; c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Spanish scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. He is widely regarded, in the words of 19th-century historian Montalembert, as "the last scholar of ...
.
Related to his history of the Langobards is Paul's ''Historia Romana''; this is a continuation of
Eutropius's ''
Breviarium'', which covers the period 364–553 CE. Paul compiled the ''Historia Romana'' at Benevento between 766 and 771. He is said to have advised Adelperga to read Eutropius; she did, but complained that this pagan writer said nothing about ecclesiastical affairs and stopped with the accession of the Emperor
Valens
Valens ( grc-gre, Ουάλης, Ouálēs; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the eastern half of ...
in 364. Consequently, Paul interwove extracts from the
Scriptures
Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...
, from ecclesiastical historians, and from other sources with the writings of Eutropius. The six books he ultimately added thus carried Lombardian history down to 553. This work, which was very popular during the Middle Ages, has value for its early historical presentation of the end of the
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
in
Western Europe
Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context.
The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
. It was edited by
Hans Droysen and published in the ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores antiquissimi'' series, Band ii. (1879) as well as by A. Crivellucci, in ''Fonti per la storia d' Italia'', n. 51 (1914).
At the request of
Angilram,
Bishop of Metz
Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand Es ...
(d. 791), Paul wrote a history of the bishops of Metz to 766, the first work of its kind north of the
Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...
. This was translated into English in 2013 as ''Liber de episcopis Mettensibus''. He also wrote many letters, verses, and epitaphs, including those of Duke/Prince Arichis II of Benevento and of many members of the Carolingian family. Some of these letters were published with the ''Historia Langobardorum'' in the ''Monumenta''; poems and epitaphs edited by
Ernst Dümmler
Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 183011 September 1902) was a German historian.
Biography
Ernst Ludwig was born in Berlin, the son of (1777–1846), a Berlin bookseller. He studied law, classical philology and history, among other things, at ...
were published in the ''Poetae latini aevi carolini'', Band i. (Berlin, 1881). Fresher material having come to light, a newer edition of the poems (''Die Gedichte des Paulus Diaconus'') was edited by Karl Neff (Munich, 1908). Neff denied, however, that Paul had written the most famous poem in the collection, the hymn to St.
John the Baptist
John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
, which
Guido of Arezzo
Guido of Arezzo ( it, Guido d'Arezzo; – after 1033) was an Italian music theorist and pedagogue of High medieval music. A Benedictine monk, he is regarded as the inventor—or by some, developer—of the modern staff notation that had a ma ...
set to a melody that had previously been used for
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
's ''Ode''
:Carmina (Horatius)/Liber IV/Carmen XI">4.11. From the initial syllables of the first verses of the resultant setting, Guido then took the names of the first notes of the musical scale. Paul also wrote an
epitome
An epitome (; gr, ἐπιτομή, from ἐπιτέμνειν ''epitemnein'' meaning "to cut short") is a summary or miniature form, or an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment. Epitomacy represents "t ...
, which has survived, of
Sextus Pompeius Festus
Sextus Pompeius Festus, usually known simply as Festus, was a Roman grammarian who probably flourished in the later 2nd century AD, perhaps at Narbo (Narbonne) in Gaul.
Work
He made a 20-volume epitome of Verrius Flaccus's voluminous and encyclo ...
's ''
De verborum significatu
''De verborum significatione libri XX'' ('Twenty Books on the Meaning of Words'), also known as the ''Lexicon of Festus'', is an epitome compiled, edited, and annotated by Sextus Pompeius Festus from the encyclopedic works of Verrius Flaccus. Fe ...
'', which he dedicated to Charlemagne.
While Paul was in Francia, Charlemagne asked him to compile a collection of
homilies
A homily (from Greek ὁμιλία, ''homilía'') is a commentary that follows a reading of scripture, giving the "public explanation of a sacred doctrine" or text. The works of Origen and John Chrysostom (known as Paschal Homily) are considered ex ...
. Paul granted this request after returning to Monte Cassino; the compilation was largely used in the Frankish churches. Paul also composed two important homilies ''In Assumptione'', in the second of which, unlike
Ambrose Autpert, he admits the possibility of
Mary's bodily assumption into heaven.
A life of
Pope Gregory the Great
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...
has also been attributed to Paul, and he is credited with a Latin translation of the Greek ''Life of
Saint Mary the Egyptian''.
Notes
References
*
Attribution:
* Endnotes:
**
Carlo Cipolla, ''Note bibliografiche circa l'odierna condizione degli studi critici sul testo delle opere di Paolo Diacono'' (Venice, 1901)
** ''Atti e memorie del congresso storico tenuto in Cividale'' (Udine, 1900)
**
Felix Dahn
Felix Dahn (9 February 1834 – 3 January 1912) was a German law professor, German nationalism, German nationalist author, poet and historian.
Biography
Ludwig Julius Sophus Felix Dahn was born in Hamburg as the oldest son of Friedrich (1811–1 ...
, ''Langobardische Studien'', Bd. i. (Leipzig, 1876)
**
Wilhelm Wattenbach
Wilhelm Wattenbach (22 September 181920 September 1897), was a German historian.
He was born at Rantzau in Holstein. He studied philology at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, and in 1843 he began to work upon the ''Monumenta G ...
, ''Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen'', Bd. i. (Berlin, 1904)
**
Albert Hauck
Albert Heinrich Friedrich Stephan Ernst Louis Hauck (9 December 1845, Wassertrüdingen – 7 April 1918, Leipzig) was a German theologian and History of Christianity, church historian.
Hauck began studying theology in 1864 in Erlangen, and t ...
, ''Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands'', Bd. ii. (Leipzig, 1898)
** , ''Studi di storia e diritto'' (Milan, 1889)
**
Ugo Balzani
Count Ugo Balzani (6 November 1847 – 27 February 1916) was an Italian people, Italian historian, born in Rome and educated there in the universities of that city. He became known as a distinguished scholar in his chosen field and honors were hea ...
, ''Le Cronache italiane nel medio evo'' (Milan, 1884)
Further reading
*
*
*
* Christopher Heath (2017) ''The Narrative Worlds of Paul the Deacon: Between Empires and Identities in Lombard Italy'' (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press}
External links
Works of Paulus Diaconus at Bibliotheca Augustana(in Latin)
History of the Lombards
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul the Deacon
720s births
799 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
Medieval Latin poets
Italian Benedictines
Frankish historians
8th-century Latin writers
8th-century Italian historians
8th-century Lombard people
8th-century Frankish writers
8th-century poets
8th-century translators