Ralph Niger,

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

Radulphus Niger or Radulfus Niger,

anglicized Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

Ralph the Black (c. 1140 – c. 1199), was an Anglo-French theologian and one of the

English chroniclers English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

. Little is known about Niger's early life. From around 1160 to 1166, he studied in Paris, where he was a student of

John of Salisbury John of Salisbury (late 1110s – 25 October 1180), who described himself as Johannes Parvus ("John the Little"), was an English author, philosopher, educationalist, diplomat and bishop of Chartres. The historian Hans Liebeschuetz described him ...

and Gerard la Pucelle, and, at some point in his life, probably also in

Poitiers Poitiers is a city on the river Clain in west-central France. It is a commune in France, commune, the capital of the Vienne (department), Vienne department and the historical center of Poitou, Poitou Province. In 2021, it had a population of 9 ...

. At Paris, he may also have been a teacher of

rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...

and

dialectics Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...

. Niger was part of

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then as Archbishop of Canterbury fr ...

's entourage during the latter's exile in France in the early 1160s and played an important role in connecting the exiled archbishop with

Pope Alexander III Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a Papal election, ...

's German ally Conrad of Mainz. After the reconciliation between

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

and Becket, he was employed by the king, but he left England for France after Becket's murder in 1170. After Henry's death in 1189, he returned to England, where he became a

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

in Lincoln.

Works

Apart from several theological works, Niger wrote two

chronicle A chronicle (, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events ...

s in Latin, one on the German emperors and the kings of France and England, which runs up to 1206, and the other one treating history from the world's origin up to the year 1199. In his chronicle, he remained a "violent partisan" of Becket and a critic of Henry, declaring that "the king let no year pass without molesting the country with new laws". His English chronicle was continued by

Ralph of Coggeshall Ralph of Coggeshall (died after 1227), English chronicler, was at first a monk and afterwards sixth abbot (1207–1218) of Coggeshall Abbey, an Essex foundation of the Cistercian order. He is also known for his chronicles on the Third Crusade ...

. Niger also wrote a treatise, ''De re militari'', in which he was critical towards the

Third Crusade The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...

. Niger is an important source for late

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

in Britain. A collection of four offices – Nativity, Annunciation, Assumption, and Purification — composed by him, both notation and text, is preserved in the library of

Lincoln Cathedral Lincoln Cathedral, also called Lincoln Minster, and formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln, is a Church of England cathedral in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England. It is the seat of the bishop of Lincoln and is the Mo ...

(15, fols. 33–43, excepting 42). He introduces the offices with a short Latin treatise on the

feasts A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival constitutes ...

. Most of his works are secular.

Manuscripts

* Lincoln Cathedral Chapter Library: ''In Librum Numerorum''; ''In Leviticum et Deuteronomium''; ''In I–II Regum''; ''In III–IV Regum''; ''In Patalipomena et Esdram''.

Editions

*''Chronicon''. Edited by Robert Anstruther.

Caxton Society The Caxton Society was founded in the United Kingdom in 1845 to promote the publication of inexpensive and convenient editions of Middle Ages, medieval literature, including chronicles, that had not yet appeared in print. It was named after William ...

, 1851. Full tex
online
with list of known works in preface. *''De re militari et triplici via peregrinationis Ierosolimitane''. Edited by Ludwig Schmugge.

De Gruyter Walter de Gruyter GmbH, known as De Gruyter (), is a German scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. History The roots of the company go back to 1749 when Frederick the Great granted the Königliche Realschule in Be ...

, 1977.

Translation

*''On Warfare and the Threefold Path of the Jerusalem Pilgrimage: A Translation of Ralph Niger's '' De re militari et triplici via pereginationis Ierosolimitane. Translated by John D. Cotts. Routledge, 2023.

Sources

* ''Lexikon des Mittelalters'' (München/Zürich, 1977–1999) * K. Peltonen, ''History debated. The Historical Reliability of Chronicles in Pre-Critical and Critical Research. Publications of the Finnish Exegetical Society'' 64 (1996), 42, n. 125
Bibliography
at ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

'' * P. Buc, "Exégèse et pensée politique: Radulphus Niger (vers 1190) et Nicolas de Lyre (vers 1330)", in Joël Blanchard (ed.), ''Représentation, pouvoir et royauté à la fin du Moyen Age'' (Paris: Picard, 1995), 145-164''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Niger, Ralph 12th-century writers in Latin 12th-century English historians Archdeacons of Gloucester 12th-century births 13th-century deaths 13th-century English historians 13th-century writers in Latin