Charlemagne and the Lombard Kingdom that Was: the Lombard Past in Post-Conquest Italian Historiography, in Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, 25.2 (2015), 1–26 (original) (raw)
Related papers
‘The Ancients recount an absurd tale’: Time, Myth and the Origins of the Lombards
This talk delivered at the ISCH Conference in Bucuresti in 2015 considers origins, identities and ethnicities which were all central concerns of Early Medieval writers. The interface between time, history and memory is demonstrated by Gregory of Tours, Bede and Paul the Deacon (amongst many others) and how they mediated the relationships between themselves and the pasts they depicted in their narrative works. Paul the Deacon, for instance, related how the Lombards acquired their name within the non-historical and mythic orbit of Book I of his Historia Langobardorum. Significantly, the episode is also discussed by ‘Fredegar’ and two subsequent and anonymous works of the VIIth- and VIIIth-centuries – the Origo Gentis Langobardorum and the Historia Langobardorum Codicis Gothani. This talk analyses the features of the origins of the Lombards which are described in the above works – which on each occasion have interesting and important variances- by doing so, it will be shown that time, memory and purpose have shifted and amended the ‘absurd tale’ so that it becomes a key to understanding the changes and pre-occupations of those who wrote about the mythic past and their present. Thus, we will be able to track and understand the responses of each of the writers to the Pagan and Mythic origins of the Lombards and how these responses were affected by time and memory.
in «Networks of bishops, networks of texts» Edited by Gianmarco De Angelis, Francesco Veronese, 2022
The analysis of the two versions of the life of Pope Sergius II (844-847) published by Louis Duchesne in his edition of the Liber pontificalis aims at identifying and discussing the tools developed by the Lateran to illustrate the relationship between the Apostolic See and Carolingian power at the time of the Emperor Lothair. I will first present the two versions of the life of Sergius and their circulation, then highlight the rhetorical strategies employed by the author to diminish the political significance of Louis II’s journey to Rome (844). Secondly, I will refer to the second part of the so-called Farnesianus version of the life of Sergius II. In this particular section, the author, before the incomplete report of the Saracen raid on the mouth of the Tiber and the sack of St. Peter's Basilica (846), critically describes the pontificate of Sergius II, dominated by the negative figure of the pontiff's brother, Benedict, who imposed his tyranny over Rome and its territory on behalf of the emperor (most likely as a missus on the imperial side). In this regard, it is interesting to evaluate which are the concealed arguments introduced here to represent the alleged effects of the application of the Constitutio Romana (824) on the socio-political structures of the city and on the history of the Roman Church, to offer a hypothesis on the context of the composition of this version of the life of Sergius II. In particular, I will dwell on the denouncing of the simoniacal heresy, shown to be have been triumphant during the pontificate of Sergius II, as sign of the re-emergence in Rome of a theme particularly strongly felt among the Carolingian reformers, and one which can perhaps be most associated with the pontificate of Sergius’ successor Leo IV (847-855).
The Lombard Recension of the Roman Liber Pontificalis
Clemens Gantner, The Lombard Recension of the Roman Liber Pontificalis, in: Da vescovi di Roma a papi: L’invenzione del Liber Pontificalis. Rivista di Storia del Cristianesimo 10, 1 (2013) 65-114. The paper analyzes the manuscript transmission of the so-called Lombard Recension of the eighth century Liber Pontificalis. It explores possibilities of when and where it was made and who was the target audience .
An Undergraduate thesis (2017) for the degree of Ancient and Modern History at the University of Oxford on Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum, and the perspectives on relations between Lombards, Franks and Avars within it. It explores the contextual events surrounding the interactions between the three people and seeks to understand how Paul's portrayal of each faction may lead to a better understanding of his agenda and aim when writing this work.