1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Gislebert of Mons

GISLEBERT (or Gilbert) OF MONS (c. 1150–1225), Flemish chronicler, became a clerk, and obtained the positions of provost of the churches of St Germanus at Mons and St Alban at Namur, in addition to several other ecclesiastical appointments. In official documents he is described as chaplain, chancellor or notary, of Baldwin V., count of Hainaut (d. 1195), who employed him on important business. After 1200 Gislebert wrote the Chronicon Hanoniense, a history of Hainaut and the neighbouring lands from about 1050 to 1195, which is specially valuable for the latter part of the 12th century, and for the life and times of Baldwin V.

The chronicle is published in Band xxi. of the Monumenta Germaniae historica (Hanover, 1826 fol.); and separately with introduction by W. Arndt (Hanover, 1869). Another edition has been published by L. Vanderkindere in the Recueil de textes pour servir à l’étude de l’histoire de Belgique (Brussels, 1904); and there is a French translation by G. Menilglaise (Tournai, 1874).

See W. Meyer, Das Werk des Kanzlers Gislebert von Mons als verfassungsgeschichtliche Quelle (Königsberg, 1888); K. Huygens, Sur la valeur historique de la chronique Gislebert de Mons (Ghent, 1889); and W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band ii. (Berlin, 1894).