Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/544

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522 APPENDIX sion must be used. For ordinar}' purposes the text of Miklosich (1860) is still con- venient. Excellent French translation by L. Leger, Chronique dite de Nestor, 1884, with an index i" which is half a commentary.] Latix axd other "Western Soukces Amatus of Salerno, monk of Monte Cassino and bishop of an unknown see, wrote about A. D. 1080 a history of the Norman conquest of southern Italy, taking as a model the Historia LangoVjardorum of Paul the Deacon. We do not possess the work in its original shape, but only in a faulty French translation, made per- haps c. 1300 A.D., which has survived in a single Ms. It was edited for the first time, and not well, by ChampoUion-Figeac in 1835 (L'Ystoire de li Normant et la Chronique de Robert Viscart, par Aime, moine de Mont-Cassin), but has been recently edited b}- O. Delarc, 1892. The work is divided into 8 Books, and em- braces the history of the Xormans from their first appearance in Italy to a.d. 1078. "It is," says Giesebrecht, "no dry monosyllabic annalistic account, but a full nanative of the conquest with most attractive details, told with charming naiveti. Yet Amatus does not overlook the significance of the events which he relates, in their ecumenical context. His view grasps the contemporaiy Norman conquest of England, the valiant feats of the French knights against the Saracens of Spain, and the influence of Norman mercenaries in the Byzantine empire. In beginning his work (which he dedicates to the Abbot Desiderius, Robert Guis- card's intimate friend) he is conscious that a red thread runs through all these undertakings of the knight-errants and that God has some special purpose in His dealings with this victorious race. " [For criticism of the work, the most im- portant study is that of F. Hirsch in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, 8, p. 205 isqq. (1868).] Amatus was unknown to Gibbon, but he was a source of the most important works which Gibbon used. He was one of the sources of the jwem of William or Apulia (begun c. a.d. 1099, finished by a.d. 1111), who also utilised the Annals of Ban. Now that we have Amatus (as well as the Annals of Bari) the value of William lies in the circum.stance that he used also a lost biography of Robert Guiscard. [New ed. by Wilmans, in Pertz, Mon. ix. p. 239 sqq.'l Amatus was also a source of Geoffrey Malaxerra, who -wTote the history of the Normans in Sicily (up to 1099) at the instance of Count Roger (see aVx)ve, Gibbon's notes in chap. Ivi.). [For the relation of this to the Anonymi Vatican! Historia Sicula, see A. Heskel, Die Hi.st. Sic. des Anon. Vat. und des Gaufredus Mala terra, 1891.] Leo, monk and librarian of Monte Cassino, afterwards Cardinal-bishop of Ostia (died 1115), wrote a chronicle of his monastery, which he carried down to A.i>. 1075. It is a laudable work, for which ample material 'discreetly used by Leo) lay in the library of the monastery. [Ed. Vjy Wattenbach in Pertz, Mon. vii. p. 574 xqq. Cp. Balzani, Le cronache Italiane nel medio evo, >. 150 aqq. (1884).] The work was continued (c. 1140) by the Deacon Peter, who belonged to the family of the Counts of Tusculurn, as far as the j-ear 1137- [Ed. AVatten- bach, ih. p. 727 s^'?.] Other sources (Annales Barenses, Chron. breve Nortmannicum, &c.) are mentioned in the notes of chay>. Ivi. It should be observed that there is no good authoritj- for the name "Lupus protospatharius," under which name one of the Bari chronicles is always cited. Contemporary Beneventane annals are preserved in (1) Annales Beneventani, in Pertz, Mon. iii. p. 173 ssqq. and (2) the incomplete Chronicon of the Beneventane Falco (in Del Re's Cronisti, vol. i. : IGl »qq.)', both of which up to 1112 have a common origin. Cj). Giesebrecht, Gesch. der deutschen Kaiserzeit, iii. 10(i9. The credibilitj- of the history of Huoo Falcasdus has been exhibited in some detail by F. Hillger (Das Verhaltniss des Hugo Falcandus zu Romuald von 19 There are unforiunately many mistakes in the references to the numbers of the chapters.