Arnulf of Milan, or Arnulfus Mediolanensis (flourished c. 1085) was a chronicler of events in Northern Italy in the work in five books by which he is known, Liber Gestorum Recentium. He describes his labour in the first book as "a simple narrative, offered in everyday speech, of the deeds accomplished by our kings, our bishops, and our fellow citizens from Milan and beyond, as well as our compatriots in the Kingdom of Italy, which I myself have seen or somehow heard from either those who saw them or those slightly later."^[1] Unlike most Christian chroniclers of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Arnulf did not begin with the Creation ("Nevertheless, leaving aside antiquity, let us begin from recent memory") and his account is all the more valuable for recording events that were fresh in the memory of the living, as seen from the archbishopric of Milan. Late Antiquity is a rough periodization (c. ... Justinians wife Theodora and her retinue, in a 6th century mosaic from the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. ...

Arnulf's history begins in 925, with Hugh of Arles ("Hugh of the Burgundians") reigning as King of Italy and exercising his right to appoint an archbishop of Milan. It covers the years of the Gregorian reforms, the reform movement of the Milanese Patarenes, and the Investiture Controversy. It ends with the kingship granted to Rudolf von Rheinfeld as anti-king of the Germans (1077). Hugh of Arles was born sometime before 887, the son of Theobald of Arles and of Bertha, illegitimate daughter of Lothar II of Lotharingia. ... King of Italy is a title adopted by many rulers after the fall of the Roman Empire. ... The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Milan is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Italy. ... Gregorian Reform is generally considered named after Pope Gregory VII(1073-1085), who personally denied this, and claimed it was named after Gregory the Great. ... A Patarine or Patarene (Italian: Patarino, plural Patarini) was a member of an 11th century group of Milanese tradesmen. ... The Investiture Controversy was the most significant conflict between secular and religious powers in medieval Europe. ... Rudolph of Rheinfelden (in German, Rudolf von Rheinfeld, and in Italian Rodolfo di Svevia), died October 15, 1080, was Duke of Swabia (1057–1079) and German antiking (1077–1080). ...

Notes

1. ^ Quotations are from W. North's translation of the text edited by Claudia Zey.

References

• (Arnulf of Milan), Liber Gestorum Recentium, ed. Claudia Zey, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum, Vol. 67 (Hannover: Hahn, 1994). Translated by W. North On-line text.