Paul the Deacon (c. 720 – 13 April 800), also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefred and Cassinensis, (i.e. "of Monte Cassino"), was a Benedictine monk and historian of the Lombards. For other uses, see number 720. ... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... For other uses, see number 800. ... The longest lasting of the western Catholic monastic orders, the Benedictine Order traces its origins to the adoption of the monastic life by St. ... A historian is a person who studies history. ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Scandinavia that entered the late Roman Empire. ...

An ancestor named Leupichis entered Italy in the train of Alboin and received lands at or near Forum Julii (Friuli). During an invasion the Avars swept off the five sons of this warrior into Illyria, but one, his namesake, returned to Italy and restored the ruined fortunes of his house. The grandson of the younger Leupichis was Warnefrid, who by his wife Theodelinda became the father of Paulus. Alboin (d. ... Friuli is an area of north-eastern Italy, part of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. ... The Eurasian Avars were a nomadic people of Eurasia who established a state in the Danube River area of Europe in the early 6th century. ... In classical history, Illyria or Illyricum or Illyrikon was a region of the western Balkan Peninsula inhabited by the tribes and clans of Illyrians, an ancient people who probably spoke an Indo-European language (the Illyrian languages). ...

Born between 720 and 725 at Friuli in Italy to this noble Lombard family. Paul received an exceptionally good education, probably at the court of the Lombard king Rachis in Pavia, learning from a teacher named Flavian the rudiments of Greek. It is probable that he was secretary to the Lombard king Desiderius, the successor of Rachis; it is certain that this king's daughter Adelperga was his pupil. After Adelperga had married Arichis, duke of Benevento, Paulus at her request wrote his continuation of Eutropius. Friuli is an area of north-eastern Italy, part of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. ... The rachis is the main axis of the inflorescence, or spike, of wheat and other cereals, to which the spikelets are attached. ... Church San Michele in Pavia Pavia (the ancient Ticinum) (population 71,000) is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. ... Desiderius, the last king of the Lombards, is chiefly known through his connection with Charlemagne. ... Eutropius was a pagan Roman historian of the later 4th century, writing in Latin, whose brief remarks about himself let us know that he had served under Emperor Julian the Apostate (ruled 361 - 363) and his history covers the reigns of Valentinian and Valens (died 378). ...

It is certain that he lived at the court of Benevento; possibly taking refuge when Pavia was taken by Charlemagne in 774, but his residence there may be much more probably dated to several years before that event. Soon he entered a monastery on Lake Como, and before 782 he had become a resident at the great Benedictine house of Monte Cassino, where he made the acquaintance of Charlemagne. About 776 his brother Arichis had been carried as a prisoner to France, and when five years later the Frankish king visited Rome, Paul successfully wrote to him on behalf of the captive. Benevento is a town and archiepiscopal see of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 32 miles northeast of Naples. ... A Frankish king, like Charlemagne, (center) depicted in the Sacramentary of Charles the Bald (about 870) Charlemagne (c. ... Lake Como (Lago di Como in Italian, also known as Lario) is a lake of glacial origin in Lombardy, Italy. ... A Benedictine is a person who follows the Rule of Saint Benedict, whether belonging to the Roman Catholic Church, or to one of the Anglican or Protestant churches. ... The restored Abbey Monte Cassino is a rocky hill about eighty miles (130 km) south of Rome, Italy, a mile to the west of the town of Cassino (the Roman Cassinum having been on the hill) and about 1700 ft (520 m) altitude. ... The Franks were one of several west Germanic tribes who entered the late Roman Empire from Frisia as foederati and established a lasting realm in an area that covers most of modern-day France and the region of Franconia in Germany, forming the historic kernel of both these two modern... Location within Italy The Roman Colosseum Rome (Italian and Latin: Roma) is the capital city of Italy and of its Latium region. ...

His literary attainments attracted the notice of Charlemagne, and Paul became a potent factor in the Carolingian renaissance. In 787 he returned to Italy and to Monte Cassino, where he died on April 13 in one of the years between 794 and 800. His surname Diaconus, or Levita, shows that he took orders as a deacon; and some think he was a monk before the fall of the Lombard kingdom. The Carolingians (also known as the Carlovingians) were a dynasty of rulers that eventually controlled the Frankish realm and its successors from the 8th to the 10th century, officially taking over the kingdoms from the Merovingian dynasty in 751. ... This article is about the year 787. ... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (104th in leap years). ... Deacon is a role in the Christian Church which is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. ... A Roman Catholic monk A monk is a person who practices monasticism, adopting a strict religious and ascetic lifestyle, usually in community with others following the same path. ...

The chief work of Paul is his Historia gentis Langobardorum. This incomplete history in six books was written after 787 and at any rate no later than 795/96, maybe at Montecassino. It covers the story of the Lombards from 568 to the death of King Liutprand in 747, and contains much information about the Byzantine empire, the Franks, and others. The story is told from the point of view of a Lombard patriot and is especially valuable for the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. Paul used the document called the Origo gentis Langobardorum, the Liber pontificalis, the lost history of Secundus of Trent, and the lost annals of Benevento; he made a free use of Bede, Gregory of Tours and Isidore of Seville. Events April 1 - King Alboin leads the Lombards into Italy; refugees fleeing from them go on to found Venice. ... This article is about the year 747 AD. For the aircraft, see Boeing 747 or 747A. Events Abu Muslim unites the Abbasid Empire against the Umayyads. ... The Book of the Popes or the Liber Pontificalis is a major source for early medieval history and one that has received intense critical scrutiny. ... Benevento is a town and archiepiscopal see of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, 32 miles northeast of Naples. ... Depiction of Bede from the Nuremberg Chronicle, 1493 Bede (Latin Beda), also known as Saint Bede or, more commonly, the Venerable Bede (c. ... Gregory of Tours (c. ... Saint Isidore of Seville (560 - April 4, 636) was Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and has the reputation of being one of the great scholars of the early middle ages. ...

In some respects he suggests a comparison with Jordanes, but in learning and literary honesty is greatly the superior of the Goth. Of the Historia there are about a hundred manuscripts extant. It was largely used by subsequent writers, was often continued, and was first printed in Paris in 1514. It has been translated into English, German, French and Italian, the English translation being by WD Foulke (Philadelphia, 1807), and the German by O Abel and R Jacobi (Leipzig, 1878). Among the editions of the Latin the best is that edited by L Bethmann and G Waitz, in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores rerum langobardicarum (Hanover, 1878). The Goths were an East Germanic tribe which according to their own traditions originated in Scandinavia (specifically Götaland and Gotland). ... The Monumenta Germaniae Historica (frequently abbreviated MGH in bibliographies and lists of sources) is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history (broadly conceived) from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500. ...

Cognate with this work is Paul's Historia Romana, a continuation of the Breviarium of Eutropius. This was compiled between 766 and 771, at Benevento. The story runs that Paul advised Adelperga to read Eutropius. She did so, but complained that this heathen writer said nothing about ecclesiastical affairs and stopped with the accession of the emperor Valens in 364; consequently Paul interwove extracts from the Scriptures, from the ecclesiastical historians and from other sources with Eutropius, and added six books, thus bringing the history down to 553. This work has little value, although it was very popular during the middle ages. It has been edited by H Droysen and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores antiquissimi, Band ii. (1879) as well as by A. Crivellucci, in FOnti per la storia d' Italia, n. 51 (1914). Arian Valens (328 – August 9, 378) was Roman emperor from 364 until his death, after he was given the Eastern part of the empire by his brother Valentinian I. His father was the general Gratian the Elder. ...

Paul wrote at the request of Angilram, bishop of Metz (d. 791), a history of the bishops of Metz to 766, the first work of its kind north of the Alps. This Gesta episcoporum Mettensium is published in Band ii. of the Monumenta Germaniae historica Scriptores, and has been translated into German (Leipzig, 1880). He also wrote many letters, verses and epitaphs, including those of Duke Arichis and of many members of the Carolingian family. Some of the letters are published with the Historia Langobardorum in the Monumenta; the poems and epitaphs edited by Ernst Dümmler will be found in the Poetae latini aevi carolini, Band i. (Berlin, 188f). Fresh material having come to light, a new edition of the poems (Die Geschichte des Paulus Diaconus) has been edited by Karl Neff (Munich, 1908), who denies, however, the attribution to Paul of the most famous poem in the collection, the Ut queant laxis, a hymn to St. John from the initial syllables of the first verses of which Guido d'Arezzo took the names of the first notes of the musical scale. Paul also wrote an epitome, which has survived, of Festus' De significatu verborum. Location within France Rhine watershed Metz is a city in the North-East of France, capital of the Lorraine région and of the département of Moselle (57). ... The Alps is the collective name for one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria in the east, Slovenia, Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany, through to France in the west. ... Ernst Ludwig Dümmler (2 January 1830 - 11 September 1902) was a German historian. ... Guido of Arezzo or Guido Monaco (995-1050) is regarded as the inventor of modern musical notation (staff notation) that replaced neumatic notation. ... For the town, see Festus, Missouri. ...

While in France Paulus was requested by Charlemagne to compile a collection of homilies. He executed this after his return to Monte Cassino, and it was largely used in the Frankish churches. A life of Pope Gregory the Great has also been attributed to him. Gregory I Pope Saint Gregory I or Gregory the Great (called the Dialogist in Eastern Orthodoxy) (c. ...

Translations of the Historia Langobardorum

The work has been translated into a number of languages.

Into Italian

• A. Viviani, Dell' origine e de' fatti de' Longobardi, 2 vols., Udine (1826‑28)
• G. S. Uberti, De' fatti de' Longobardi, Cividale (1899) reprinted in the Biblioteca Popolare Sonzogno, Milan (1915)
• M. Felisatti, Storia dei Longobardi, Milan (1967)
• F. Roncoroni, Storia dei Longobardi, Milan (1971)
• E. Bartolini, Historia Langobardorum, with Latin text, and translation by A. Giacomini, Udine (nd)
• A. Zanella, Storia dei Longobardi, Milan (1991)
• L. Capo (ed.), Storia dei Longobardi, Milan (1992).

References

• C. Cipolla, Note bibliografiche circa l'odierna condizione degli studi critici sul testo delle opere di Paolo Diacono (Venice, 1901)
• Atti e memorie del congresso storico tenuto in Cividale (Udine, 1900)
• F Dahn, Langobardische Studien, Bd. i. (Leipzig, 1876)
• W Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Bd. i. (Berlin, 1904)
• A Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, Bd. ii. (Leipzig, 1898)
• P del Giudice, Studi di storia e diritto (Milan, 1889)
• U Balzani, Le Cronache italiane nel medio evo (Milan, 1884)

Wilhelm Wattenbach (September 22, 1819 - September 21, 1897), was a German historian. ...

External Link

• Works of Paulus Diaconus at Bibliotheca Augustana (http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/Chronologia/Lspost08/PaulusDiaconus/pau_intr.html) (in Latin)

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... The Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911) in many ways represents the sum of knowledge at the beginning of the 20th century. ...