PART I
The manuscripts and the previous editions [205]
The HLCG is preserved in a manuscript dating to the eleventh/twelfth century: codex no. 84 of Gotha’s Forschungsbibliothek (Germany), fols. 335v-337v (hereafter G). The work is in 2 columns, composed of 39 lines each; it begins on line 35 of the second column of fol. 335v [206] and ends on the line 24 of fol. 337v. [207] In G the chronicle was copied by only a single scribe. In the spaces between the lines there are some corrections by another hand, probably coeval to the manuscript. Considering the rough Latin of the author and that G is not contemporary with the chronicler, I have decided to take into account the corrections only in the presence of mistakes that impede the comprehension of the text. For example, mine for nomine, [208] exvt for exivit, [209] Pania for Pannonia, [210] relinques for relinquens, [211] venerum for venenum, [212] and examinati for exanimati. [213] Moreover I have corrected Cleps to Clephs, [214] since this Lombard king is known as Cleph. In the case of the Frankish sovereign Chlothar the name was miscopied and so I have changed flotlairius to Clotharius. [215]
Stefano Maria Cingolani has argued that the word serpentibus, employed at the beginning of the HLCG, «Asserunt antiqui parentes Langobardorum (...) deinter serpentibus parentes eorum breviati exissent, sanguinea et aspera progeines et sine lege», is a mistake for spernentibus. Cingolani states that, if one accepts the reading serpentibus, the passage would refer to an episode of Lombard history that is not mentioned in other texts and is unparalleled in Germanic legends. He therefore believes that the best solution is to correct serpentibus to spernentibus. The latter term would refer to the small number of Lombards, explained by the fact they were only one part of a people. [216]
This hypothesis is interesting, yet it is necessary to observe that, first, the primary sources available to us are so scanty that the fact that no other work reports the snakes episode does not constitute a valid reason for maintaining the corruption of the text. Moreover, I believe that breviati is not related to serpentibus. If one considers that exire might also mean «to originate from», the sentence can be translated as
205. In this volume I have used a revised version of the Latin texts edited in Testi storici e poetici.
206. In this part of the folio there is no indication that a new text begins.
207. In this folio there are no other texts.
208. HLCG, ch. 2. 209. HLCG, ch. 3. 210. HLCG, ch. 5. 211. HLCG, ch. 5.
212. HLCG, ch. 6. 213. HLCG, ch. 11. 214. HLCG, ch. 7. 215. HLCG, ch. 5.
216. Cingolani, Le storie dei Longobardi, pp. 49-53.
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«The ancient forefathers of the Lombards assert that [,..| their forefathers, a rough and bloody and lawless progeny, and of small number, originated from snakes.»
The main difference between the previous editions and this one concerns a change in the punctuation, suggested by the different meaning one must attribute to the term fargetum, a corruption of farigaidus, used in the Origin of the Lombard People, from which the author of the HLCG probably copied some passages. Believing that these words derived from vergessen, the previous editors gave the following reading: «regnavit filius ipsius nomine Walteri annis VII. Fargaetum: isti omnes Adelingi fuerunt.» [217] Annalisa Bracciotti, the editor of the Origin of the Lombard People, has challenged this interpretation pointing out that farigaidus is an adjective meaning «lacking in descendants.» This translation is supported by both a linguistic analysis and the particular that, up to that part, the text mentions kings succeeding their fathers, which had not happened after the death of Waltari, evidently because he had no sons. The chronicler therefore fell the need to emphasize this detail. [218] The corrupted word fargetum obviously has the same meaning. On the basis of these observation, the correct reading of this sentence is: «regnavit filius ipsius nomine Walteri annis VII, fargaetum. Isti omnes Adelingi fuerunt.» [219]
In G the HLCG is not divided into chapters; I have added them in order to facilitate quotations. The chapter numbering is however different from those of the previous editions:
Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani, in Le leggi dei Longobardi. Storia, memoria e diritto di un popolo germanico, eds. C. Azzara and S. Gasparri, Roma 2005, 2nd ed., pp. 317-329.
Historia Langobardorum codicis Gothani, ed. G. Waitz. Monumenta Germaniae Historica (hereafter MGH), Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum saec. VI-IX, Hannover 1878, pp. 7-11.
The Historia by Andreas of Bergamo survives in two manuscripts: the Sangallensis 317, fols. 78r-86v, of the Kantonsbibliothek-Vadiana (Saint Gall, Switzerland) (hereafter V) dating to the end of the ninth century, and the Sangallensis 620, pp. 255-272, of the Stiftsbibliothek (Saint Gall), composed at the end of the twelfth century (hereafter B). In B Andreas of Bergamo’s work is written on the margins of the folios containing Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards.
There are no conjunctive errors between V and B, yet, because of the location in which the manuscripts are preserved, the fact that in both V and B the scribes wrote vix instead of vis, [220] and that V and B have the same lacunas [221] as well as the same words added interlineally, [222] it is likely that B derives from V. [223]
217. See ch. 4, of the editions by Waitz and Azzara.
218. Origo gentis Langobardorum, p. 202. Marcello Meli agrees until this point. Meli, Eco scandinave, p. 349.
219. HLCG, ch. 4.
220. V, fol. 85v. B, p. 271. Cf. Andreas of Bergamo, Historia, ch. 20.
221. V, fol. 84r: «iuncti sunt in loco [...]).» B, p. 270.
222. For example: V, fol. 79v: «et posuit in edicto capituli octo.» Cf. B, p. 261. B, fol. 81v: «non post multos dies.» Cf. B, p. 264. In the margin of V, fol. 86r, beside «qui imperavit,» someone has added for how many years Louis II had ruled. In B, p. 272, this detail is missing, but, after «qui imperavit,» two lines have been erased.
223. Of this opinion is also La Placa, Andrea di Bergamo, p. 67, note 30.
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It is however necessary to point out that B is not an exact replica of V. There are, in fact, some corrections anil changes, probably made by the copyist of B to render the text more clearly. For example, Adilgis [224] for Adelchis, [225] Irmirgarda [226] for Ermengarda, [227] caput [228] for capud, [229] and vites [230] for vitae. [231]
[...]
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[...]
A significant omission in B is the paragraph in which, after the summary of Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards, Andreas of Bergamo explains that he learned the following events from some letters and elders. [258]
[...]
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The previous edition is Andreae Bergomatis Historia, ed. G. Waitz. MGH, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum et Italicarum, pp. 220-230.
In both V and B Andreas of Bergamo’s chronicle is not divided into chapters; I have added them to this edition to facilitate citations. The chapter numbering is however different from that of the previous edition.
The De Pippini regis victoria Avarica is preserved in only one manuscript dating between the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century: Codex Dietianus, B, Sant, 66 of Berlin’s Staatsbibliothek (hereafter D), pp. 127-128. This work, which begins on the fourteenth line of page 127 and finishes at the end of page 128, was written in D, probably in northern Italy, on blank folios of a manuscript composed in «a Frankish area.» [286]
That the codex is contemporary with the author suggests that the rough Latin of the text is attributable to the author rather than to mistakes committed by the copyist. [287] For this reason, I have decided to follow the readings of D literally.
The most recent edition is De Pippini regis victoria Avarica, ed. E. Duemmler. MGH, Poetae Latini aevi Carolini I, Berlin 1881, pp. 116-117. A revision of this edition was added in the appendix of Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, ed. O. Holder-Egger, MGH, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi, Hannover 1911, pp. 42-43. There is an English translation of this work in Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance, pp. 186-191, which also contains the Latin text as edited in MGH.
The Rythmus de captivitate Lhuduici imperatoris is conserved in a late-ninth-century codex, number XC, fols. 76r-77v, of the Biblioteca Capitolare, Verona (Italy) (hereafter C). It has been hypothesized that this work was written on some blank folios. [288] The fact that C is contemporary with the author and that the latter seems not to have a good knowledge of the Latin language (the Latin of this work has been defined «vulgar Latin» = «latino popolare») [289] has induced me not to correct the text in C.
The previous editions of this text are in Carmen Russo Mailler, La politica meridionale di Ludovico II e il «Rythmus de captivitate Ludovici imperatoris», in «Quaderni Medievali», XIV (1982), pp. 18-19, and in MGH, Poetae latini aevi carolini III, 2, Berlin 1896, pp. 404-405 (ed. L. Traube).
In the title of this edition Emperor Louis II’s name has been changed into Lhuduicus, since this is how his name is spelled in the text. [290]
286. Bischoff, The Court Library, pp. 68-70. On this manuscript, see also the observations of Villa, I classici, pp. 494-497, and McKitterick, Charlemagne, pp. 165-367.
287. Peter Godman believes that the vulgarisms in this and other similar texts «are not marks of ignorance, but the sign of a cultivated author’s conscious attempt to compose a Latin intelligible to fellow clerics as their spoken lingua franca.» Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance, p. 31. Rosamond McKilterick, on the other hand, thinks that the author used this kind of Latin on purpose as his work was intended for a lay audience. McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 230-231.
288. Meersseman, Il codice XC, p. 23.
289. Dronke, Generi letterari della poesia ritmica allomedievale, p. 176. Rythmus de captivitate, line 3.
290. Rythmus de captivitate, line 3.
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Acknowledgments
1 wish to thank Giuseppe Petralia and Paolo Rossi for accepting to publish this volume in their book series, the staff at Pisa University Press for their editorial assistance, and Robert Berkhofer, Roberto Pesce, Antony Shugaar, and Michael Brinks for their valuable help. Moreover, I wish to express my gratitude to Gian Carlo Alessio, Rozanne Elder, Samantha Kelly, and my research assistants Caitlin Murphy and Adam Matthews, who read the entire manuscript.
The preparation of this book has been funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. The Burnham - MacMillan History Department Endowment of Western Michigan University covered a part of the publication costs. I thank these institutions for their support.