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Sunday 7 October 2007

The Normans: Bibliography --Primary Sources

No distinction is made between hagiography and other forms of history. In general sources are listed in order of the date of their composition.

Frankish Chronicles and Annals

Janet Nelson, (ed.) The Annals of St-Bertin, Manchester Medieval Sources: Ninth-Century Histories 1, Manchester University Press, 1991 is useful for the impact of the Vikings between 830 and 882. Text and German translation: Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte, II: Jahrbücher von St. Bertin / Jahrbücher von St. Vaast / Xantener Jahrbücher, ed. R. Rau, Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters 6 (1958), pages 12-287.

B. W. Scholz with B. Rogers (eds.) Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard’s Histories, Ann Arbor, MI, 1970.  Other important tenth-century narrative sources include the works of Flodoard of Reims, Les Annales de Flodoard, edited Philippe Lauer, Collection des textes pour servir à l’étude et à l’enseignement de l’histoire 39, Paris, 1905 and Historia Remensis ecclesiae, edited Martina Stratmann, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores volume 36, Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1998.  He is discussed at great length in Michel Sot, Un historien et son Église au Xe siècle: Flodoard de Reims Paris, 1993. Another is Richer of Reims, Historiae, edited by Hartmut Hoffmann, Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores volume 38, Hannover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 2000. Richer: Histoire de France (888-995), ed. R. Latouche, Classiques de l’Histoire de France au Moyen Age, two volumes, 1930-7, Latin text with French translation. Jason Glenn Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims, Cambridge University Press, 2004 is the best study of this important chronicler. 

The Annals of Fulda cover events in the eastern part of the Frankish empire from the 830s to 901. Translation: T. Reuter, The Annals of Fulda, Ninth-Century Histories volume 2, Manchester University Press, 1992. Text and German translation: Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte, III: Jahrbÿcher von Fulda / Regino Chronik / Notker Taten Karls, ed. R. Rau, Ausgewählte Quellen zur deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters 7 (1960), pages 20-177.   The Annals of Saint-Vaast is valuable for for the movements of the Viking armies in the 880s and early 890s. English translation: by S. Coupland, forthcoming.

The Life of King Robert the Pious (996-1031), son of Hugh Capet: Helgaud de Fleury: Vie de Robert le Pieux, ed. R-H. Bautier and G. Labory, 1965. Adalberon de Laon Poem au roi Robert and Helgaud de Fleury Vie du roi Robert are available in Le roi de l’an Mil, Paris, 2001.  Rodulfus Glaber covers first half of the eleventh century: text and translation: Rodulfi Glabri Historiarum Libri Quinque, ed. J. France, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford University Press, 1989 and Raoul Glaber: Histories, edited by Mathieu Arnoux, Brepols, 1996

Norman Narrative Sources

Dudo of St Quentin, History of the Normans, translated by E. Christiansen, Boydell, 1998. Henri Prentout Etude Critique sur Dudon de Saint-Quentin at son Histoire des premiers Ducs Normands, Paris, 1912 remains the most detailed study but needs to be read in conjunction with more recent papers. Important papers on this difficult work include: E. Albu Hannawalt, ‘Dudo of St Quentin: the Heroic Past Imagined’, Haskins Society Journal, volume 6 (1994), pages 111-18; M. Arnoux, M., ‘Before the Gesta Normannorum and Beyond Dudo: Some Evidence on Early Norman Historiography’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 22 (2000), pages 29-48, important for evidence as to the early development of Dudo’s text; G. C. Huisman, ‘Notes on the Manuscript Tradition of Dudo of St Quentin’s Gesta Normannorum, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 6 (1983), pages 122-136; V. S. Jordan, ‘The Role of Kingship in Tenth-Century Normandy: the Hagiography of Dudo of Saint Quentin’, Haskins Society Journal, volume 3 (1991), pages 53-62; F. Lifshitz, ‘Dudo’s Historical Narrative and the Norman Succession of 996’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 20 (1994), pages 101-120; E. Searle, ‘Fact and Pattern in Heroic History: Dudo of St Quentin’, Viator, volume 15 (1984), pages 75-85; and, L. Shopkow, ‘The Carolingian World of Dudo of St Quentin’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 15/16 (1989), pages 66-95, 181-8.

William of Jumièges, Orderic Vitalis and Robert of Torigni, Gesta Normannorum ducum, edited and translated E. M. C. van Houts, two volumes, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1994-5. Important articles include: E. M. C. van Houts ‘Robert of Torigni as Genealogist’, in C. Harper-Bill, C. J. Holdsworth and J. L. Nelson, (eds.), Studies in Medieval History presented to R. Allen Brown, Woodbridge, 1989, pages 215-33 and ‘The Gesta Normannorum ducum: A History Without an End’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 3 (1981), pages 106-18.

William of Poitiers, The Gesta Guillelmi, edited and translated R.H.C. Davis and Marjorie Chibnall, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1998. R.H.C. Davis, ‘William of Poitiers and his History of William the Conqueror’, in R. H. C. Davis and J. M. Wallace Hadrill, (eds.) The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to Richard William Southern, Oxford, 1981, pages 71-100.

The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio of Guy, Bishop of Amiens, edited and translated Frank Barlow, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1999. The new edition is effectively a re-issue with corrections of the edition by C. Morton and H. Muntz, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1972, but with an entirely new introduction and notes by Barlow. Normally taken to be the poem mentioned by Orderic (volume ii, pages 184-6 and 214) as having been written by Guy, bishop of Amiens, in about 1067-70. But the question of authorship remains controversial, and hinges on the nature of the relationship between the Carmen and William of Poitiers: R.H.C. Davis, R. ‘The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, English Historical Review volume 93 (1978), pages 241-61; Barlow, F., ‘The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, in K Bourne and D. C. Watt, (eds.), Studies in International History: Essays Presented to W. Norton Medlicott, London, 1967, pages 35-67; reprinted in F. Barlow, The Norman Conquest and Beyond, London, 1983, pages 189-222; R.H.C. Davis et al., ‘The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio: a Discussion’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 2 (1980), pages 1-20 and 165-7; S. Morrillo, (ed.), The Battle of Hastings: Sources and Interpretations, Woodbridge, 1996; D.D.R. Owen, ‘The Epic and History: Chanson de Roland and Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, Medium Ævum, volume 51 (1982), pages 18-34; and . E.M.C. van Houts, ‘Latin Poetry and the Anglo-Norman Court 1066-1135: the Carmen de Hastingae Proelio’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 15 (1989), pages 39-62.

Orderic Vitalis, Historia Ecclesiastica, edited and translated M. Chibnall, six volumes, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1968-80. It was completed in 1141 and is the greatest of the Norman histories. Volume 1 includes the general introduction; volume 2 is the most important for events up to and including the Norman Conquest. For Orderic’s account of the history of Normandy before 1066, see book III, ed. Chibnall, volume 2, pages 2-134. His account of the events of 1066 (book III, ed. Chibnall, volume 2, pages 134-44 and 168-84) is based on William of Jumièges, William of Poitiers, and their continuators; and his account of the events of 1067 (book IV, ed. Chibnall, volume 2, pages 190-208) is based on William of Poitiers; but Orderic adds much of his own. The transmitted text of William of Poitiers ends at a point corresponding to Chibnall, volume 2, page 208 (in 1067); but Orderic’s text of Poitiers extended further, covering events of 1067-71. Orderic, book IV, ed. Chibnall, volume 2, pages 208-58, is based on Orderic’s fuller version of William of Poitiers, and is thus of special importance. Thereafter Orderic is writing largely alone. Useful additional materials include: M. Chibnall, ‘Women in Orderic Vitalis’, Haskins Society Journal volume 2 (1990), pages 105-21; reprinted in Chibnall, Piety, Power and History, chapter vi; E. Mégier, ‘Divina pagina and the Narration of History in Orderic Vitalis’ Historia Ecclesiastica’, Revue Bénédictine, volume 110 (2000), pages 106-23; and, M. Chibnall, The World of Orderic Vitalis, Oxford, 1984.

Anglo-Saxon Narrative Sources

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: D. Whitelock, with D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker, tranlated The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Revised Translation, London, 1961 reproduces the translations found in EHD I and EHD II; D. N. Dumville and S. D. Keynes, ed., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: A Collaborative Edition, twenty-one volumes, Cambridge, 1983; C. Plummer and J. Earle, (eds.), Two of the Saxon Chronicles Parallel, two volumes, Oxford, 1892-9 edits manuscripts A and E, with extracts from the other manuscripts, old but still important for the notes in volume two.

Other Anglo-Saxon Narrative Sources: Encomium Emmae Reginae, edited and translated A. Campbell, Camden 3rd series, 72, London, 1949; reprinted with a supplementary introduction by Simon Keynes, Camden classic reprints, 4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. Like the previous item, an English work which sheds light on relations between England and Normandy before 1066. Useful papers: M.W. Campbell, ‘The Encomium Emmae Reginae: Personal Panegyric or Political Propaganda?’ Annuale Mediaevale volume 19 (1979), pages 37-41; E. John, ‘The Encomium Emmae Reginae: A Riddle and a Solution’, Bulletin of the John Rylands Library volume 63 (1980), pages 58-94; and, F. Lifshitz, ‘The Encomium Emmae Reginae: A ‘Political Pamphlet’ of the Eleventh Century?’ Haskins Society Journal volume 1 (1989), pages 39-90. The Life of King Edward, edited F. Barlow, Oxford Medieval Texts, 2nd edition, Oxford, 1992. E.K. Heningham, E. K., ‘The Literary Unity, the Date, and the Purpose of the Lady Edith’s Book: The Life of King Edward Who Rests in Westminster’, Albion, volume 7 (1975), pages 24-40.

Anglo-Norman Narrative Sources

The Bayeux Tapestry: accessible in a number of editions, most notably, D. M. Wilson, The Bayeux Tapestry: The Complete Tapestry in Colour, London, 1985 and Frank Stenton The Bayeux Tapestry, London, 1957. It is thought to have been commissioned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, but designed and made in England, perhaps at Canterbury c.1080-81.

Eadmer: Historia novorum in Anglia et opuscula duo de vita Sancti Anselmi et quibusdam miraculis ejus, ed. M. Rule, Roll Series volume 81, London, 1884; translation of books 1-4 (but not of 5-6), by Geoffrey Bosanquet, Eadmer’s History of Recent Events in England, London, 1964. S.N. Vaughn, ‘Eadmer’s Historia Novorum: a Reinterpretation’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 10 (1988), pages 259-89 is a valuable commentary. Eadmer, The Life of St Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. R. W. Southern, Oxford Medieval Texts, 2nd ed., London, 1972 is an essential contemporary source. R. W. Southern, Saint Anselm: A Portrait in a Landscape, Cambridge, 1990 and M. Staunton, ‘Eadmer’s Vita Anselmi: A Reinterpretation’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 23 (1997), pages 1-14 provide commentaries.

John of Worcester: The Chronicle of John of Worcester, edited and translated R. R. Darlington, P. McGurk and Jennifer Bray, three volumes, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1995-: volume 1 Introduction (as yet unpublished); volume 2 The Annals from 450 to 1066; volume 3 The Annals from 1067 to 1140 with the Gloucester Interpolations and the Continuation to 1141. Important commentaries include: R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, ‘The Chronicon ex Chronicis of ‘Florence’ of Worcester and its Use of Sources for English History before 1066’ Anglo-Norman Studies volume 5 (1983), pages 185-96 and M. Brett ‘John of Worcester and his Contemporaries’, in R. H. C. Davis and J. M. Wallace Hadrill, (eds.) The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to Richard William Southern, Oxford, 1981, pages 101-26.

Symeon of Durham: Libellus de Exordio atque Procursu istius, hoc est Dunhelmensis, Ecclesie - Tract on the Origins and Progress of this the Church of Durham, edited and translated D. W. Rollason, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 2000. Useful commentaries include: W. M. Aird, ‘The Political Context of the Libellus de Exordio’, in David W. Rollason, Symeon of Durham, Historian of Durham and the North, Stamford, 1998, pages 32-45; W. M. Aird, St Cuthbert and the Normans: The Church of Durham, 1071-1153, Studies in the History of Medieval Religion 14, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1998, Ted Johnson-South, ‘The Norman Conquest of Durham: Norman Historians and the Anglo-Saxon Community of St Cuthbert’, Haskins Society Journal volume 4 (1992), pages 85-92, D. W. Rollason, D. W., ‘Symeon of Durham and the Community of Durham in the Eleventh Century’, in C. Hicks, (ed.), England in the Eleventh Century: Proceedings of the 1990 Harlaxton Symposium, Stamford, 1992, pages 183-98 and D. W. Rollason, (ed.), Symeon of Durham, Historian of Durham and the North, Stamford, 1998.

William of Malmesbury: The History of the Kings of the English, edited and translated R. A. B. Mynors, R. M., Thomson and M. Winterbottom, two volumes, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1998-9. The work was begun before 1118, at the behest of Henry I’s wife, Queen Matilda (who died on 1st May 1118), and the first version was substantially complete by early 1125. William then produced his History of the Bishops of the English (as yet untranslated: De gestis pontificum Anglorum libri quinque, edited N. E. S. A. Hamilton, Roll Series, volume 52, London, 1870), but continued to revise both works, adding much new material. R. M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury, Woodbridge, 1987, revised edition, 2003 is invaluable on the author.

Hugh the Chanter: The History of the Church of York 1066-1127, edited C. Johnson, revised M. Brett, C. N. L. Brooke and M Winterbottom, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1990 is essential on northern history particularly relations between Canterbury and York.

Henry of Huntingdon: The History of the English People, edited D. E. Greenway, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1996. John Gillingham, ‘Henry of Huntingdon and the Twelfth Century Revival of the English Nation’, in S. Forde, J. Johnson and A. Murray, (eds.), Concepts of National Identity in the Middle Ages, Leeds Texts and Monographs, Leeds, 1995, pages 75-101, reprinted in Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, pages 123-44.

Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Britain, translated L. Thorpe, London, 1969. C. N. L. Brooke, ‘Geoffrey of Monmouth as a Historian’, in his The Church and the Welsh Border in the Central Middle Ages, Studies in Celtic History 8, Woodbridge, 1986, pages 95-106 and John Gillingham, ‘The Context and Purposes of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s History of the Kings of Britain’, Anglo-Norman Studies, volume 13 (1991), pages 99-118; reprinted in Gillingham, The English in the Twelfth Century, pages 19-39.

Other Anglo-Norman sources: K. R. Potter and R. H. C. Davis, edited and translated Gesta Stephani, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1976, William of Malmesbury, Historia Novella: The Contemporary History, edited E. King and translated K. R. Potter, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1998, Chronicle of Battle Abbey, edited by Eleanor Searle, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1980, ‘The Brevis relatio de Guillelmo nobilissimo comite Normmannorum, written by a Monk of Battle Abbey’, edited E. M. C. van Houts in Camden Miscellany, volume 34, 5th series, volume 10, Cambridge, 1997, pages 1-48, a short history of Normandy and England from about 1035 to 1106 written by a monk of Battle Abbey in about 1115 and Richard of Ely (?), Gesta Herewardi, translated by M. Swanton, Three Lives of the Last Englishmen, Garland Library of Medieval Literature, London, 1984.

English and Norman Legal and Administrative Documents

Recueil des actes des ducs de Normandie de 911 à 1066, ed. Marie Fauroux, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie 36 (Caen: Caron et Compagnie, 1961) covers the Norman ducal charters up to 1066. For the Anglo-Normans, the Regesta Regum is, despite its weakness still an essential starting place. Volume 1, William I and William II, is only a calendar. Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum 1066-1154, volume 2: Regesta Henrici Primi, 1100-1135, edited by Charles Johnson and H. A.  Cronne, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1956. This is also a calendar, but with a selection of previously unpublished charters as an appendix. See also: R. N. Sauvage ‘Les diplômes de Henri Ier, roi d’Angleterre et duc de Normandie, pour l’abbaye de Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives’, Société de l’histoire de Normandie, Mélanges 12 (1933): pages 113-39. And Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum 1066-1154, volume 3: Regesta Regis Stephani ac Mathildis Imperatricis ac Gaufredi et Henrici Ducum Normannorum, 1135-1154, edited by H. A. Cronne and R. H. C. Davis. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968.

For a selection of Norman charters in translation, see R. A. Brown, The Norman Conquest, London, 1984, pages 164-72 and especially the seminal work by David Bates, Regesta regum Anglo-Normannorum: the Acta of William I (1066-1087), Oxford, 1998. Useful discussion of ducal charters can be found in R. A. Brown, ‘Some Observations on Norman and Anglo-Norman Charters’, in D. E. Greenway, C. J. Holdsworth and J. E. Sayers, (eds.), Tradition and Change: Essays in honour of Marjorie Chibnall presented by her friends on the occasion of her seventieth birthday, Cambridge, 1985, pages 145-63, Cassandra Potts, ‘The Early Norman Charters: A New Perspective on an Old Debate’, in C. Hicks, (ed.), England in the Eleventh Century: Proceedings of the 1990 Harlaxton Symposium, Paul Watkins Medieval Studies 12, Harlaxton Medieval Studies II, Stamford, 1992, pages 25-40 and David Bates, ‘The Prosopographical Study of Anglo-Norman Royal Charters’, in K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, (ed.), Family Trees and the Roots of Politics: The Prosopography of England and France from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century, Woodbridge, 1997, pages 89-102.

Writs: For Anglo-Saxon writs, see Florence Harmer, (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Writs, Manchester, 1952. R.C. Van Caenegem, (ed.), Royal Writs in England from the Conquest to Glanvill: Studies in Early History of the Common Law, Selden Society volume 77, London, 1959 and David Bates, ‘The Earliest Norman Writs’, English Historical Review, volume100 (1985), pages 266-84 provide the most useful introduction.

Law: A. J. Robertson, edited and translated The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I, Cambridge, 1925, reprinted Llanerch, 2001 contains the major legal codes and R.C. Van Caenegem, (ed.), English Lawsuits from William I to Richard I, Selden Society volumes 106-7, two volumes, London, 1990-91 is the best collection of legal cases. L. J. Downer, edited and translated Leges Henrici primi, Oxford, 1972 covers a central legal document but see also the commentaries by R. Sharpe, ‘The Prefaces of “Quadripartitus”‘, in Garnett and Hudson, Law and Government, pages 148-72 and Patrick Wormald, ‘Quadripartitus’, in Garnett and Hudson, Law and Government, pages 111-47, reprinted in Wormald, Legal Culture, pages 81-114. G. D. G., Hall edited and translated The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England Commonly Called Glanvill, Nelson’s Medieval Texts, London, 1965 and Richard fitz Nigel, Dialogus de Scaccario: The Course of the Exchequer, edited C. J. Johnson with corrections by F. Carter and D. Greenway, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1983 are both late-twelfth century but look back over the previous century.

Domesday Book.

Facsimile edition: John Morris et al edited and translated Domesday Book, thirty-four volumes in 40 parts, Chichester, 1974-86. There is now a translation in a single volume of the whole document published by Penguin, 2002.

Commentary: A.R. Bridbury, ‘Domesday Book: a Reinterpretation’, English Historical Review, volume 105 (1990), pages 284-309, R. Fleming, Domesday Book and the Law: Society and Legal Custom in Early Medieval England, Cambridge, 1998, R. Fleming, Kings and Lords in Conquest England, Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th series, volume 15, Cambridge, 1991, V. H. Galbraith, Domesday Book: Its Place in Administrative History, Oxford, 1974, J. C. Holt, (ed.), Domesday Studies, Woodbridge, 1987, F. W.Maitland, Domesday Book and Beyond, Cambridge, 1897 and P. H. Sawyer, (ed.), Domesday Book: A Reassessment, London, 1985. David Roffe, Domesday: The Inquest and the Book, Oxford, 2000 is a novel and contentious interpretation.

K. S. B. Keats-Rohan and D. E. Thornton, Domesday Names: an Index of Latin Personal and Place Names in Domesday Book, Boydell, 1997 all Latin index to the Domesday Book, comprising two Indices Personarum and one Index Locorum. The main Index Personarum contains all references to people: named individuals, title-holders, and 'institutions' (collections of persons functioning as individual landholders in the Domesday text); individuals are listed alphabetically under the initial letter of their forename, while 'institutions' are entered under the place where they are located. The second, shorter Index Personarum lists all people alphabetically under their surname. In both indexes the exact Latin forms given in Domesday Book and all variant spellings have been retained. The Index Locorum lists all place-names in Domesday, except where linked to an 'institution': the names of administrative units have been incorporated alphabetically into this index with the appropriate term added after the name. Cross-references to other counties have also been included. Again, the Latin form in the Domesday text is given exactly. References are to the 1783 Farley and to the Phillimore editions. K. S. B. Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: a Bio/Bibliographical Register of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166 I: Domesday Book, Boydell, 1999, a prosopography of Domesday Book, with focus on continental origins as well as the discussion of family and descent of fees which characterise the whole work; genealogical tables are included. An introduction discusses Domesday prosopography; an appendix gives the Latin texts of the Northamptonshire and Lindsey surveys. K. S. B. Keats-Rohan Domesday Descendants A Prosopography of Persons Occurring in English Documents 1066-1166 II: Pipe Rolls to `Cartae Baronum’, Boydell, 2002, Drawn from extensive and wide-ranging research in British and French archives, the 7500 entries in this volume provide the first authoritative prosopographical key to over 60,000 names found in English administrative documents such as the Pipe Rolls and the Cartae Baronum, as well as various Surveys and thousands of royal and private charters.

English and Norman Letters and Letter Collections

Three collections of letters are of particular value: Fulbert of Chartres, The Letters and Poems, edited and translated F. Behrends, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1976, the diocese of Chartres lay immediately to the south of Normandy, and various letters in this collection cast light on the Normans’ dealings with their neighbours; Lanfranc, Letters, edited and translated H. Clover and M. Gibson, Oxford Medieval Texts, Oxford, 1979; and, Anselm, The Letters of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, translated W. Fröhlich, three volumes, Cistercian Studies ser. 96, 97, 142, Kalamazoo, MI, 1990-4.

Italian Sources for the Conquest of Southern Italy

Amatus of Montecassino, Storia dei Normanni, edited V. de Bartholomaeis, Fonti per la Storia d’Italia, 76, Rome, 1935. The History of the Normans by Amatus of Montecassino, translated Prescott N. Dunbar, revised by Graham A. Loud, Boydall, 2004 is the only English translation. Geoffrey of Malaterra, De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Robertis Guiscardi ducis fratris eius, edited E. Pontieri, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores 5 (I), Bologna, 1927-8. An English translation edited by Kenneth B Wolf The Deeds of Count Roger was published by the University of Michigan Press, 2005. Discussion of this work include:  E. Pontieri Goffredo Maleterra, storico del gran conte Ruggero, Tra i Normanni nell’Italia meridionale, Naples, 1964, pages 211-282, S. Tramontana ‘I Normanni di Sicilia: direttrici di ricerca per nuove prospettive di lavoro’, Archivio storico della Sicilia orientale, volume 71, 1975, pages 207-286 and Ruggero il Gran Conte e l’inizio dello stato normanno (Relazioni e communicazioni nelle seconde giornate normanno-sveve, Bari, 1975, edited by Centro di Studi Normanno-Svevi dell’Universita degli Studi di Bari, Rome, 1977, republished Bari, 1991.  William of Apulia, La Geste de Robert Guiscard, edited M. Mathieu, Istituto Siciliano di Studi bisantini e neo-ellinici, Testi e monumenti 4, Palermo, 1961. Kenneth B Wolf Making History: The Normans and their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy, London, 1995, a valuable but flawed study of the major sources. O. Capitani, ‘Specific Motivations and Continuing Themes in the Norman Chronicles of Southern Italy in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries’, in The Normans in Sicily and Southern Italy, Lincei lectures 1974, British Academy, London, 1977, pages 1-46 is very important.

Byzantine Narrative Sources

Anna Comnena, The Alexiad of the Princess Anna Comnena: Being the History of the Reign of her Father, Alexius I, Emperor of the Romans, 1081-1118 A.D., translated E. A. S. Dawes, London, 1967 is an important source for the Byzantine view of the Normans. Basile Skoulatos Les Personnages Byzantine de l'Alexiade, Louvain 1980 is a detailed prosopographical critique of the Alexiad. There is also a valuable study by Georgina Buckler Anna Comnena: A Study, Oxford University Press, 1928, reprinted Sandpiper, 2000 that contains a great deal on relations between Byzantium and the Normans under Robert Guiscard and his son Bohemond. Useful papers include: J. Howard-Johnston, ‘Anna Comnena and the Alexiad’, in M. Mullet and D. Smythe, (eds.), Alexios I Komnenos, Belfast Byzantine Texts and Translations 4.1, Belfast, 1996, pages 260-302; and, G.A. Loud, ‘Anna Komnena and her Sources for the Normans of Southern Italy’, in I. N. Wood and G. A. Loud, (eds.), Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to John Taylor, London, 1991, pages 41-57; reprinted in Loud, Conquerors and Churchmen, chapter 13.

Western Accounts of the First Crusade

R. Hill, edited and translated Gesta Francorum, Nelson’s Medieval Texts, London, 1962 is a source of major significance. Commentaries of value include: K. Wolf, ‘Crusade and Narrative: Bohemond and the Gesta Francorum’, Journal of Medieval History, volume 17 (1991), pages 207-16 and J. France, ‘The Anonymous Gesta Francorum and the Historia qui ceperunt Iherusalem of Raymond of Aquilers and the Historia de Hierosolymitano of Peter of Tudebode: An Analysis of the Textual Relationship between Primary Sources for the First Crusade’, in J. France and W. G. Zajac, (eds.), The Crusades and their Sources: Essays presented to Bernard Hamilton, Great Yarmouth, 1998, pages 39-70. Guibert of Nogent, The Deeds of God through the Franks, translated R. Levine, Woodbridge, 1997.

Arab Perspectives

Jubayr, Ibn, The Travels of Ibn Jubayr, being the chronicle of a mediaeval Spainish Moor concerning his journey to the Egypt of Saladin, the holy cities of Arabia, Baghdad the City of the Caliphs, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, translated R. J. C. Broadhurst, London 1952.

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