History Of The Langobards

Author : Paul Deacon
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781501043338
Total Pages : 488 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (433 download)

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Download or read book History of the Langobards written by Paul Deacon and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-09-02 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "History of the Langobards," by Paul the Deacon, after having been rendered into German, French, and Italian, has at last found a competent translator and annotator in Dr. William Dudley Foulke, who follows Waitz's text, which is based on a study of 107 manuscripts. Paul Warnefried was one of the chief literati at Charlemagne's Court, and also one of the best known authors of the Middle Ages. He came of a distinguished family, and was born somewhere between 720 and 730. After receiving an excellent education, which included the Greek language, probably at the Court of King Ratchis, he became a monk, in all likelihood at the famous Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino, before his journey to France, therefore before 782. Dr. Foulke has done good service to historians by providing them with his learned monograph. The appendices deal with (1) the Ethnological Status of the Langobards; (2) Sources of Paul's "History of the Langobards"; (3) the Poems in honour of St. Benedict. Of the four maps, three are taken from Mr. Hodgkin's "Italy and Her Invaders." -The Westminster Review, Volume 168 The volume in hand contains a complete translation of the Historia Langobardorum, with an introduction on the life and writings of Paul the Deacon, and three appendixes (Ethnological Status of the Langobards, Sources of Paul's History, and Paul the Deacon's Poems in Honor of St. Benedict). Appendix II includes a translation of the Origo Gentis Langobardorum; the poems in appendix III are those inserted by Paul in the text of the history, book I., chapter XXVI. Mr. Foulke's translation is correct, but rather commonplace. It is of course easier to make such a criticism than it is to establish within the limits of a brief review the justice of it, or to show how the fault criticized should be avoided. It does seem, however, that the translator has been content with producing a literal rendering of the Latin, when the search for real English equivalents and for happier turns of expression might have resulted in the production of a translation at once accurate and pleasing. There are a great many foot-notes to the translation. The longer notes (some of them cover four or five pages with only one line of the translation on each page) are very largely made up of paraphrases of the authorities consulted, always, to be sure, with references to the sources from which they are taken.This is true also of the introduction and the first two appendixes- they are mainly paraphrases of the work of the principal authorities on the Lombards and on the writings of Paul the Deacon. The result is that they do not have the tone and the interest of original work. When all is said and done, however, Mr. Foulke has presented an accurate translation (the first one in English) of this important source, and has supplied it with very full "apparatus". This is to render a genuine service to teachers and students of medieval history. -The American Historical Review