Paul the Deacon

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Portrait of Paulus Diaconus from a 10th-century manuscript (Laurentian Library Plut. 65.35 fol. 34r)

Paul the Deacon (c. 720s – 13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD), also known as Paulus Diaconus, Warnefridus, Barnefridus, or Winfridus, and sometimes

Benedictine monk, scribe, and historian of the Lombards
.

Life

An ancestor of Paulus's named Leupichis emigrated to Italy in 568 in the train of

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 Paul.[1] Paulus was his monastic name; he was born Winfrid, son of Warnefrid, about 720 in the Duchy of Friuli.[2]

Thanks to the possible noble status of his family, Paul received an exceptionally good education, probably at the court of the Lombard king Ratchis in Pavia, learning the rudiments of Greek from a teacher named Flavian. Paul was probably the secretary of the Lombard king Desiderius, a successor of Ratchis. After Desiderius's daughter Adelperga had married Arichis II, duke of Benevento, Paul, at her request, wrote his continuation of Eutropius's Summary of Roman History (Latin: Breviarium Historiae Romanae).[1]

He lived at the court of

Benedictine house of Monte Cassino, where he made the acquaintance of Charlemagne. Around 776, Paul's brother Arichis was carried off to Francia as a prisoner after a revolt in Friuli. When Charlemagne visited Rome five years later, Paul wrote to him on behalf of Arichis, who was then freed.[1]

After Paul's literary achievements had drawn the attention of Charlemagne, he became an important contributor to the Carolingian Renaissance. In 787 he returned to Monte Cassino, where he died on 13 April probably in the year 799.[2] His epithet Diaconus indicates that he took orders as a deacon; and some believe he was a monk before the fall of the Lombard Kingdom.[1]

Works

Paul's chief work is his

Eastern Roman Empire, the Franks, and other peoples. The history is written from a Lombardian point of view and is especially valuable for its depictions of the relations between the Franks and the Lombards. It begins:[1]

The region of the north, in proportion as it is removed from the heat of the sun and is chilled with snow and frost, is so much the more healthful to the bodies of men and fitted for the propagation of nations, just as, on the other hand, every southern region, the nearer it is to the heat of the sun, the more it abounds in diseases and is less fitted for the bringing up of the human race.[1]

Among Paul's sources were the document called the

Liber pontificalis, the lost history of Secundus of Trent, and the lost annals of Benevento. He also heavily drew upon the works of Bede, Gregory of Tours, and Isidore of Seville.[1]

Related to his history of the Langobards is Paul's Historia Romana; this is a continuation of

Scriptures, from ecclesiastical historians, and from other sources with the writings of Eutropius. The six books he ultimately added thus carried Lombardian history down to 553. This work, which was very popular during the Middle Ages, has value for its early historical presentation of the end of the Roman Empire in Western Europe. It was edited by Hans Droysen and published in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Auctores antiquissimi series, Band ii. (1879)[1] as well as by A. Crivellucci, in Fonti per la storia d' Italia, N° 51 (1914).[3]

At the request of

De verborum significatu, which he dedicated to Charlemagne.[6]

While Paul was in Francia, Charlemagne asked him to compile a collection of

Ambrose Autpert, he admits the possibility of Mary's bodily assumption into heaven.[7]

A life of Pope Gregory the Great has also been attributed to Paul,[4] and he is credited with a Latin translation of the Greek Life of Saint Mary the Egyptian.[8]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Chisholm 1911, p. 964.
  2. ^ a b Schlager, Patricius. "Paul the Deacon." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 8 June 2023 Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  3. OCLC 29531520
    .
  4. ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 965.
  5. ^ Lyons 2007, p. 223.
  6. ISBN 978-0521031998
    . Retrieved 22 Aug 2016.
  7. ^ Francesco Lepore, La Virgo Mirabilis in Paolo Diacono. Spunti di riflessione mariana tra admiratio, invocatio e imitatio, in "Theotokos", 16/1 (2008): pp. 231–243.
  8. ISBN 978-0859915687
    . Retrieved 22 Aug 2016.

References

Attribution:

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Paul the Deacon". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Further reading

External links

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