The Little History of the Lombards of Benevento by Erchempert: A Critical Edition and Translation of “Ystoriola Longobardorum Beneventum Degentium”

Abstract

This is the first published rendition into English of the ninth-century narrative of Erchempert [fl. 880s). His “little history” represents an invaluable and contemporaneous window upon the febrile world of the south of Italy during the period that followed from the end of the Lombard kingdom in the north in 774 until c. 889. In recent years, Erchempert’s narrative has increasingly been recognised as an invaluable source and witness to broader and deeper processes that encompassed the south in the long ninth century. In this sense, Luigi Berto’s translation is both timely and useful. Building upon his Italian translation and edition published in 2013, the text and the translation here are furnished with a comprehensive contextual introduction, three appendices that deal sequentially with the codicology of the Ystoriola; a discussion of the alleged similarities between the chronicle and a poem addressed to Aio of Benevento, and an evaluation of possible textual sources for redolent phraseology in the Chronicle. These are followed by a useful genealogy of the Capuan dynasty (which assists the reader when confronted with a plethora of Landulfs, Landos, Pandos, Landonulfs and Pandonulfs) and, finally, a comprehensive Bibliography (updated from the Italian edition). Obviously, with a translated text such as this it is both the trustworthiness and utility of the rendition and the security of the text that will determine the value of the work to scholars in the future. Berto himself is confident that his rendition is superior to an earlier translation, which remains unpublished but available through the wonders of the internet – the PhD thesis of Joan Rowe Ferry of 1995. Other than odd translations of key parts of the text, Berto’s version will no doubt soon become the accepted standard. Initially and for purposes of comparison, it will be useful to consider how three translators approached the key opening prologue; it sets out Erchempert’s stated responses, which have been used to understand the author’s responses to the tumultuous landscape he described and experienced. The original Latin text is: