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Paul Deacon

Paul Deacon, from a medieval manuscript

Paul Deacon, Paul says (on) Deacon (in Latin : Paulus Paulus Diaconus or Cassinensis Barnefridus or, in Italian: Paolo Diacono Varnefrido or, in French also cited in Paul Warnefred or Warnefried), is a scholar, historian , poet and monk Benedictine Original Lombard 's ^eighth century.

Biography

Paul Deacon was born between 720 and 730 to Cividale del Friuli , capital of the Lombard duchy of Friuli. His family belongs to the old nobility of Lombardy after a certain Leupegis (Leupechi in Italian ), who arrived in northern Italy with the king Alboin ( 568 ). His father called Warnefried, name that Paul often attached to his, and his mother Theudelinde. He himself gives the name "deacon" without that we know nothing of his ordination.

Probably formed at the Court of Pavia (Ticinum), capital of Lombardy, in the reign of King Ratchis (744-749), it remains in the royal court under his successors the kings Aistulf and Desiderius (Didier). He was a pupil of the grammarian Flavian. Didier tutor children, and especially his daughter or Adelperga Adelberg, he accompanies it after his marriage with the Duke in 762 Lombard Arichis of Benevento.

After the conquest of the Lombard kingdom by Charlemagne in 774 , as Paul Deacon from a monk at the Benedictine Abbey of Monte Cassino , in 776 a revolt broke out against the Frankish sovereignty in Friuli, the brother of Paul, Arichis, involved, is shipped prisoner in Franconia, and his property confiscated. Paul goes to the Frankish court and gets Charlemagne the release of his brother. Charlemagne welcomes this great scholar. From 782 , he participated in the " Carolingian Renaissance "by staying five years at his court, along with Paulinus of Aquileia , of Peter of Pisa and Alcuin. He composed poems, occasional grammatical and historical works.

To 783 at the request of the bishop of Metz Angilram , archchaplain of Charlemagne, he wrote the Gesta episcoporum Mettensium to narrate the history of the bishops of Metz and the Carolingian dynasty, emphasizing the role of saint Arnulf , whose son had married a daughter of Pepin and was thus the co-founder of the Carolingian line.

Around 786 , he retired to Monte Cassino , where he spent his last years to writing: he made particular history of the Lombards (Historia Langobardorum), a story of people ranging from Lombard origins to the year 744 (death King Liutprand ) and written in 787 to 789, he compiled at the request of Charlemagne a Homliaire, a collection of 244 sermons intended for Patristic liturgical readings of the board and perhaps also to assist in the preaching. The original collection was amplified thereafter. Charlemagne prescribed use within a chapter given between 786 and 800 and this homliaire supplanted the older and was used as lectionary patristic by the Latin Church until Vatican II.

He is credited with the composition of the prayer Ave Maris Stella and the hymn on St. John the Baptist: Ut queant laxis resonare fibers.

He died at the abbey on April 13, probably between 797 and 799, in any case before the imperial coronation of Charlemagne Christmas 800.

Works

philological works: De verborum significatione, a short grammar of Festus ; Commentarius in Donatum.
Poetry: De laude Larii laci, a hymn in praise of Lake Como, A principio saeculorum, poem on the six ages of the world composed in 763 and dedicated to Adelperga; Carmina, epitaphs for major characters from the Lombard and Carolingian court. Three fables are assigned: Leo Aegeri vulpis and Ursus (The sick lion, the fox and the bear), and Vitellus ciconia (The calf and the stork), and Pulix podagra (Chip and gout).
historical work, Historia romana, written at the request of Adelperga, reworking and continuation of Brevarium of Eutropius until the middle of the reign of Justinian in 565 ; Gesta episcoporum Mettensium; Historia Langobardorum.
Religious literature: Vita beati Gregorii dad, composed during his second stay at Monte Cassino; Homliaire.

Bibliography

Francoise Gasparri, "Paul Deacon," in Robert Bossuat Louis Pichard and Guy Raynaud de Lage (ed.), Dictionary of French letters, t. 1: Middle Ages, ed. completely revised and updated ed. Genevive and Michel Zink Hasenohr, Paris, Fayard, 1992 1105-1107
Paolo Diacono e il Friuli altomedievale (secc. VI-X): atti del Congresso internazionale di studi XIV sull'Alto Medioevo, Cividale del Friuli - Bottenicco di Moimacco, 24-29 settembre 1999, Spoleto, Centro italiano di studi sull'Alto Medioevo , 2001, 2 vols. (886 p.)