Editing Flodoard

{{Short description|Frankish chronicler and priest (893/4 – 966)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2022}}
'''Flodoard of Reims''' ({{Langx|la|Flodoardus}}; 893/4 – 28 March 966) was a [[Franks|Frankish]] [[chronicle]]r and [[Priesthood in the Catholic Church|priest]] of the [[Reims Cathedral|cathedral church of Reims]] in the [[West Francia|West Frankish kingdom]] during the decades following the dissolution of the [[Carolingian Empire]]. His historical writings are major sources for the history of Western Europe, especially [[France]], in the early and mid-tenth century.

==Biography==
The sources for Flodoard's life are almost exclusively his own writings. Local tradition holds that he was born at [[Épernay]]. He was educated at the cathedral [[school of Reims]] which had been established by Archbishop [[Fulk (archbishop of Reims)|Fulk]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Glenn|first=Jason|title=Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2004|isbn=9780521834872|location=Cambridge|pages=171–72}}</ref>

As a young canon of Reims, he gained prominent roles in the administrations of the archbishops [[Heriveus (archbishop of Reims)|Heriveus]] (900–22) and [[Seulf (archbishop of Reims)|Seulf]] (922–25), particularly in the cathedral [[scriptorium]]. Following Seulf's death in 925, the magnate [[Herbert II, Count of Vermandois]] installed his four-year-old son, [[Hugh of Vermandois (bishop)|Hugh]], as the new archbishop. Flodoard refused to participate in the boy's election, and was stripped of his position and benefices.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Edward|title=Flodoard of Rheims and the Writing of History in the Tenth Century|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2019|isbn=9781316510391|location=Cambridge|pages=4}}</ref> In 931, Reims was captured from Count Herbert by King [[Rudolph of France|Raoul]] and Duke [[Hugh the Great]], who ejected Hugh and oversaw the election of a new archbishop, [[Artald of Reims|Artold]]. 

Flodoard appears to have regained his charges under Artold's leadership. In 936/7, he visited [[Rome]], perhaps on pilgrimage, where he met [[Pope Leo VII]]. Herbert recaptured Reims in 940, deposing Artold and reimposing his son Hugh on the see. Flodoard objected to the invasion of the bishopric on [[Canon law|canonical]] grounds; consequently, he was detained by Herbert and once again stripped of his prebends.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Politics and History|last=Glenn|pages=219, 223–224}}</ref> Between 943 and 946, Flodoard may have been away from Reims with Artold at the court of King [[Louis IV of France|Louis IV]]. In 946, Louis gained control of Reims with the assistance of the East Frankish ruler [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]]. Hugh was again deposed, and Artold was re-ordained. His claim to the see was eventually ratified at the 948 [[Synod of Ingelheim]], which Flodoard attended.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Politics and History|last=Glenn|pages=220–221}}</ref>

In 951, Flodoard was sent to Otto's court at [[Aachen]], where he represented the church of Reims in a property dispute, and he seems to have been involved in the administration of his church's property.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Roberts|first=Edward|date=2014|title=Flodoard, the Will of St Remigius and the See of Reims in the Tenth Century|journal=Early Medieval Europe|volume=22|issue=2|pages=201–30|doi=10.1111/emed.12053|s2cid=161266737|url=https://kar.kent.ac.uk/65905/1/eme%20article%20footnotes%20version.pdf}}</ref> He retired from his canonical office in 963, aged 70, and died on 28 March 966.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Annales|last=Lauer|pages=160}}</ref>

== Works ==
Flodoard wrote three substantial historical works and at least two other minor works. In 922, he began writing a [[chronicle]] known today as the ''Annals'', which he maintained for most of his career. Flodoard primarily reported major political and military events, focusing on those in West Francia but extending his coverage to the [[Ottonian empire]] and [[Kingdom of Italy (Holy Roman Empire)|Italy]]. He also regularly recorded miracles and other supernatural phenomena. Flodoard seems generally to have written his annals in a year-by-year fashion, and there is no evidence that he revised his text. The ''Annals'' constitute one of the tenth century's relatively few contemporary chronicles, and the work is the only major West Frankish chronicle to have survived from this time, so Flodoard's work has been much valued by modern historians.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Flodoard of Rheims and the Writing of History in the Tenth Century|last=Roberts|first=Edward|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2019|isbn=9781108226851|location=Cambridge|pages=5–6}}</ref>

Flodoard's ''History of the Church of Reims'' (''Historia Remensis ecclesiae'') is one of the most remarkable productions of the tenth century. This work recounts the history of Reims back to its supposed origins in the time of [[Romulus and Remus]], though it focuses principally on the Christian era up to 948. The work, a celebrated example of the genre of ''gesta episcoporum'' ("the deeds of bishops"), takes the form of serialized biographies of the church's bishops. Flodoard had access to an episcopal archive stretching back to the sixth century, and based much of his history on original documents which he summarized or reproduced extracts from. His summaries of some 450 letters of Archbishop [[Hincmar]] have been considered especially valuable.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sot|first=Michel|title=Un historien et son Église au Xe siècle: Flodoard de Reims|publisher=Fayard|year=1993|isbn=978-2213031842|location=Paris}}</ref>

Flodoard's poetical works are of hardly less historical interest. In the 930s he composed an epic poem known as ''The Triumphs of Christ'' (''De triumphis Christi''), a history of [[Christianity]] in nearly 20,000 verses. The poem narrates the victories of Christ, martyrs, saints and [[pope]]s, drawing on a vast range of earlier historical and hagiographical literature. Flodoard evidently gathered material for the work when he visited Rome in 936/7, and the text is a rare witness to the history of the city and the popes in the early tenth century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Jacobsen|first=Peter Christian|title=Flodoard von Reims. Sein Leben und seine Dichtung 'De triumphis Christi'|publisher=Brill|year=1978|isbn=90-04-05407-3|location=Leiden}}</ref>

The historian wrote at least two other minor works. One, known today as the "Visions of Flothilde", records the otherworldly visions of a local girl in the early 940s, a time of great political conflict in Reims.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Koziol|first=Geoffrey|date=2016|title=Flothilde's Visions and Flodoard's Histories: A Tenth-Century Mutation?|journal=Early Medieval Europe|volume=24|issue=2|pages=160–84|doi=10.1111/emed.12139|s2cid=163578509}}</ref> Another work, now lost, is also referred to in the ''History of the Church of Reims'': when discussing miracles that had taken place in and around Reims cathedral and were attributed to the [[Virgin Mary]], Flodoard mentioned that he had previously collected these and put them into verse.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Roberts|first=Edward|title=Flodoard of Rheims and the Writing of History in the Tenth Century|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2019|isbn=9781316510391|location=Cambridge|pages=207–8}}</ref>

Flodoard's works were published in full by [[Jacques Paul Migne|JP Migne]] (''[[Patrologia Latina]]'', vol. 135); the best modern edition of the ''Annales'' is that edited by Philippe Lauer in 1905. The ''History of the Church of Reims'' was recently re-edited for the [[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]] by Martina Stratmann (1998). There is, however, no modern edition of ''The Triumphs of Christ'', which remains best consulted in Migne's ''Patrologia Latina'' edition.

==Editions and translations==
* ''Annals''
**Philippe Lauer (ed.), ''Les annales de Flodoard''. Collection des textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire 39. Paris: Picard, 1905. [https://archive.org/details/lesannalesdeflod00floduoft Available from Internet Archive] (in Latin with a French introduction and notes)
**Pertz, Georg Heinrich (ed.). ''Annales, chronica et historiae aevi Saxonici''. [[Monumenta Germaniae Historica|MGH]] Scriptores 3. Hanover, 1839. 363-408. [https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_3/index.htm#page/363/ Available online from Digital MGH]
**Steven Fanning and [[Bernard Bachrach|Bernard S. Bachrach]], ''The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 919-966''. Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures 9. Broadview Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-55111-650-2}}.
**Guizot, M (tr.). ''Le Siège de Paris par les Normands, poème d'Abbon [etc.]''. Collection des Mémoires relatifs a l'Histoire de France. Paris, 1824. 69-162. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k914543 Available from Gallica] (French translation)
*''History of the Church of Reims''
**Martina Stratmann (ed.). ''Flodoard von Reims. Die Geschichte der Reimser Kirche''. MGH Scriptores 36. Hanover, 1998. [https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_36/index.htm Available from the Digital MGH]
**Lejeune, M. ''Flodoardi Historia remensis ecclesiæ. Histoire de l'église de Reims''. Reims, 1854-5. Available from [https://books.google.com/books?id=PaXumUofHCUC&oe=UTF-8 Google Books] (French translation)
**Guizot, M. ''Histoire de l'Église de Rheims''. Collection des Mémoires relatifs a l'Histoire de France. Paris, 1824. [http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k946024 Available from Gallica] (French translation)
*''The Triumphs of Christ''
**Migne, J. P., ''Patrologia Latina'' 135. Paris, 1853. [http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/30_10_0894-0966-_Flodoardus_Remensis_Canonicus.html Available online from Documenta Catholica Omnia]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*Fanning, Steven and Bachrach, Bernard S.. ''The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 919-966''. Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures 9. Broadview Press, 2004. {{ISBN|1-55111-650-2}}.
*Glenn, Jason. ''Politics and History in the Tenth Century: The Work and World of Richer of Reims'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). {{ISBN|9780521038126}}
*Jacobsen, Peter Christian. ''Flodoard von Reims''. ''Sein Leben und seine Dichtung ‘De triumphis Christi’,'' Mittellateinische Studien und Texte 10 (Leiden: Brill, 1978). {{ISBN|90-04-05407-3}}
*Lauer, Philippe (ed.), ''Les annales de Flodoard''. Collection des textes pour servir à l'étude et à l'enseignement de l'histoire 39. Paris: Picard, 1905.
*Koziol, Geoffrey. [[doi:10.1111/emed.12139|"Flothilde's Visions and Flodoard's Histories: A Tenth-Century Mutation?"]], ''Early Medieval Europe'' 24 (2016), 160-84.
*Roberts, Edward. [[doi:10.1111/emed.12053|"Flodoard, the Will of St Remigius and the See of Reims in the Tenth Century,"]] ''Early Medieval Europe'' 22 (2014), 201-230.
*Roberts, Edward. ''Flodoard of Rheims and the Writing of History in the Tenth Century''. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019). {{ISBN|9781316510391}}
*Sot, Michel. ''Un historien et son Église au Xe siècle: Flodoard de Reims'' (Paris: Fayard, 1993). {{ISBN|978-2213031842}}
*Stratmann, Martina (ed.). ''Flodoard von Reims. Die Geschichte der Reimser Kirche''. MGH Scriptores 36. Hanover, 1998. {{ISBN|3-7752-5434-X}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Flodoard}}
[[Category:890s births]]
[[Category:966 deaths]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:People from Épernay]]
[[Category:10th-century French historians]]
[[Category:10th-century writers in Latin]]
[[Category:French chroniclers]]
[[Category:Frankish historians]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]