List: 12th-century historians

by likeorhate

•  Alured of Beverley

  Alredus, or Alfred of Beverley, English chronicler, was sacristan of the church of Beverley in the first half of the 12th century. He wrote, apparently about the year 1143, a chronicle entitled Annales sive Historia de gestis regum Britanniae, which begins with Brutus and carries the history of England down to 1129. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Simeon of Durham are Alured's chief sources.

  

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•  William of Tyre

  William of Tyre (c. 1130 – September 29, 1186), was a medieval prelate and chronicler. As archbishop of Tyre, he is sometimes known as William II to distinguish him from a predecessor, William of Malines. He grew up in Jerusalem at the height of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been established in 1099 after the First Crusade, and he spent twenty years studying the liberal arts and canon law in the universities of Europe.

  

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•  Geoffrey of Monmouth

  Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 – c. 1155) was a British cleric and one of the major figures in the development of British history and the popularity of tales of King Arthur. He is best known for his chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae ("History of the Kings of Britain"), widely popular in its day and translated to various other languages from its original Latin.

  

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•  Joannes Zonaras

  Ioannes (John) Zonaras was a Byzantine chronicler and theologian, who lived at Constantinople. Under Emperor Alexios I Komnenos he held the offices of commander of the bodyguard and private secretary to the emperor, but after Alexios' death, he retired to the monastery of St Glykeria, where he spent the rest of his life in writing books. His most important work, Extracts of History, in eighteen books, extends from the creation of the world to the death of Alexius (1118).

  

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•  Albert of Aix

  Albert of Aix-la-Chapelle or Albert of Aachen, historian of the First Crusade, was born during the later part of the 11th century, and afterwards became canon and custos of the church of Aachen. Nothing else is known of his life except that he was the author of a Historia Hierosolymitanae expeditionis, or Chronicon Hierosolymitanum de bello sacro, a work in Latin in twelve books, written between 1125 and 1150.

  

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•  Anna Komnene

  Anna Komnene, latinized as Comnena was a Byzantine princess and scholar, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. She wrote the Alexiad, an account of her father's reign, making her one of the first Western female historians.

  

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•  Symeon of Durham

  Symeon (or Simeon) of Durham (d. after 1129), English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. When William of Saint-Calais returned from his Norman exile in 1091, Symeon was probably in his company.

  

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•  William of Malmesbury

  William of Malmesbury (c. 1080/1095–c. 1143), English historian of the 12th century, was born about the year 1080/1095, in Wiltshire. His father was Norman and his mother English. He spent his whole life in England, and his adult life as a monk at Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire, England.

  

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•  Nikephoros Bryennios

  Nikephoros Bryennios or Nicephorus Bryennius, Byzantine general, statesman and historian, was born at Orestias in the theme of Macedonia

  

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•  Hugo Falcandus

  Hugo Falcandus was an Italian historian who chronicled the reign of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II in a highly critical work entitled The History of the Tyrants of Sicily (or Liber de Regno Sicilie). There is some doubt as to whether "Hugo Falcandus" is a real name or a pseudonym. Evelyn Jamison argued that he was Eugenius, amiratus from 1190. The Frenchman Hugues Foucaud (Hugo Fulcaudus), abbot of Saint-Denis, has been proposed as an author.

  

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•  Eadmer

  Eadmer, or Edmer (c. 1060–c. 1124), was an English historian, theologian, and ecclesiastic. He is known for being a contemporary biographer of Saint Anselm.

  

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•  Helmold

  Helmold of Bosau (ca. 1120 – after 1177) was a Saxon historian of the 12th century and a priest at Bosau near Plön. He was a friend of the two bishops of Oldenburg in Holstein, Vicelinus (died 1154) and Gerold (died 1163), who did much to Christianize the Polabian Slavs. Helmold was born near Goslar. He grew up in Holstein, and received his instruction in Brunswick from Gerold, the future bishop of Oldenburg (1139-42).

  

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•  Abraham ibn Daud

  Abraham ibn Daud was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer, historian, and philosopher; born at Toledo, Spain about 1110; died, according to common report, a martyr about 1180. He is sometimes known by the abbreviation Rabad I or Ravad I. His mother belonged to a family famed for its learning.

  

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•  Orderic Vitalis

  Orderic Vitalis (Ordericus) (1075–c. 1142) was an English chronicler who wrote one of the great contemporary chronicles of 11th and 12th century Normandy and England.

  

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•  Sven Aggesen

  Svend Aggesen (or "Sven"; also known as Aggessøn, Aggesøn or Aagesen, in Latin Sveno Aggonis; born around 1140 to 1150, death unknown) is most famous, in Denmark at least, as the author of one of the first attempts to write a coherent history of Denmark covering the period 300AD-1185AD. Only the Chronicon Roskildense may precede Aggesen's efforts.

  

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•  Otto of Freising

  Otto von Freising (Otto Frisingensis) (c. 1114 in Klosterneuburg – September 22, 1158) was a German bishop and chronicler.

  

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•  Usamah ibn Munqidh

  

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•  Geoffroy du Breuil

  Geoffroy du Breuil of Vigeois was a 12th century French chronicler. He was trained at the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Martial of Limoges, the site of a great early library.

  

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•  Fulcher of Chartres

  Fulcher of Chartres (born around 1059 in or near Chartres) was a chronicler of the First Crusade. He wrote in Latin.

  

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•  Nestor the Chronicler

  Saint Nestor the Chronicler (c. 1056 - c. 1114, in Kiev) was the reputed author of the Primary Chronicle, (the earliest East Slavic chronicle), the Life of the Venerable Theodosius of the Kiev Caves the Life of the Holy Passon Bearers, Boris and Gleb, and of the so-called Reading. Nestor was a monk of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev from 1073. The only other detail of his life that is reliably known is that he was commissioned with two other monks to find the relics of St.

  

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•  William of Newburgh

  William of Newburgh or Newbury, also known as William Parvus, was a 12th century English historian and Augustinian canon from Bridlington, Yorkshire. His major work was Historia rerum Anglicarum or Historia de rebus anglicis ("History of English Affairs"), a history of England from 1066 to 1198. The work is valued by historians for detailing The Anarchy under Stephen of England.

  

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•  Sylvester of Kiev

  Sylvestr was a clergyman and a writer in Kievan Rus. Some sources name Sylvestr as a compiler of either the Primary Chronicle itself or its second edition. He was a hegumen of the Vydubetsky Monastery in Kiev, which had been founded by Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavich. In 1118, Sylvestr was sent to Pereyaslavl Yuzhniy as a bishop. As a person close to Vsevolod's son Vladimir Monomakh, Sylvestr played a notable role in political and ecclesiastical affairs of Kievan Rus.

  

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•  Geoffrey Gaimar

  Geoffrey Gaimar (flourished 1136-37), was an Anglo-Norman chronicler. Gaimar's most significant contribution to medieval literature and history is as a translator from Old English to Anglo-Norman. His L'Estoire des Engles translates extensive portions of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as well as using Latin and French sources. It is an octosyllabic rhymed chronicle written between 1136 and 1137 for Constance, wife of Ralph FitzGilbert, a Lincolnshire landowner.

  

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•  Roger of Hoveden

  Roger of Hoveden, or Howden (fl. 1174 - 1201), was a 12th century English chronicler. From his name and the internal evidence of his work, he is believed to have been a native of Howden in East Yorkshire. Nothing is known of him before the year 1174. He was then in attendance upon Henry II, by whom he was sent from France on a secret mission to the lords of Galloway. In 1175 he again appears as a negotiator between the king and a number of English religious houses.

  

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•  Richard of Devizes

  Richard of Devizes (fl. late 12th century), English chronicler, was a monk of St Swithin's house at Winchester. His birthplace is probably indicated by his surname, Devizes in Wiltshire, but of his life we know nothing. He is credited by Bale with the composition of the Annales de Wintonia, which are edited by Henry Richards Luard in the second volume of the Annales Monastici. If this statement be correct, then the chronicler survived King Richard I.

  

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