Landulf Junior

Landulf of Saint Paul (floruit 1077–1137), called Landulf Junior to distinguish him from Landulf Senior, was a Milanese historian whose life is known entirely from his main work, the Historia Mediolanensis. He presents a unique and important point of view from the conflict-ridden years of 1097–1137 in Milan. He thrice sojourned in France while his ecclesiastical faction—the Pataria—was out of favour in Milan, and there learned under some of the leading philosophers of western Europe. After 1113, Landulf's primary ambition was to regain the priesthood in the church of San Paolo which he had lost, and to this end he communicated with popes and emperors. He played a role—large in his own account—in the election of Conrad of Hohenstaufen as King of Italy in 1128.

Life

Travels in France Landulf's birth year can be approximated from his statement that he was "sixty years old" in 1136. He was a nephew and student of Liprando, a Milanese priest and one of the leaders of the Pataria in the last quarter of the eleventh century. Towards the end of the century, Landulf became an acolyte (acolitus), which was recognised as the highest-ranking of the minor orders in Milan at the time. He held this rank for the rest of his life.

Although Landulf is a partisan narrator and his account judgemental as well as personal, it is historically valuable for its eyewitness testimony and its uncritical attitude. The quality of Landulf's writing is unexpectedly poor for one who received an education from the leading philosophers of France.

The Historia received its editio princeps from G. A. Sassi, on behalf of Ludovico Muratori, in 1724. The standard critical edition is that of Ludwig Bethmann and Philipp Jaffé for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in 1868.

Editions Sassi, G. A.; Muratori, L. A., ed. Rerum italicarum scriptores, V (Milan, 1724), cols. 429–520 Bethmann, L.; Jaffé, P. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, XX (Hanover, 1868), pp. 17–49. Castiglioni, C. Rerum italicarum scriptores, 2nd ed., V, 3 (Bologna, 1934).