Flodoard

Flodoard (of Reims) (894–966) was a French chronicler.

He was born at Épernay, and educated at Reims in the cathedral school which had been established by Archbishop Fulcon (822-900).

As canon of Reims, and favourite of the archbishops Herivaeus (d. 922) and Seulfus (d. 925), he occupied while still young an important position at the archiepiscopal court, but was twice deprived of his benefices by Herbert II, Count of Vermandois, on account of his steady opposition to the election of the count's infant son to the archbishopric. Upon the final triumph of Archbishop Artold during the 948 Universal Synod of Ingelheim, Flodoard became for a time his chief adviser, but withdrew to a monastery in 952, and spent the remaining years of his life in literary and devotional work.

His history of the cathedral church at Reims (Historia Remensis Ecclesiae) is one of the most remarkable productions of the 10th century. Flodoard had been given charge of the episcopal archives, and constructed his history out of the original texts, which he generally reproduces in full; the documents for the period of Hincmar being especially valuable.

The Annales which Flodoard wrote year by year from 919 to 966 are doubly important, by reason of the author's honesty and the central position of Reims in European affairs in his time.

Flodoard's poetical works are of hardly less historical interest. The long poem celebrating the triumph of Christ and His saints was called forth by the favour shown him by Pope Leo VII, during whose pontificate he visited Rome, and he devotes fourteen books to the history of the popes.

Flodoard's works were published in full by JP Migne (Patrologia Latina, vol. 135); a modern edition of the Annales is the one edited by Philippe Lauer (Paris, 1906). For bibliography see Auguste Molinier, Sources de l'histoire de France (No. 932).

Editions and translations

 * Annales
 * 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. Available from Internet Archive and Google Books
 * Pertz, Georg Heinrich (ed.). Annales, chronica et historiae aevi Saxonici. MGH Scriptores 3. Hanover, 1839. 363-408. Available online from Digital MGH
 * PL 135 (Documenta Catholica Omnia)
 * Steven Fanning and Bernard S. Bachrach (trs.), The Annals of Flodoard of Reims, 919-966. Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures 9. Broadview Press, 2004. ISBN 1551116502.
 * Guizot, M (tr.). Siège de Paris par les Normands, poème d'Abbon [etc.]. Collection des Mémoires relatifs a l'Histoire de France. Paris, 1824. 69-162. Available from Gallica


 * Historia Remensis ecclesiae
 * Martina Stratmann (ed.). Die Geschichte der Reimser Kirche Flodoardus Remensis. MGH Scriptores 36. Hanover, 1998. Available from the Digital MGH
 * Heller, J. and G. Waitz (eds.). MGH Scriptores 13. Supplementa tomorum I-XII, pars I. 405-599. Available from the Digital MGH
 * PL 135 (Documenta Catholica Omnia)
 * Lejeune, M. (tr.). Flodoardi Historia remensis ecclesiæ. Histoire de l'église de Reims. Reims, 1854-5. Available from Google Books.
 * Guizot, M (tr.). Histoire de l'Église de Rheims. Collection des Mémoires relatifs a l'Histoire de France. Paris, 1824. Available from Gallica


 * Three poems known collectively as De Triumphis Christi: De triumphis Christi sanctorumque Palaestinae, De triumphis Christi Antiochiae gestis, De triumphis Christi apud Italiam
 * PL 135 (Documenta Catholica Omnia)