The Bari Chroniclers

Annales Barenses
 Lupus Protospatharius, Annales
 Anonimi Barensis Chronicon.

There are three texts containing annalistic material of evident Barese - or, at any rate, Apulian - origin, which are apparently linked to each other (although these relationships need to be investigated much more thoroughly than scholars have succeeded in doing hitherto). These are three accounts of notable importance for studies of Apulia and, more generally, southern Italy in the 10th and 11th centuries.

The Annales Barenses (605- 1043) contain a series of extremely concise entries relating to the 10th and 11th centuries that conclude with a long account of the Norman attack on Apulia in 1041- 43.

The Annales of Lupus Protospatharius contain brief entries for the years 855- 1102, but, generally speaking, they are better informed with regard to the 11th century than the previous periods. It is likely that the information in them derives from the same sources as the ones used by the author (or authors) of the Annales Barenses, although the two texts are not identical. The last part of the text provides abundant information about both the life and work of Robert Guiscard and Apulia in the years following his death in 1085. In a number of passages, the text attributed to Lupus Protospatharius (an official of the Byzantine government?) seems to relate more closely to the city of Matera, which suggests that this may have been Lupus’s birthplace.

Covering the period 860- 1118, the Anonimi Barensis Chronicon is another collection of entries having an annalistic structure, albeit with a number of entries that are longer than those in the first two texts. It must, however, be pointed out that Muratori’s edition - which is derived from Camillo Pellegrino’s editio princeps - is very unsatisfactory.

MODERN EDITIONS

- Annales Barenses and Lupus Protospatharius, Annales, G.H. Pertz, MGH Scriptores V, Hanover, 1844, pp. 51- 56 (in double columns)
- Anonimi Barensis Chronicon: L. A. Muratori, in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores V, Milan, 1724, pp. 145- 156.