Paolo Diacono
Paul the Deacon (c. 720s – 13 April 799) was a Lombard monk, historian, and scholar whose works were widely used throughout the early Middle Ages. Best known for the Historia Langobardorum, a narrative of Lombard origins and migrations, Paul is one of the most significant early medieval historians of Italy. Paul was educated in the Lombard kingdom and later became active within the intellectual circles of Charlemagne’s court, where he contributed to the broader scholarly activity associated with the Carolingian Renaissance.
In addition to his historical writings on the Lombards, Paul produced a continuation of Eutropius’s Breviarium, a collection of homilies for the Frankish church, a history of the bishops of Metz, poems and epitaphs, and an epitome of Festus’s De verborum significatu. His works drew on a wide range of classical, patristic, and early medieval sources and circulated extensively in monastic and ecclesiastical settings. Through both his Lombard identity and his Carolingian patronage, Paul played an important role in shaping the historical and literary culture of the eighth and ninth centuries.
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