Donini, Guido, trans.; Ford, Gordon B., trans., History of the Kings of the Goths, Vandals, and Suevi (Leiden: E.J. Brill)
Text name(s): Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum et Suevorum
Number of pages of primary source text: 43
Author(s):
Dates: 590 - 636
Archival Reference:
Original Language(s):
- Latin
Translation:
- Translated into English.
Translation Comments: Translation based on Theodor Mommsen's edition as included in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi, XI (Berlin, 1894).
Geopolitical Region(s):
- Spain
- Europe
County/Region:
Record Types:
- Chronicle, Annals
Subject Headings:
- Historiography
- War - Military History
- Conversion
- Early Germanic Peoples: Goths, Franks, etc.
- Church Fathers
- Nobility / Gentry
Apparatus:
- Index
- Introduction
Comments:
Isidore, Archbishop of Seville and Doctor of the Church, was one of the most significant figures of Visigothic Spain, exerting a tremendous influence in his own time (through his vigorous participation in the various synods of the early seventh century) as well as on education throughout the Middle Ages (through his extensive writings). His vast learning and debt to the Latin classics has led him to be considered “the last scholar of the ancient world.” One of the two main historical works of Isidore (the other being the Chronica maiora), the Historia de regibus Gothorum, Vandalorum, et Suevorum is primarily a chronologically-arranged history of the West Goths from their descent from the Alps in 256 CE, replete with praise for the land of Spain and the Gothic heritage found there. Although it is a compendium building on other accounts, the Historia itself is regarded as an authoritative history of the Goths in the West. Isidore also appends brief histories of the Vandals and Suevi to the main text on the Goths.
Introduction Summary:
An abrupt, two-page introduction provides an overview of the work and a listing of the sources from which Isidore is known to have drawn.
Cataloger: WLL
