The Chronica Gothorum Pseudoisidoriana,[a] also known as the Historia Pseudoisidoriana[b] or the Chronicle of Pseudo-Isidore, is an anonymous 12th-century Latinchronicle from southern France. It presents the history of Spain from the time of the sons of Noah and their dispersal down to the Arab conquest in 711.[1]
The Chronica survives in a single manuscript, now BNF lat. 6113 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. In the 16th century, the manuscript was acquired by Pierre Pithou, who brought it to Paris. The Chronica is found on folios 27–48 under the title Cronica Gothorum a Sancto Isidoro edita.[c][2]Theodor Mommsen prepared the first critical edition of the Chronica in 1894 and gave it the name (pseudoisidoriana) by which it is now most widely known.[3]
The Chronica is of little use to the historian for the period it covers, although it sheds light on the time and place of its composition.[2] Internal evidence suggests that it was written in the 12th century, since it mentions Morocco, a name which did not appear before 1090, being derived from the city of Marrakesh, founded in 1055. The compiler also included a description of the ports of the western Mediterranean in which he mentions Saint Nicholas of Bari. The relics of the saint did not arrive in Bari until 1087.[4] The Arabic original of the Chronica was almost certainly compiled in Spain, where the translation was likely also made by a writer working in the Visigothic script. It was later copied in France, most likely at the monastery of Aniane.[5]
The Chronica has a unique perspective among Latin sources on the Arab conquest. It emphasis how Ṭāriḳ ibn Ziyād brought peace to the peninsula after the civil wars that plagued the last years of the Visigothic Kingdom.[5] It is also the earliest source to provide a name to the daughter of Count Julian who, according to legend, was raped by King Roderic. It names her Oliba, although this was subsequently forgotten as later accounts call her La Cava.[6]
Notes
^Translation: "Gothic chronicle falsely ascribed to Isidore".
^Translation: "History falsely ascribed to Isidore".
^Translation: "Chronicle of the Goths published by Saint Isidore".
^Ann Christys, "Chronica Gothorum Pseudoisidoriana", in Graeme Dunphy and Cristian Bratu (eds.), Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle (Brill, 2016), consulted online on 6 April 2019.
^Patrick Gautire Dalché, "Notes sur la Chronica Pseudo-Isidoriana," Anuario de Estudios Medievales14 (1984): 13–32.
^ abAnn Christys, "Expanding/Expounding the Chronicle of Pseudo-Isidore: Paris, BN lat. 6113", in Richard Corradini, Max Diesenberger and Meta Niederkorn-Bruck (eds.), Zwischen Niederschrift und Wiederschrift: Frühmittelalterliche Hagiographie und Historiographie im Spannungsfeld von Kompendienüberlieferung und Editionstechnik (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2010), pp. 79–92.