ABBON of SAINT-GERMAIN. - A monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (mid-9th century). Little is known about him, and he has often been confused with the Abbot of Fleury.
He wrote a three-book poem (in hexameters) De Bellis Parisiacae Urbis, in which he describes the siege of Paris by the Normans (885-87). All editions prior to Migne (PL 132, 721-61) and Pertz (MGH, Scriptores, II, 776-805) do not include the third book, which is much more imperfect than the others and filled with digressions and allegories with very obscure glosses. Defective in style and language, the poem has singular historical value. A. is also the author of five sermons (PL 132, 761-78) and an epistle (Bibl. Patrum, V).
BIBL.: R. Ceillier, Histoire générale des auteurs sacrés et ecclésiastiques, XII, 2nd ed., Paris 1862, pp. 789-92; J. Petitjean, Abbon l'humble, son poème sur le siège de Paris par les Normands: 855-56, in Annales de la Faculté des Lettres de Caen, (1888), pp. 61-74; A. Molinier, Les sources de l'histoire de France, I, Paris 1901, p. 255; M. Rouziès, s. V. in DHG, I, cols. 51-52.