AMATO di MONTECASSINO. - Benedictine, historian of the 11th century. He was a monk of the famous abbey under Abbot Desiderius (1058-86); he was also a bishop, as reliable documentary sources attest, though we do not know of which diocese.
His name is linked to the Historia Normannorum, in 8 books, written by him between 1080 and 1086 and dedicated to Desiderius, the inspirer of the work. The first 3 books narrate the history of the Normans from their Nordic origins to the first conquests in Italy; from book IV onward, it is the history of Richard of Capua and of Robert Guiscard. The account ends with the death of Richard (1078). A. is enthusiastic about the Normans
(phot. Brogi)
(he calls them most valiant, invincible), and he grasped the great historical importance of the new political force that was forming in southern Italy. His is not a chronicle: he intends to write a history (he therefore does not follow a rigidly chronological order), following the model of Paul the Deacon's Historia Langobardorum. The Latin text of A.'s Historia has not come down to us; we have only a vernacular rendering in poor French from the 14th century: the translation is not literal, the text is often summarized; the copyist added other errors.
We have record of other works written by A.: the Gesta Apostolorum Petri et Pauli, a poem in 4 books which, through the account of the life of St. Peter (the second apostle is barely mentioned at the end of book IV), seeks to celebrate the work of reform of the Church carried out by Gregory VII; and two other minor writings, now lost: De laude Gregorii VII and De duodecim lapidibus et civitate caelesti Hierusalem.
Bibliography3 works
Michele Maccarrone