HENRY OF HUNTINGDON. - Archdeacon, historian, b. ca. 1085 in the diocese of Lincoln, the city in which he was educated, d. in 1155. In 1110 he was appointed archdeacon of Huntingdon. In 1139 he accompanied Theobald, archbishop of Canterbury, to Rome.

While traveling, they visited the Norman monastery of Bec, where Robert of Torigni, historian of Normandy, showed E. the Historia Britonum of Geoffrey of Monmouth. When E. returned home, Alexander, bishop of Lincoln (1123-47), asked him for a history of England based principally on Bede. Thus appeared his compilation Historia Anglorum up to 1120, which then was continued until 1154; only from 1126 does it have original value. E. was buried in Lincoln Cathedral.

Previously, E. enjoyed great esteem as a historian, but after the critical studies of Liebermann (1878) and T. Arnold (1879) his fame declined. E. does not prove sufficiently accurate. Nevertheless he was a cultured, skilled and elegant writer. He also wrote epigrams and some minor works, among them the epistle De contemptu mundi (PL 195, 979 ff.), and others that have not come down to us.

The best edition of the Historia (already in PL 195, 799 ff.) is that of T. Arnold (in Rolls Series, London 1879).

Bibliography

BIBL.: E. Burton, Henry of Huntingdon, in Cath. Enc., VII, p. 235 ff. Enrico Rope

@incollection{ec5_enrico_di_huntingdon, author = {Rope, Enrico}, title = {Enrico di Huntingdon}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {V}, pages = {374--375}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1950}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/enrico-di-huntingdon} }

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