LIUTPRAND. - Bishop of Cremona, of a Lombard family, b. in Pavia, or its surroundings, in the early decades of the 10th century, d. between 971 and 972 during a journey to Constantinople. His father had been a trusted man of King Hugh and an envoy to Constantinople. After his father's death in 927, his stepfather taught him Latin and Greek, as he himself recounts; in 931 he entered the court, and was later a cleric and deacon at Pavia. With King Berengar he became secretorum consiliarius et epistolarum signator. He was sent to Constantinople, but on his return he fell into disgrace and took refuge in Germany with Otto, writing in 958 the Antapodosis, in which he narrates European events from 887 to 950, the last as an eyewitness and in a tone of violent polemic against Berengar and Queen Willa.

He was Otto's companion on the journey to Italy and was on that occasion appointed to the episcopal see of Cremona. On 2 February 962 he was present in Rome at the coronation of his protector. In 965 in Rome he attended the Synod that deposed John XII (for the favor the latter had granted to Berengar's son) and elected the protoscriniarius Leo. In 965 he was present at the election of John XIII. In 967 he went to Constantinople to ask for the hand of Theophano, daughter of Nicephorus Phocas, for Otto II, and he wrote an account of the journey that is preserved. According to the tradition that Ughelli (Italia Sacra, Cremonenses episcopi, n. XXXIX) gathers from the anonymous author of the Translatio s. Himerii, L. would have died on a subsequent journey to Constantinople to fetch Theophano, in 971-72.

To L. is due in part the fame of the women who lived around the papacy in the 10th century (Theodora, Marozia). A most lively polemicist, his three short historical works are a precious source for the history of the century, but must be used with some caution.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: L'Antapodosis, la legazione a Costantinopoli e la Historia Ottonis are published in RES, II, 1 (ed. Milan 1723), pp. 419-89 (with two documents of 965 relating to the life of L.); by G. H. Pertz, in MGH, III, pp. 264-363; by E. Dümmler, Luitprandi opera in usum scholarium, Hannover 1871 (Italian trans., Milan 1945); as a source for Roman history he is judged very well by P. Fedele, Per la storia di Roma e del papato nel sec. X, in Archivio della Soc. romana di storia patria, 33 (1910), p. 177 ff.; 34 (1911), p. 75 ff.; see furthermore R. A. Küpke, De vita et scriptis Luitprandi episcopi Cremonensi, Berlin 1842; L. Balzani, Le cronache italiane del medioevo, Milan 1888, pp. 112-29; C. Colini Baldeschi, L. vescovo di Cremona, Giarro 1889; S. Pivano, Stato e Chiesa da Berengario I ad Arduino, Turin 1908, passim; M. Galdi, L'Avianodocis di L., offprint from Atti della R. Accademia di archeologia lettere... in Napoli, 13 (1933-34).

Carmelo Trasselli

LIUTPRAND - Antapodosis - Metz, Library, cod. 145, f. 204 (10th century).(from J. Becker, Textgeschichte Liutpranda von Cremona, Munich 1901, pl. f)

@incollection{ec7_liutprando, author = {Trasselli, Carmelo}, title = {Liutprando}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1446--1447}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/liutprando} }

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