Paul the Deacon

Dom Paul the Deacon OSB
Portrait of Paulus Diaconus from a 10th-century manuscript (Laurentian Library Plut. 65.35 fol. 34r)
Title	Deacon
Personal life
Born	Paulus Warnefridus c. 720s Cividale del Friuli, Kingdom of the Lombards
Died	13 April in 796, 797, 798, or 799 AD Monte Cassino, Patrimony of Saint Peter
Nationality	Lombard
Parent(s)	Warnefrid and Theodelinda
Known for	History of the Lombards
Occupation	Benedictine monk, scribe, and historian
Religious life
Religion	pre-Schism Latin Church
Order	Benedictines
Ordination	c. 782

Paul the Deacon (c. 720s – 13 April 799) was a Lombard monk, historian, and scholar whose works were widely used throughout the early Middle Ages. Best known for the Historia Langobardorum, a narrative of Lombard origins and migrations, Paul is one of the most significant early medieval historians of Italy. Paul was educated in the Lombard kingdom and later became active within the intellectual circles of Charlemagne’s court, where he contributed to the broader scholarly activity associated with the Carolingian Renaissance.^[1]

In addition to his historical writings on the Lombards, Paul produced a continuation of Eutropius’s Breviarium, a collection of homilies for the Frankish church, a history of the bishops of Metz, poems and epitaphs, and an epitome of Festus’s De verborum significatu. His works drew on a wide range of classical, patristic, and early medieval sources and circulated extensively in monastic and ecclesiastical settings.^[2] Through both his Lombard identity and his Carolingian patronage, Paul played an important role in shaping the historical and literary culture of the eighth and ninth centuries.^[3]

Paul was born in the Duchy of Friuli in the early eighth century, likely into a family of local Lombard nobility. His birth name was Winfrid, and later sources suggest that he received the monastic name Paulus after entering religious life. Although details about his early years are limited, the surviving accounts indicate that he benefited from a high level of education, which may have been connected to the Lombard royal court at Pavia. He studied grammar, literature, and some Greek, and his training introduced him to both classical authors and Christian writers, influences that remained visible in his later works.^[4][5]

Much of Paul’s early career unfolded under the later Lombard kings. He is believed to have served at the court of King Desiderius, possibly in an administrative or secretarial capacity.^[6] Paul’s literary talents attracted the attention of Desiderius’s daughter Adelperga, for whom he composed a continuation of Eutropius’s Breviarium. His presence in Benevento and his association with the ducal court there reflect the mobility of Lombard elites in the final decades of the kingdom.

The Frankish conquest of the Lombard kingdom in 774 marked a turning point in Paul’s life. He appears to have left Pavia around the time of Charlemagne’s capture of the city, and his family was directly affected by the political upheaval. His brother Arichis was taken to Francia as a prisoner following unrest in Friuli. Paul later appealed to Charlemagne for his brother’s release, which was eventually granted. These events brought Paul into contact with the emerging intellectual networks surrounding the Carolingian court.^[7]

Paul entered monastic life sometime before 782 and became a monk at Monte Cassino, one of the most important Benedictine centers in early medieval Italy. His reputation as a scholar and writer reached Charlemagne, who invited him to participate in ecclesiastical and literary projects associated with the Carolingian Renaissance. Paul contributed to the compilation of a homiliary for the Frankish church and produced historical, grammatical, and liturgical works that circulated widely.^[8] He spent his final years at Monte Cassino, where he continued to write and revise his texts until his death on 13 April, probably in 799.^[9]

Paul’s most famous work is the Historia Langobardorum, a six-book narrative written near the end of his life. It traces the legendary origins of the Lombards, their migrations, and their settlement in Italy, and extends to the reign of King Liutprand (d. 744). Although unfinished, it is one of the principal sources for Lombard history. The work reflects both Paul’s Lombard heritage and his exposure to Carolingian historical interests, and it draws on a wide range of written and oral materials, including the Origo gentis Langobardorum, the Liber pontificalis, the lost history of Secundus of Trent, and Beneventan annals.^[10][11] Its descriptions of political life, regional identities, and relations with the Franks make it a key text for understanding the transition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

Paul composed a continuation of Eutropius’s Breviarium while associated with the ducal court at Benevento between 766 and 771. At the request of Adelperga, he expanded the original Roman history by integrating material from Scripture, patristic writers, and other Christian sources. His six added books carry the narrative to the mid-sixth century and were widely copied during the Middle Ages.^[12] The work became a standard school text and influenced how later medieval scholars understood the end of the western Roman Empire.

At Charlemagne’s request, Paul compiled a collection of homilies for use in the Frankish church. Drawing on patristic and early medieval authors, the compilation was intended to provide suitable readings for the liturgical year and played a role in Carolingian efforts to standardize preaching and ecclesiastical instruction.^[10] The homiliary circulated across the Carolingian world and contributed to the broader program of religious and educational reform.

Paul wrote a short history of the bishops of Metz at the request of Bishop Angilram. Completed before 766, it is the earliest surviving example of an episcopal catalogue north of the Alps.^[13] The text reflects growing Carolingian interest in documenting the history of local churches and was later copied in monastic and cathedral settings. A modern English translation was published in 2013.

Paul composed numerous poems, epitaphs, and occasional verses, many of which survive in early medieval manuscript collections. These include verses written for members of the Carolingian family and an epitaph for Arichis II of Benevento.^[14] His poetic corpus was edited in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with later scholarship revising some earlier attributions. He also produced an epitome of Sextus Pompeius Festus’s De verborum significatu, which he dedicated to Charlemagne, as well as other grammatical and hagiographical works attributed to him in medieval sources.

Scholars have emphasized Paul’s careful engagement with earlier texts, including classical authors, patristic writers, and earlier Lombard and Roman histories.^[15] His combination of oral traditions, regional annals, and written authorities reflects a hybrid historical method characteristic of the early Middle Ages. Modern studies highlight Paul’s selective use of sources to shape a coherent historical narrative, particularly in the Historia Langobardorum, where his interpretation of Lombard origins and migration adopts elements of ethnographic storytelling alongside Christian universal history.

Paul’s position as a Lombard writing within the orbit of Carolingian power has been a major focus of recent scholarship. Historians have noted the tension between Lombard cultural memory and the new political structures that followed the Frankish conquest of Italy. Paul's works balance pride in Lombard tradition with an awareness of shifting political realities, and some scholars interpret his narratives as efforts to preserve Lombard identity within a Carolingian framework.^[16] This dual perspective also shaped his portrayal of rulers, regional allegiances, and the historical relationship between the Lombards and the Franks.

Paul’s writings circulated widely during the Middle Ages and played a significant role in shaping the historical imagination of later medieval authors.^[17] The Historia Langobardorum became a standard reference for Lombard history, and the Historia Romana continued to be used in educational settings. His homiliary contributed to Carolingian liturgical reform and remained influential in monastic communities. Medieval scholars, including those in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, drew upon his narratives when constructing accounts of early medieval Italy and its peoples.

Modern scholarship views Paul the Deacon as one of the most influential historians of early medieval Europe. Contemporary historians have reassessed Paul’s works within broader debates about ethnicity, memory, and the construction of historical narratives in the early Middle Ages. Studies by Walter Goffart, Christopher Heath, Rosamond McKitterick, and others situate Paul within the intellectual networks of his time and emphasize his role in mediating between classical traditions and Carolingian reform. His writings are now recognized not only as sources for Lombard history but also as important contributions to the development of historiography in medieval Europe.

• Goffart, Walter (1988). The Narrators of Barbarian History. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691055145.
• Paul the Deacon (2013). Liber de episcopis Mettensibus. Dallas Medieval Texts and Translations. Vol. 19. Translated by Kempf, Damien. Paris/Leuven/Walpole, MA: Peeters. Archived from the original on 2018-01-14. Retrieved 2018-01-13.
• Heath, Christopher (2017). The Narrative Worlds of Paul the Deacon: Between Empires and Identities in Lombard Italy. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. ISBN 978-9048526710.

English Wikisource has original works by or about:

Paulus Diaconus

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Paulus Diaconus.

• Capo, Lidia (2014). "PAOLO Diacono". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 81: Pansini–Pazienza. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. ISBN 978-88-12-00032-6.
• Works of Paulus Diaconus at Bibliotheca Augustana (in Latin)
• History of the Lombards