Monk of Silos

The Historia silense, also called the Chronica silense or Historia seminense, and more properly Historia legionense, is a medieval Latin narrative history of the Iberian Peninsula from the time of the Visigoths (409–711) to the first years of the reign of Alfonso VI of León and Castile (1065–1073). Though originally intended as a gesta of Alfonso, it is primarily an original account of the reign of his father, Ferdinand I (1037–1065). For its earlier history it relies on the works of Isidore of Seville, Julian of Toledo, and the Vitas sanctorum patrum Emeritensium for the Visigothic period, the Chronicle of Alfonso III for the ninth century, the work of Sampiro for the tenth and early eleventh centuries, and the Chronicon of Pelayo of Oviedo for the eleventh century. The Historia along with Pelayo's Chronicon provide the only surviving versions of Sampiro's otherwise lost history.

The date of composition can be approximately fixed by internal evidence. In chapter 7 the author notes that "the whole length of [Alfonso VI's] fragile life has been run", indicating that he was writing after Alfonso's death in 1109. In chapter 13 there is a reference to the papal legate Cardinal Rainerius, who was holding a synod in León in 1090, later becoming Pope. Since Rainerius reigned as Paschal II from 1099 to January 1118 and there is no mention of his death, modern scholars have largely accepted that he was still alive at the time of composition. The anonymous historian was thus at work between 1109 and 1118. A date in the first third of the twelfth century also accords well with certain copyist's errors apparent in the surviving manuscripts that probably indicate that the original was set down in Visigothic script.

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