Liudprand of Cremona

We are grateful that some people in the past chose to record what they saw and heard, or were told by others. Surviving histories help to build a picture of what life was like. Unfortunately, many wrote with an agenda. Liudprand of Cremona certainly had opinions he wanted to get across with his writings, along with his histories.

He was born c.920 in Pavia, in northern Italy, and was a page to Hugh of Arles who was styled King of (northern) Italy and married Marozia of Rome. Hugh died in 947, after which Liudprand became confidential secretary and then chancellor to Berengar II, King of Italy from 950 - 961.

Liudprand, by then a deacon, was sent by Berengar to the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus where he learned Greek and became one of the first Western writers to use the font called Greek minuscule. Liudprand's father and stepfather had both visited Constantinople as ambassadors, and Liudprand praised Byzantine hospitality.

Liudprand also brought gifts to the emperor. In his account of Constantinople in his work Antapodosis ("retribution"), he says:

I offered, therefore, nine excellent breastplates, seven excellent shields with gilt bosses, two gilt silver cups, swords, spears, skewers, and four carzimasia slaves, to this emperor the most precious of all these things. For the Greeks call a child-eunuch, with testicles and penis cut off, a carzimasium. The merchants of Verdun do this on account of the immense profit they can make, and they are accustomed to bring them to Spain.

Back in Italy, Liudprand and Berengar had a falling out, so Liudprand joined Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, who became king of Italy after the death of Berengar's son Lothair. In 961 Liudprand went to Italy with Otto. A year later he became Bishop of Cremona.

While with Otto he met Recemund, a Mozarabic Bishop of Elvira and ambassador for Abd al-Rahman III. Recemund persuaded Liudprand that he should write a history of his times. The result was the Antapodosis.

In 963, Liudprand attended the Synod of Rome that deposed Pope John XII. His account of the events around that Synod is the only source we have.

In 968 he went to Constantinople again, this time to arrange a marriage between Otto I's son, Otto, and Anna Porphyrogeneta, daughter of (former) emperor Romanus II. This visit was not as happy as his first, for many reasons, and I'll share those and some of his account tomorrow.