Rudolph (Chronicler) - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

RUDOLPH, or RAOUL, known as Rudolph Glaber (Rudolph the Bald) (d. c. 1050), French chronicler, was born in Burgundy about 985, and was in turn an inmate of the monasteries of St Leger at Champeaux and St Benigne at Dijon, afterwards entering the famous abbey of Cluny, and becoming a monk at St Germain at Auxerre before 103 9. He also appears to have visited Italy. His Historiarum sui temporis libri V., dedicated to St Odilon, abbot of Cluny, purports to be a universal history from 900 to 1044; but is an irregular narration of events in France and Burgundy. Rudolph was a strong believer in the approaching end of the world.

The Historiarum was first printed in 1596, and published by A. Duchesne in the Historiae Francorum Scriptores, tome iv. (Paris, 16 39-49). Extracts are printed in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, Band vii.; but perhaps the best edition of the work is the one edited by M. Prou in the Collection de textes pour servir a l'etude et l'enseignement de l'histoire (Paris, 1886). Rudolph also wrote a Vita. S. Gulielmi, abbatis S. Benigni, published by J. Mabillon in the Acta Sanctorum, tome vi. (Paris, 1668).

See A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, tome ii.(Paris, 1902); and A. Potthast, Bibliotheca historica (Berlin, 1896).