Gregory of Tours (redirected from Historia Francorum)

Gregory of Tours

Saint. ?538--?594 ad, Frankish bishop and historian. His Historia Francorum is the chief source of knowledge of 6th-century Gaul. Feast day: Nov. 17

---

Gregory of Tours 

(original name, Georgius Floren-tius). Born around 540 in Clermont-Ferrand; died around 594 in Tours. Historian of the Franks.

The descendant of a noble Gallo-Roman family from Auvergne, Gregory became bishop of Tours in 573. He was one of the most influential Church figures in the Merovingian state. His History of the Franks (written in Latin, ten books), which deals with events up to 591 A.D. is our chief source for the political history of the Frankish state of the fifth and sixth centuries. The work served as the main source for A. Thierry’s Tales From Merovingian Times (A. Thierry, Izbr. soch., Moscow. 1937).

WORKS

Gregorii Turonensis Historia francorum. In Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, vol. 1. 1951.
Gregor von Tours, Zehn Bücher Geschichten, vols. 1–2. Published by R. Buchner. Berlin, 1955–56.

REFERENCE

Vainshtein, O. L. Zapadnoevropeiskaia srednevekovaia istoriografiia. Moscow-Leningrad, 1964.