Astronomer (after 840), and Ermold Nigel (825–35). The serial biography, the lives of a
series of bishops or rulers, was introduced in France ca. 784 by Paul the Deacon in his
Gesta archiepiscoporum Mettensium (the form is based on the Liber pontificalis). It was
imitated widely, giving rise to serial biographies of the abbots of Fontanelle (834–45) and
of the bishops of Le Mans (832–63), Auxerre (873–76), and Verdun (first redaction ca.
917), among others.
The Viking invasions slowed historical production in France. Reims alone was still
active in the 10th century. Flodoard (893–966), the diocesan archivist, wrote a history of
the church of Reims and continued the Annales Bertiniani; his chronicle was carried
forward by the annals of Reims (to 999). Flodoard’s work was also a source for Richer de
Reims’s regnal history of France (ca. 996). Safe from Viking attacks, the historians of
Reims documented the chronic political instability of the see, while adding to Hincmar’s
legacy.
With the Viking threat abating by the 11th century, histories appeared at new regional
centers. Saint-Martial in Limoges became active, producing the splendid chronicle of
Adémar de Chabannes (988–1035) and annals (to 1060). At Fleury, Abbo (d. 1004)
composed a brief serial biography of the popes. His disciple Aimoin wrote Abbo’s
biography (Vita Abbonis, ca. 1005/08), the Historia Francorum (a history of the Franks
to 654, written ca. 997–99), and Books 2 and 3 of the Miracula sancti Benedicti. Helgaud
of Fleury (d. 1048) produced a life of Robert II and a history of Fleury, and André de
Fleury wrote a biography (ca. 1041) of Abbot Gauzlin. This Fleuriac flurry of history
appeared in part to help the monastery claim its independence from the bishops of
Orléans. In Normandy, the first historian, Dudo de Saint-Quentin, wrote a serial
biography of the first Norman dukes, the De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae
ducum (ca. 1015–26), concentrating on the conversion of the Normans. A half-century
later, Guillaume de Jumièges abridged, secularized, and continued Dudo’s work through
the Norman Conquest in his Gesta Normannorum ducum (1071). Guillaume de Poitiers
composed a laudatory biography of the Conqueror ca. 1078, the Gesta Guillelmi, using
Guillaume de Jumièges as a source. The Conquest inspired the last two histories and
probably also encouraged Norman monasteries to begin keeping annals around the same
time.
Once established, a regional center might maintain its historiographic vitality for
centuries. For example, Saint-Columba in Sens began to keep annals in the 9th century.
In the 11th, Odoranus of Sens composed a chronicle, a life of the founder of Saint-Pierre-
le-Vif, and a history of that monastery. Around the same time, the Historia Francorum
Senonensis (1015/34), a chronicle based on the earlier annals of Sens, was created. A
century later, Clarius began the chronicle of Saint-Pierre-le-Vif (1108–24). Richer de
Sens picked up the Senonais tradition after 1254 with his Gesta Senoniensis ecclesiae,
while Geoffroi de Coulon continued the tradition at Saint-Pierre with a chronicle (to
1295). These works circulated, spawning new historiographic traditions elsewhere.
By the beginning of the 12th century, this regional pattern was supplemented by
broader works. The First Crusade (1095–99), perhaps because it was seen as being
triumphantly French, sparked an outpouring of historical writing not confined to any one
region. The four surviving accounts of the crusade, the Gesta Francorum et aliorum
Hierosolymitanorum (ca. 1101), 1101), the Historia Francorum qui ceperunt Jerusalem
of Raymond d’Agiles (after 1102), the Historia Hierosolymitana of Foucher de Chartres
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