less often to Provence, Sicily, and Spain. After he had
retired to his native Viterbo, he revised and in 1191
completed his selective world history in Latin verse and
prose, Pantheon. A note at the end of a later poem, Gesta
Henrici sexti (Deeds of Henry VI), mentions the death
in Sicily of the imperial steward Markward of Anweiler
(September 1202). The aged Godfrey is unlikely to have
long survived Markward.
Pantheon, Godfrey’s major literary accomplish-
ment, is in concept a pro-Staufen imperial chronicle
from biblical and early pagan times to his own day. Its
title—a Greek compound meaning “all-divine”—sug-
gests the universality of its scope and the divine origin
of the political and theological wisdom it expounds.
This work took shape in several stages, of which the
fi rst was the largely verse Speculum regum (Mirror of
Kings), dedicated to Henry VI and completed in 1183.
Speculum regum was replaced in 1185 by Memoria
seculorum (Memory of the Ages), subsequently renamed
Liber memorialis (Book of Memory). That in turn was
expanded into the more encyclopedic Liber universalis
(Book of All), itself the basis for three successive ver-
sions of the fi nal Pantheon. Supplementary writings
include Gesta Friderici (Deeds of Frederick), in verse;
and the aforementioned Gesta Henrid sexti. Godfrey’s
Pantheon entertains as well as instructs and presents as
fact, or at least neutrally, a signifi cant amount of popular,
legendary, or otherwise fi ctional material in fulfi lment of
its political objectives. Especially notable are an infl u-
ential account of the Trojan origins of various European
peoples and versions of the medieval Prophecy of the
Tiburtine Sibyl and of the Latin romance of Apollonius
of Tyre. Godfrey’s preferred verse form, an uncommon
strophe consisting of two rhyming hexameters followed
by a single pentameter, may be thought of as an ennobled
elegiac distich.
Godfrey’s history, ostensibly aimed at young people
but well suited for many adults, was widely read in the
later Middle Ages. It survives in at least thirty-three
more or less complete manuscripts (including the
author’s original for most of Liber universalis) and in
fragments of many others. Resonances can be discerned
in the writings of Brunetto Latini, Giovanni Villani,
Quilichino of Spoleto, Orfi no of Lodi, Riccobaldo of
Ferrara, Tolomeo (“Ptolemy”) of Lucca, Benzo of Ales-
sandria, James of Acqui, Galvano Fiamma, and William
of Pastrengo, to say nothing of the very considerable
reception of Pantheon among non-Italians. The one
modern attempt at a critical edition is incomplete and
otherwise unsatisfactory.
Godfrey is also the apparent author of a 186-line
political-geographical poem with autobiographical
content, Denumeratio regnorum imperio subiectorum
(“List of Kingdoms Subject to the Empire”), whose
focus shifts toward the end to German-speaking cities.
Other minor writings have, with varying degrees of
probability, also been assigned to him.
See also Frederick I Barbarossa; Henry VIFurther ReadingEditions
Delisle, Léopold, ed. Denumeratio regnorum imperio subiec-
torum. In Littérature latine et histoire du moyen âge. Paris:
Ernest Leroux, 1890, pp. 41–50.
Waltz, Georg, ed. Gotofridi Viterbiensis opera. Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, Scriptores, 22. Hannover: Hahn, 1872,
pp. 1–376.
Critical Studies
Archibald, Elizabeth. Apolionius of Tyre: Medieval and Renais-
sance Themes and Variations, Including the Text of the Historia
Apollonii Regis Tyri with an English Translation. Cambridge:
Brewer, 1991.
Dorninger, Maria E. Gottfried von Viterbo: Ein Autor in der
Umgebung der frühen Staufer. Stuttgarter Arbeiten zur Ger-
manistik, 345. Stuttgart: Hans-Dieter Heinz, 1997.
Hausmann, Friedrich. “Gottfried von Viterbo: Kapellan und No-
tar, Magister, Geschichtsschreiber, und Dichter.” In Friedrich
Barbarossa: Handlungsspielraume und Wirkungsiveise des
staufi schen Kaisers, ed. Alfred Haverkamp. Vorträge und
Forschungen Herausgegeben vom Konstanzer Arbeitskreis für
Mittelalterliche Geschichte, 40. Sigmaringen: Jan Thorbecke,
1992, pp. 603–621.
Meyer, Lucienne. Les légendes des matières de Rome, de France,
et de Bretagne dans le “Panthéon”de Godefroi de Viterbe.
Paris: E. de Boccard, 1933. (Reprint, Geneva: Slatkine, 1981.)
Mulder-Bakker, A. M. “A Pantheon Full of Examples: The World
Chronicle of Godfrey of Viterbo.” In Exemplum et Similitudo:
Alexander the Great and Other Heroes as Points of Reference
in Medieval Literature. Mediaevalia Groningana, fasc. 8,
ed. W. J. Aerts and M. Gosman. Groningen: Egbert Forsten,
1988, pp. 85–98.
John B. DillonGOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG
(fl. 1210)
The greatest poet of the German Middle Ages, Gottfried
is known for his Middle High German Tristan romance,
a fragment of just under twenty thousand lines com-
posed in rhymed couplets. Gottfried may also be the
author of two poems in the famous Manesse manuscript
(University of Heidelberg library) under Ulrich von
Liechtenstein’s name. Falsely attributed to him are three
other poems that are found in various manuscripts. The
contours of his biography remain vague owing to lack
of historical evidence. Ulrich von Türheim and Heinrich
von Freiberg, two thirteenth-century writers of continu-
ations of his fragment, name Gottfried explicitly as its
author. That the majority of the earliest manuscripts
were probably produced in Alsace or even directly in
Strasbourg (he is known by the German form Straßburg)
locates Gottfried in this medieval cultural center.GOTTFRIED VON STRASSBURG