Primary source · Latin
The Histories (History of the Franks)
Gregory of Tours · c. AD 594
What this text is
Gregory's ten books from Creation to his own day — the earliest record of the seven missionary bishops of Gaul and of Servatius of Tongeren's death before the Hunnic storm, written centuries after those events.
Public-domain translations
Working translation (from the Latin)
When the coming of the Huns upon Gaul was revealed to him, the holy bishop of Tongeren gave himself to fasts and vigils, journeyed to pray at the tomb of the apostle Peter, and returning, died in peace at Maastricht before the blow fell. (Hist. II.5)
Manuscript witnesses
Cambrai, BM 684 and the 7th-c. tradition
7th c.Merovingian copies within a century of Gregory's death.
Patrologia Latina, vol. 71 (Migne)
1849Standard pre-critical text.
Provenance
Tours; the bishop-historian of Merovingian Gaul
Editions & scholarship
Critical editions and standard translations behind the text above.
- Gregorii episcopi Turonensis Libri historiarum X (MGH SRM I.1)B. Krusch & W. Levison, 1951The critical edition.
- Gregory of Tours: The History of the FranksLewis Thorpe, 1974Standard English translation (Penguin Classics).