1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Nithard

NITHARD (d. 844), Frankish historian, was the illegitimate son of Angilbert, the friend of Charlemagne, by Bertha, а daughter of the great emperor. He was educated at the imperial court and became abbot of St Riquier in commendam, never taking the vows. Little else is known about his life, but he appears to have served his cousin, Charles the Bald, on peaceful errands and also on the field of battle. He fought for Charles at Fontenoy in June 841, and died as the result of wounds received whilst fighting for him against the Northmen near Angoulême. The date of his death was probably the 14th of June 844. In the 11th century his body, with the fatal wound still visible, was found in the grave of his father, Angilbert. Nithard's historical work consists of four books on the history of the Carolingian empire under the turbulent sons of the emperor Louis I., especially during the troubled period between 840 and 843. This Historiae or De dissensionibus filiorum Ludovici pii is valuable for the light which it throws upon the causes which led to the disintegration of the Carolingian empire. Although rough in style, partisan in character and sometimes incorrect in detail, the books are the work of a man who had an intimate knowledge of the events which he relates, who possessed a clear and virile mind, and who above all was not a recluse but a man of action. They are dedicated to Charles the Bald, at whose request they were written.

The Historiae has been printed several times. Perhaps the best edition is in Band ii. of the Monumenta Germaniae historica, Scriptores; it has also been edited by A. Holder (Freiburg, 1882). It has been translated into German by J. von Jasmund (Berlin, 1851; new edition by W. Wattenbach, Leipzig, 1889); and into French in tome iii. of Guizot's Collection des mémoires (Paris, 1824).

See O. Kuntzemüller, Nithard und sein Geschichtswerk (Jena, 1873); G. Meyer von Knonau, Über Nithards vier Bücher Geschichten (Leipzig, 1866); and W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band i. (Berlin, 1904).