{{short description|11th-century Italian historian}} {{for|the rulers of Apulia named William|William Iron Arm|William II, Duke of Apulia}} '''William of Apulia''' ({{langx|la|Guillelmus Apuliensis}}) was a poet and chronicler of the Normans, writing in the 1090s. His Latin epic, '''''Gesta Roberti Wiscardi''''' ("The Deeds of Robert Guiscard"), written in hexameters, is one of the principal contemporary sources for the Norman conquest of southern Italy, especially the career of Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia (1059–1085).
== Background == Little is known about William's life before he wrote his history of the Normans. Unlike the other two principal chroniclers of the Normans in Italy, Amatus of Montecassino and Geoffrey Malaterra, William was probably a layman, based on the relative lack of religious references in his work.{{sfn|Wolf|1995|pp=124-125}} Wolf argues that William was a Lombard, rather than a Norman, as his treatment of Lombard characters in his history is very sympathetic when compared to his contemporary Norman counterparts.{{sfn|Wolf|1995|pp=126-128}} Brown suggests that William was born to "Greek-speaking, Lombard parents", or any other union combination in the melting pot of Apulia, because of his sympathetic writing of the Byzantines as well as the Lombards, also adding that it was not uncommon for Lombard parents to pass Norman names to their children after Norman arrival.{{sfn|Brown|2011|p=163}} The Greek connection is notable as he was very knowledgeable about and familiar with the Byzantine Court system, language, and history.{{sfn|Brown|2011|pp=168-170}}
thumbnail|The coinage of Roger Borsa, to whom William dedicated his work and of whose court William was probably a member.
== The ''Gesta Roberti Wiscardi'' == William's poem ''Gesta Roberti Wiscardi'' was probably composed sometime between 1097 and 1099,{{efn|Brown suggests it was completed in {{circa}}1090.{{sfn|Brown|2011|p=165}}}} as he notes the fighting of the crusaders in Anatolia during 1097, but not the fall of Jerusalem in 1099.{{sfn|Wolf|1995|p=123}} The poem was dedicated to Duke Roger Borsa son of duke Robert Guiscard, implying that he was a member of the former's court. More than the works of his two fellow chroniclers of the Normans, Amatus of Montecassino and Geoffrey Malaterra, William's work is a tribute to Robert Guiscard, which may indicate that Roger commissioned it to strengthen his claim to his father's titles.{{sfn|Wolf|1995|p=124}} Brown argues that the poem is very generous towards the Byzantines and verges into being a piece of Byzantine history as much as it is a work commissioned by Normans.{{sfn|Brown|2011|p=178}}
==Editions== *{{cite book |last=William of Apulia |translator-last1=Loud |translator-first1=Graham A. |translator-link=Graham Loud |title=The Deeds of Robert Guiscard |via=White Rose Research Online |year=2008 |url=https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/211662/ |access-date=2024-07-26 |oclc=1184547282 |ref=none}} Translated from {{cite book |last=Guilelmus Apuliensis |editor-last=Mathieu |editor-first=Marguerite |title=La geste de Robert Guiscard|publisher=Istituto siciliano di studi bizantini e neoellenic |publication-place=Palermo |year=1961 |oclc=583382918 |language=fr |url=https://archive.org/details/lagestederobertg0000gui |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive |ref=none}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==References== {{Reflist|20em}}
===Source=== *{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Paul |date=2011 |chapter=The Gesta Roberti Wiscardi: A ‘Byzantine’ history? |title=Journal of Medieval History |volume=37 |number=2 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=United Kingdom |pages=162–179}} *{{cite book |last=Wolf |first=Kenneth Baxter |author-link=Kenneth Baxter Wolf |date=1995 |chapter=William of Apulia and the Normans |title=Making History: The Normans and their Historians in Eleventh-Century Italy |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |location=Philadelphia |pages=123–142}}
==External links== * [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/williamapulia.html ''Gesta Roberti Wiscardi'']
{{Authority control}} Category:Italian male poets Category:11th-century Italian historians Category:Writers from Apulia Category:Italian male non-fiction writers Category:Italo-Normans Category:11th-century writers in Latin Category:11th-century Italian poets