Goffredo Malaterra

Who is Goffredo Malaterra?

Gaufredo Malaterra was an eleventh-century Benedictine monk and historian, possibly of Norman origin. He travelled to the southern Italian peninsula, passing some time in Apulia before entering the monastery of Sant'Agata at Catania, on the isle of Sicily. Malaterra indicates that, prior to his arrival in Catania, he had spent an undefined period away from monastic life, in the worldly service of "Martha".

Malaterra wrote an historical text in Latin, the De Rebus Gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae Comitis et Roberti Guiscardi Ducis fratris eius detailing the eleventh century exploits of the "De Hauteville" family in the southern Italian peninsula, Sicily and the Balkans, with particular attention to the figures of Roger I of Sicily and Robert Guiscard, his brother. It is one of three surviving major Latin historical works that specifically describe the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Sicily, the others being Amatus of Montecassino's Ystoire de li Normant and William of Apulia's Gesta Roberti Wiscardi. Malaterra's work ends at a later date and has a different angle to these two other works. It primarily describes the exploits of Roger I of Sicily, whom he personally knew. Unlike other medieval historians, such as Dudo of Saint-Quentin, Malaterra does not directly identify his sources, and alludes briefly to a number of informants, or relatoribus. These may have included Roger I of Sicily, himself.