Editing Widukind of Corvey (section)

==Work==
{{main|The Deeds of the Saxons}}
The ''Res gestae Saxonicae'' are significant historical accounts of the times of Otto the Great and Henry the Fowler, modelled on the works of the Roman historian [[Sallust]] and the deuterocanonical [[Books of the Maccabees]]. Widukind wrote as a Saxon, proud of his people and history, beginning his narration not with the [[Roman Empire]] but with a brief synopsis derived from the orally-transmitted history of the Saxons and their struggles with the [[Franks]], with a terseness that makes his work difficult to interpret.

Widukind of Corvey starts with the wars between [[Theuderich I]], King of [[Austrasia]], and the [[Thuringii]], in which the Saxons played a large part. An allusion to the conversion of the Saxons to Christianity under Charlemagne brings him to the early Saxon dukes and details of the reign of Henry the Fowler, whose campaigns are referred to in some detail.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Widukind (historian)|display=Widukind|volume=28|pages=620–621|first=Arthur William|last=Holland}}</ref> He omitted Italian events in tracing the career of Henry, nor does he ever mention a pope, but one of the three surviving manuscripts of his ''Gesta'' was transcribed in [[Duchy of Benevento|Benevento]], the Lombard duchy south of Rome.<ref>[http://www.evellum.com/ductus/demo/engine/ductus/frames/bibliography/lowe_loew1972a.html Evellum] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040526032651/http://www.evellum.com/ductus/demo/engine/ductus/frames/bibliography/lowe_loew1972a.html |date=2004-05-26 }}</ref> The second book opens with the election of Otto the Great as German king, treats of the risings against his authority, again omitting events in Italy, and concludes with the death of his first wife [[Eadgyth|Edith of England]] in 946. In the third book the historian deals with Otto's expedition into France, his troubles with his son [[Liudolf, Duke of Swabia|Liudolf]] and his son-in-law, [[Conrad, Duke of Lorraine]], and the various wars in Germany.<ref name="EB1911"/>

A manuscript of ''Res gestae Saxonicae sive annalium libri tres''  was first published in [[Basel]] in 1532 and is today in the [[British Library]]. There are two other surviving manuscripts. The best edition was published in 1935 by Paul Hirsch and Hans-Eberhard Lohmann in the series ''[[Monumenta Germaniae Historica]]: Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum editi''. A German translation appears in the ''Quellen zur Geschichte der sächsischen Kaiserzeit'' published by Albert Bauer and Reinhold Rau in 1971. An English translation is found in an unprinted doctoral dissertation: Raymond F. Wood, ''The three books of the deeds of the Saxons, by Widukind of Corvey, translated with introduction, notes, and bibliography'' (University of California, Los Angeles, 1949).<ref>Raymund F. Wood, The three books of the Deeds of the Saxons, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 1949, [https://www.proquest.com/docview/301830925 available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses]</ref>

Widukind is also credited with ''vitae'' of St Paul and St Thecla doubtless based on the 2nd century ''[[Acts of Paul and Thecla]]'', but no traces of them now remain.{{sfn|Holland|1911}}