Amatus of Montecassino was the earliest historian of the Norman conquest of southern Italy and Sicily. His History of the Normans, written c.1080, includes the sieges of Bari and Salerno, the conquest of Sicily, Robert Guiscard's brigand's life, as well as tales of miracles and prophecies. It is also a text of great value for study of the Gregorian Reform and of the abbey of Montecassino, one of the most important cultural and religious centres of eleventh-century Christendom. This book provides a vivid translation of this intriguing contemporary history; while the introduction and extensive...