This is a four part message
PART 1
The only book authored by Gervase of Tilbury that survived to the present time is “Otia Imperialia” [Recreation for an Emperor]. It was written in Latin and the complete translation in English was done only in 2002 when it was published by Oxford University Press. You can see below the book for sale on Amazon, which also offers a free sample, including the index.
https://www.amazon.com/Gervaise-Tilbury-Imperialia-Recreation-Medieval/dp/0198202881The book is expensive, but I managed to find a used copy on eBay for a good price. I bought it in the hope that it may contain clues about the identity of Gervase of Tilbury. As I said, in my opinion Gervase of Tilbury was the Norman count of Ragusa [Dubrovnik], about which we only know that he was named Gervase, he ruled Ragusa from 1186 to 1190 and he had a son named Martinussio, who founded a noble family in Ragusa wit the sam ename. Of course I didn’t read the whole book. I only read the introduction and the pages where names of people and places from Gervase’s time are mentioned.
Below are some fragments from the introduction of the book, written by the editors/translators.----------------
Gervase of Tilbury pursued an international career as an administrator and jurist in the quarter-centuries either side of 1200.[...] As is often the case with medieval authors, most of what we know about Gervase's life comes from casual references in his own writings, though modern scholarship has been able to supplement this information with some documentary evidence for his career.[...]
He presumably came from Tilbury in Essex, though the only evidence for this is his name. We know nothing of his family except that he was related to Patrick, earl of Salisbury, and so belonged to the Anglo-Norman elite. He enjoyed a close friendship with the earl's son Philip, based on a long comradeship in the schools and at the court of Henry II. His acquaintance with a number of insignicant places in England may date from his childhood, or from the time he spent at the English court (though the latter was more often than not in France). Gervase's date of birth is not known. [...] it would seem probable that he was born in the 1150s or the early 1160s, though a later date has been suggested.[...] we know that he studied canon law at Bologna, where he acquired the title of magister and taught law for a time. He mentions as one of his pupils John Pignatelli, subsequently archdeacon of Naples, where Gervase visited him in 1190.[...] We have already noted that Gervase was at Venice in 1177, and this may well have fallen within his period of study and teaching in northern Italy.
[...]
we know that like many other contemporary literati he [Gervase] spent some time at the court of Henry II, a favourable environment for intellectuals and men of letters. He had a particularly close relationship with the Young King, Henry (III) (d. June 1183), for whom he composed a [book named] “Liber facetiarum”. Gervase mentions Ralph Niger as having been among his companions at the Young Henry's court.
[...]
we know that he was in the service of the king of Sicily at the end of the 1180s. Gervase was of sufficient standing to receive from William II the gift of a villa at Nola [near Naples, Italy], to enable him to escape from the stifling heat of Palermo in the summer. He took his friend Philip of Salisbury there, he tells us, in June of the year in which Acre was besieged. Acre was under siege in the Third Crusade from August 1189 to July 1191; since Philip most probably arrived with the English crusading army, the year is likely to have been 1190, though 1189 is also possible.
Gervase of Tilbury: Otia Imperialia; translation by S. E. Banks and J. W. Binns, published by Oxford University Press, 2002
(Introduction, pages xxv-xxvi)
-------------------
Now some facts from the book itself.
1) Gervase personally knew Ralph Niger.He wrote at page 187 of Otia Imperialia the following text:
“And so the learned man of our time, Master Ralph Niger, a fellow courtier of mine in the service of my lord the Young King, wrote [...]”.[/b] According to Wikipedia, the word “courtier” means “a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty”.
------------------
Ralph Niger, Latin “Radulphus Niger” or “Radulfus Niger”, anglicized Ralph the Black (c. 1140 – c. 1217), was an Anglo-French theologian and one of the English chroniclers. He was from Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, and became Archdeacon of Gloucester.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Niger------------------
It is interesting to note that Bury St. Edmunds, the town where Ralph Niger was born, is close (30 km) to Tilbury Juxta Clare, where in my opinion Gervase of Tilbury was born.
2) Gervase personally knew Ralph of Coggeshall.At the page xxvii in the introduction of the book it is written:
we know that at some point he was in the service of William of the White Hands, archbishop of Rheims from 1176 until his death in 1202. Ralph of Coggeshall relates [in the book Chronicon Anglicanum] a story which he claims to have heard from Gervase himself.------------------
Ralph of Coggeshall (died after 1227), English chronicler, was at first a monk and afterwards sixth abbot (1207–1218) of Coggeshall Abbey, an Essex foundation of the Cistercian order. He is also known for his chronicles on the Third Crusade and of Gerard of Ridefort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_of_Coggeshall------------------
The town of Coggeshall, where Ralph was born, is also close (22 km) to Tilbury Juxta Clare.
3) Gervase personally knew Philip of Salisbury.He wrote at page 579 of Otia Imperialia the following text:
”I was at Salerno, when I received an unexpected but welcome visitor: my true affection for him, strenghtened both by our kinship and by our long comradeship in the schools and at the court of my lord elder King Henry of England [...]. This man was Philip, the son of the late Patrick, noble earl of Salisbury.[...] My friend, though in two minds, by his better judgment allowed himself to be taken to the city of Nola, where I had a villa at that time by order of my lord the renowned King William of Sicily, to allow me to escape from the bustle and heat of Palermo in the summer.”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick,_1st_Earl_of_Salisburyhttps://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLISH%20NOBILITY%20MEDIEVAL1.htm#_Toc57456189https://www.geni.com/people/Patrick-1st-Earl-of-Salisbury/6000000013453705955https://ancestors.familysearch.org/9ZCC-YZY/patrick-of-salisbury-1122-1168So, Gervase had family ties (kinship) to Philip of Salisbury, but it is not known on which side, paternal (Patrick of Salisbury) or maternal (Ela Talvas). The town of Salisbury is in the county of Wiltshire, this is why it is presumed that a part of Gervase’s family was from Wiltshire. Some genealogical sites, like FamilySearch, Geni or Geneanet, assume that the real name of Patrick de Salisbury was d’Evreux, based on the fact that his great-grandfather was named “Walterus le Ewrus, comes de Rosmar”, and Ewrus could be an altered spelling of Evreux. Other sites, like WikiTree, Medieval Lands or Wikipedia, do not accept this assumption (explanation below).
-----------------
According to the Book of Lacock, he [Edward de Salisbury] was the son of Walter le Ewrus, Earl of Rosmar, a fictitious person, and brother of Gerold, Earl of Rosmar, born in Normandy before the Conquest [...]. The nickname “le Ewrus” (= l’heureux, or the fortunate) was converted into “de Evreux” by later writers, with the result that the family has been given the name of Devereux and has been tacked on to the Norman Counts of Evreux [...]. For the exposure of this mistake see Herald and Genealogist, vol. iv, p. 149. “Rosmar” is an error for Roumare (Normandy), which was not a comté [...]
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Salisbury-1615------------------
4) Gervase could have visited Poland and Russia. This is interesting, taking into account the fact that the I-FGC22052 haplogroup (a branch of I-FGC22045) is in my opinion originary from Krakow (today in southern Poland), where one of the Ragusan [Dubrovnik] noble families owned the saltworks. The documented owner, Jan (Giovanni) Junta Bona, lived in the 15th century, but we don’t know the century when the Ragusans bought the saltworks. Maybe it was in Gervase’s time.
----------------
Gervase himself had traveled widely, and at times supplements his sources with additional information drawn from his personal knowledge. For instance, his account of Poland and Russia suggests that he had either visited the region himself, or had talked to Polish travelers. And although he reproduces traditional references to the “island” of Scandinavia, he also displays non-traditional knowledge in his description of Norway as lying beyond Denmark, across the sea from Russia.
Gervase of Tilbury: Otia Imperialia, published by Oxford University Press, 2002
(Introduction, page xlv)
------------------
I made screenshots of a few pages from the book that contain the geographical information about the Balkans and Eastern Europe provided by Gervase. They are in the archive linked below. Google Drive scans all uploaded files, so there is no security risk in downloading and opening the archive or the files.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ND0cZX4gCsn4ZP1hIPnWNP3JibZEEY3G/view?usp=sharing
Тема: Haplogroup I-FGC22045, a Balkan branch of I-P109 (Прочитано 46838 раз)