Global InformationGesta Berengarii imperatoris information
The Gesta Berengarii imperatoris (or "Deeds of the Emperor Berengar") is a Latin epic poem chronicling the career of Berengar of Friuli (d. 924), King of Italy from 887 and Emperor from 915. It follows Berengar's career from its inception (c. 874) until his imperial coronation in Rome in December 915. It is a court panegyric and highly laudatory of its namesake.
The poem is in four books, with a total of 1,090 hexameters. It was composed still during Berengar's lifetime, in the period 915–924. Its author may have been John, bishop of Cremona, who was Berengar's chancellor from 916 (Rosenwein 1996). There are numerous parallels with Waltharius, but it remains unclear which of the two works has priority (Jacobsen 2002, Vollmann 2005). It is preserved in Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, ms. lat. XII, 45 (= ms. 4165), a manuscript of the 11th century.