Ricerc@Sapienza

The historian, following other historians or inventing, has to present speeches before the most important battles. The epic heritage of historiography compels the historian to respect at least the basic rules of narrative: one of these is the presence of spoken words in order to prepare the narration, to display mo- tivations and so on. Before decisive battles, speeches also have the function of amplifying the events, bringing on stage the generals, presented as epic heroes.

The war in the moonlight of Geoffrey Malaterra · In order to show the Goffredo Malaterra’s rhetorical ability as an auctor, the essay shows the Goffredo’s original con- ception of history as poetry and analyses the overnight war scenes of his prosimetrum De rebus gestis Rogerii Calabriae et Siciliae comitis et Roberti Guiscardi ducis fratris eius. Goffredo’s historiography is close to epic: Goffredo, in fact, not only approaches the archetype of the Virgilian nyctomachia, but also, as a Norman writer, is close to the Chanson de Roland’s literary style.