TURPIN OF REIMS

Monk, at Saint-Denis (748 or 749), archbishop of Reims (753), famous, according to legend (Chanson de Roland ), as one of the paladins of charlemagne in his supposed crusade into Spain; d. 794. His death, also according to legend, occurred in Spain while he was ministering to Roland at Roncesvalles. Turpin (Tilpinus) participated with 11 other French bishops in a synod held at the Lateran by stephen iii in 769. To him is falsely attributed a Latin chronicle, De vita et gesta Caroli Magni. There also appears under his name, or rather under that of pseudo-Turpin, a Liber s. Jacobi in Santiago de Compostela. The work apparently stems from the mid-12th century. It appeared in many redactions in Old French, Provençal, and Celtic. An abridged or shortened version was made in the 12th century for the proceedings related to the canonization of Charlemagne. Some of the early chapters are also found in the De sanctitate meritorum et gloria miraculorum beati Caroli Magni, which was prepared at the request of Emperor frederick i Barbarossa.

Bibliography: Sources. Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi: Ou, Chronique du Pseudo-Turpin, ed. c. meredith-jones (Paris 1936); The Pseudo-Turpin, ed. h. m. smyser (Cambridge, Mass.1937). Literature. m. manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 v. (Munich 1911–31) 3:487–493. h. leclercq, Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienneet de liturgie, ed. f. cabrol, h. leclercq and h. i. marrou, 15 v. (Paris 1907–53) 14.2:2239–40. a. hÄmel, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. m. buchberger, 10 v. (Freiburg 1930–38)¹ 10:339–340; Speculum 13 (1938) 248–252. r. n. walpole, Philip Mouskés and the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle (Berkeley 1947). p. g. foote, The Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle in Iceland: A Contribution to the Study of the Karlamagnús Saga (London 1959).

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