LITIDPRAND. 1i7"0•prThd. LIIITPRAND, or LIIJZO, (c.922-c.972). An Italian historian, to whom we owe much of our knowl edge of the history of Italy in the tenth century. lie came of a noble Lombard family. llis father was ambassador of King Hugo of Italy to Con stantinople in 927, and died soon after. Liud prand was thereupon educated at the dissolute Court of Hugo, but was early destined for the Church, being ordained deacon in 931. Neverthe less he was, throughout his life, better versed in pagan learning than in Christian lore, and in his works biblical quotations are interwoven with many excerpts from Cicero, Vergil, Horace, and Ovid. After Ilugo's power began to wane, Liud prand turned toward Berengar 11. (q.v.), and obtained a position in the new ruler's chancery. In 949 he went on an embassy to Constantinople, but soon thereafter he had a dispute with Beren gar, and we do not hear of him again until 956, in which year he appeared at the Court of King Otho of Germany. At the request of Bishop Rece mund of Elvin:, he began in 95S his best work, the Antapodosis. In it he attacks Berengar and his Queen, Nilla,but also treats of the Italian his tory in the period 886 to 949. He is not impar tial, but interesting and learned. In 962 Otho
the Great made him Bishop of Cremona, whence he is spoken of as Liudprand of Cremona. Throughout the Germanic invasion of Italy he played an important role, and in 968 he went to Constantinople to seek the hand of a Byzantine princess for the future Otho II., but the Emperor Nicephorus (q.v.) refused the proffered alliance. We have the experiences of this embassy pre served in Liudprand's De Leyatiore. Ile died soon after his return. There is no foundation for the statement so often made that Liudprand also took part in the later successful embassy to Con stantinople, which obtained the hand of Theo phano for Otho II. Besides the two works men tioned above Liudprand also wrote: De Rebus Gestic °Hollis Magni Imperatoris, covering the period from 960 to 964. The best edition of his works is in the .1/cmmenta Germanite Historica (Berlin, 1839), published separately (Berlin, 1877). Consult: KOpke, Dc Vita Liutprandi (Berlin, 1842) ; \Vattenbaeh, Deutschlands Ge srbichtsquellen, vol. i. (6th ed., Berlin, 1893 94) ; Osten-Sacken. "Ails Lindprands Werken," in Geschirktssehrriber der deutsehen Vomeit (2d ed., Leipzig, 1890).