Florence of Worcester (Latin:Florentius Wigorniensis;^[1] died 1118) was a monk ofWorcester, who played some part in the production of theChronicon ex chronicis, a Latinworld chronicle which begins with the creation and ends in 1140.^[2] The nature and extent of his contributions remain unclear.

His death is recorded in 1118 in theChronicon:

On 7 July, the Worcester monk Florence died. His meticulous learning and scholarly labours have made this chronicle of chronicles outstanding among all others.

His body is covered by earth, his soul searches the skies.

There in the sight of God may he reign among the saints for ever. Amen.^[3]

Earlier generations of scholars took this to mean that Florence was the principal author of the chronicle for the entries before 1118, an assumption which led to its being commonly referred to as the 'Chronicle of Florence (of Worcester)'.^[2][4][5]

However, it is now recognised that the work as it survives today was authored byJohn, a fellow monk at Worcester,^[2] whose signature is found in two later entries (1128 and 1138). He was found working on it at the behest ofWulfstan, bishop of Worcester (d. 1095), when the Anglo-Norman chroniclerOrderic Vitalis visited Worcester sometime in the early twelfth century.^[4]

Historians have formulated two main arguments against the ascription to Florence and in favour of that to John. First, there is no stylistic break in theChronicon after Florence's death, which gives the impression that a single author was responsible for the entire work.^[4][6] Second, certain sections before 1118 have been shown to make use ofEadmer'sHistoria novorum, which was not completed before 1121 to 1124.^[6][7]

That said, the debt to Florence acknowledged by John in the entry for 1118 is considerable. One possibility if ultimately unverifiable is that Florence's contribution lay in assembling the source materials which John consulted for the entries covering the period between the ninth and eleventh century.^[2][4] A precedent for such a task commissioned by Bishop Wulfstan is the compilation and production of acartulary, calledHemming's Cartulary, by the monkHemming. Since nearly half a century lies between Wulfstan's death (1095) and John's final entry (1140), historianSimon Keynes has offered the tentative suggestion that Florence may have been the monk first commissioned by Wulfstan to compile material for a world chronicle and that John continued the task.^[2] According to the historianNick Higham,William of Malmesbury and John of Worcester probably both followed a lost text of Florence.^[8]

The names of Hemming, Florence and John are found together in theDurhamLiber Vitae, a confraternity book listing the names of benefactors of and visitors to the episcopal church of Durham (and its predecessor houses). The relevant section is a list of monks of St Mary's (the cathedral chapter) at Worcester, which was entered during the time whenSamson was bishop of Worcester (1096–1112).^[2]>

Florence is also the first monk to be commemorated in a so-calledtitulus for Worcester, preserved on a mortuary roll belonging toVitalis (d. 1122), abbot of Savigny.^[2]

• Darlington, Reginald, ed. (1928).The Vita Wulfstani of William of Malmesbury. London, UK: Royal Historical Society.OCLC 1034977.
• Gransden, Antonia (1974).Historical Writing in England c.550-c.1307. London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul.ISBN 978-0-7100-7476-8.
• Gransden, Antonia (1992).Legends, traditions and history in medieval England. London, et al.: Hambledon.
• Higham, Nick (2001). "Edward the Elder's Reputation: An Introduction". In Higham, N. J.; Hill, D. H. (eds.).Edward the Elder, 899–924. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 1–11.ISBN 0-415-21497-1.
• Hodgkin, Thomas (1906). "The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Norman Conquest". In William Hunt and Reginald L. Poole (ed.).The Political History of England. Vol. 1. London: Longmans.
• Keynes, Simon (2014). "Florence". In Lapidge, Michael; Blair, John; Keynes, Simon; Scragg, Donald (eds.).The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England (2nd ed.). Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell. pp. 193–194.ISBN 978-0-470-65632-7.
• McGurk, Patrick, ed. (1998).The Chronicle of John of Worcester (in Latin and English). Vol. III. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-820702-3.
• Thorpe, Benjamin, ed. (1849),Florentii Wigorniensis Monachi Chronicon ex Chronicis... [The Monk Florence of Worcester's Chronicle from Chronicles...](PDF), Vol. II (in Latin), London: English Historical Society.

• 1118 deaths
• English Christian monks
• Writers from Worcester, England
• 12th-century English historians
• 11th-century English historians
• 11th-century writers in Latin
• 12th-century writers in Latin

• Articles containing Latin-language text
• CS1 Latin-language sources (la)
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2019
• Year of birth unknown