Adélaide VALPERGA

In 1731 Louis-Anselme Boyer de Sainte-Marthe published a history of Vaison cathedral in which he noted a countess named Gilberge (i.e. Gerberge), allegedly married to Bertrand Raimbaud of Nice, exercising comitalauthority in the 11th century (putting this "around the same time" as another event in 1012). Two charters allegedly indicating her existencewere summarised, but these documents have not been sighted since.

Jean Berge included a chapter titled "The unknown Gerberge, first wifeof Bertrand Raimbaud, was a countess of Provence" in his very tendentious book Les erreurs de l'histoire (1952). He concluded that Gerbergemust have been a daughter of Foulques Bertrand, count of Provence in the 1030s/40s, and a sister of count Guillaume Bertrand who died after May 1065 and whose widow Adelais was the (purportedly second) wife of Bertrand Raimbaud. Foulques Bertrand himself could have been only a childin 1012, but Berge ignored the uncertain chronology implied in his source.

Boyer de Sainte-Marthe had stated that one of his two charters mentioned without name the countess who was wife of Bertrand Raimbaud and mother of his two sons, while the other named "Gilberge" as the countess whowas wife of Bertrand Raimbaud. For all we know the name "Gilberge" wasjust a slip, since a confirmation dated 6 September 1126 recited an earlier charter in which Bertrand Raimbaud's wife who was mother of his son Raimbaud named herself Adelais. In other words, we have a plausibleif not conclusive record that Guillaume Bertrand's widow, not his sister, was the countess married to Bertrand Raimbaud.

Berge mistakenly thought the subject had been ignored by historians since 1731 - he overlooked discussions by Francois de Ripert-Monclar in 1907 (accepting Boyer de Sainte-Marthe's version) and by Roger Vallentindu Cheylard in 1910 (casting doubt on it). Unfortunately Szabolcs de Vajay in 1962 mentioned Berge's proposal without questioning its basis, and the probably fictitious Gerberge has popped up in print and in databases repeatedly since then.(Peter Stewart)

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