GODFREY OF VITERBO (c. 1120-c. 1196), chronicler, was probably an Italian by birth, although some authorities assert that he was a Saxon. He evidently passed some of his early life at Viterbo, where also he spent his concluding days, but he was educated at Bamberg, gaining a good knowledge of Latin. About 1140 he became chaplain to the German king, Conrad III.; but the greater part of his life was spent as secretary (notarius) in the service of the emperor Frederick I., who appears to have thoroughly trusted him, and who employed him on many diplomatic errands. Incessantly occupied, he visited Sicily, France and Spain, in addition to many of the German cities, in the emperor’s interests, and was by his side during several of the Italian campaigns. Both before and after Frederick’s death in 1190 he enjoyed the favour of his son, the emperor Henry VI., for whom he wrote his Speculum regum, a work of very little value. Godfrey also wrote Memoria seculorum, or Liber memorialis, a chronicle dedicated to Henry VI., which professes to record the history of the world from the creation until 1185. It is written partly in prose and partly in verse. A revision of this work was drawn up by Godfrey himself as Pantheon, or Universitatis libri qui chronici appellantur. The author borrowed from Otto of Freising, but the earlier part of his chronicle is full of imaginary occurrences. Pantheon was first printed in 1559, and extracts from it are published by L. A. Muratori in the Rerum Italicarum scriptores, tome vii. (Milan, 1725). The only part of Godfrey’s work which is valuable is the Gesta Friderici I., verses relating events in the emperor’s career from 1155 to 1180. Concerned mainly with affairs in Italy, the poem tells of the sieges of Milan, of Frederick’s flight to Pavia in 1167, of the treaty with Pope Alexander III. at Venice, and of other stirring episodes with which the author was intimately acquainted, and many of which he had witnessed. Attached to the Gesta Friderici is the Gesta Heinrici VI., a shorter poem which is often attributed to Godfrey, although W. Wattenbach and other authorities think it was not written by him. The Memoria seculorum was very popular during the middle ages, and has been continued by several writers.
Godfrey’s works are found in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, Band xxii. (Hanover, 1872). The Gesta Friderici I. et Heinrici VI. is published separately with an introduction by G. Waitz (Hanover, 1872). See also H. Ulmann, Gotfried von Viterbo (Göttingen, 1863), and W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band ii. (Berlin, 1894).
(A. W. H.*)
GODHRA, a town of British India, administrative headquarters of the Panch Mahals district of Bombay, and also of the Rewa Kantha political agency; situated 52 m. N.E. of Baroda on the railway from Anand to Ratlam. Pop. (1901) 20,915. It has a trade in timber from the neighbouring forests.
GODIN, JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRÉ (1817-1888), French socialist, was born on the 26th of January 1817 at Esquehéries (Aisne). The son of an artisan, he entered an iron-works at an early age, and at seventeen made a tour of France as journeyman. Returning to Esquehéries in 1837, he started a small factory for the manufacture of castings for heating-stoves. The business increased rapidly, and for the purpose of railway facilities was transferred to Guise in 1846. At the time of Godin’s death in 1888 the annual output was over four millions of francs (£160,000), and in 1908 the employees numbered over 2000 and the output was over £280,000. An ardent disciple of Fourier, he advanced a considerable sum of money towards the disastrous Fourierist experiment of V. P. Considérant (q.v.) in Texas. He profited, however, by its failure, and in 1859 started the familistère or community settlement of Guise on more carefully laid plans. It comprises, in addition to the workshops, three large buildings, four storeys high, capable of housing all the work-people, each family having two or three rooms. Attached to each building is a vast central court, covered with a glass roof, under which the children can play in all weathers. There are also crèches, nurseries, hospital, refreshment rooms and recreation rooms of various kinds, stores for the purchase of groceries, drapery and every necessity, and a large theatre for concerts and dramatic entertainments. In 1880 the whole was turned into a co-operative society, with provision by which it eventually became the property of the workers. In 1871 Godin was elected deputy for Aisne, but retired in 1876 to devote himself to the management of the familistère. In 1882 he was created a knight of the legion of honour.
Godin was the author of Solutions sociales (1871); Les Socialistes et les droits du travail (1874); Mutualité sociale (1880); La République du travail et la réforme parlementaire (1889). See Bernardot, Le Familistère de Guise et son fondateur (Paris, 1887); Fischer, Die Familistère Godin’s (Berlin, 1890); Lestelle, Étude sur le familistère de Guise (Paris, 1904); D. F. P., Le Familistère illustré, résultats de vingt ans d’association, 1880-1900 (Eng. trans., Twenty-eight years of co-partnership at Guise, by A. Williams, 1908).