Is an anonymous chronicle, probably written around 990, which tells stories concerning above all the laity of the principalities of Benevento and Salerno. It constitutes a very important source for the study of the history of the principalities of Langobardia Minor from the 8th to the 10th century. The Chronicon has come down to us in the form of an anonymous compilation to attribute to Erchemperto or to Radoaldo of Salerno, abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Salerno. The anonymous author shows in several points that he is not an improvised chronicler, declaring that he has set about writing through the preparatory frequentation of the previous historical literature. He also appears to be a good connoisseur of the public and private archives of the city and the region. The sources used are many, including the Historia Langobardorum Beneventanorum by Erchemperto, but the author does not exclude, in many cases, the use of oral sources.

It begins with the story, taken from the Liber Pontificalis, of the attempts to take over Rome carried out by the Lombards starting from the 8th century and the consequent end of the Lombard Kingdom caused by the intervention of Charlemagne in defense of the Pope. The narrative ends abruptly in 974 while the prince of Capua and Benevento with Pandolfo Testadiferro is about to besiege Salerno, where those who had overthrown the prince of Salerno Gisulfo were barricaded. The narrative of the conspiracy against Gisulfo is particularly vivid and detailed and suggests that the chronicler was contemporary with this episode. In general, the author appears well informed about the events of his time and about those that concern the city in particular with his characters. It is therefore believed that it must have been a citizen of Salerno, born approximately in the second quarter of the 10th century. The chronicler also shows a series of acquaintances that make him think of the figure of a religious.

The "Chronicon Salernitanum", unlike the other chronicles of the time, is characterized by a certain taste for narration and a wealth of details and news, almost always controlled, from which it was possible to draw a lot of valuable information on daily life and mentality. of his time. These characteristics have given the work a long fortune, despite a certain indulgence of its author which leads him to dwell on prodigious and novelistic traits, and despite the sometimes declared pursuit of building purposes.

The richness of the exhibition is not subject to a rigid and arid chronological scan, even if such a narrative conception is not composed in an orderly and completely organic work. In this regard, however, it should be added that the same author manifests his intention, time permitting, to expand two parts of the work: this is the case of chapter 163, on the Salerno bishop Peter, and of chapter 165, on the translation of the body of San Matteo in the cathedral church of Salerno. It is therefore plausible that the lack of time, in making the author fail in his intentions, may have precluded even a planned revision and an organic reorganization of the entire work.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Chronicon represents a "noteworthy exception" in the scarce Italian annalistic production: compared to the poverty of the other works, "extremely barbaric", the Chronicon Salernitanum "does not lack aspiration for some form of literary dignity" and "the content is good despite the lack of critical spirit that disfigures the work".

The language used is a Latin that cannot be defined as barbaric, despite the many deviations from morphological and syntactic correctness, in part perhaps due to errors in the amanuensis tradition.