The poem on the war between Milan and Como (Liber Cumanus) and Landulph Iunior’s Historia Mediolanensis refer to the same events and, despite having opposite political orientations, employ similar arguments. Both works seem to come from the same cultural milieu, namely the learned secular Italic clergy. Both seem to have been designed for strategic use in the context of Lombard diplomacy in the first half of the 12th century. The essay concludes with the hypothesis that the flourishing city historiography of the 13th and 14th centuries could have relied on many other examples of 12th century local epics that have not transmitted to posterity.