As early as his sojourn at Dijon, probably at the instance of Abbot Jarento and Archbishop Hugh, he had begun a Latin chronicle of the world's history from the birth of Christ down to his own times (Chronicon Virdunense seu Flaviniacense).
With wide erudition Hugh collected a great mass of materials, and where his facts became too unwieldy he abandoned the annalistic form for full and detailed narrative.