Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle
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Subject: History
Edited by: Edited by Graeme Dunphy and Cristian Bratu
The Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle brings together the latest research in chronicle studies from a variety of disciplines and scholarly traditions. Chronicles are the history books written and read in educated circles throughout Europe and the Middle East in the Middle Ages. For the modern reader, they are important as sources for the history they tell, but equally they open windows on the preoccupations and self-perceptions of those who tell it. Interest in chronicles has grown steadily in recent decades, and the foundation of a Medieval Chronicle Society in 1999 is indicative of this. Indeed, in many ways the Encyclopedia has been inspired by the emergence of this Society as a focus of the interdisciplinary chronicle community.
The online version was updated in 2014, 2016 and 2021.
Subscriptions: See Brill.com
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The Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle brings together the latest research in chronicle studies from a variety of disciplines and scholarly traditions. Chronicles are the history books written and read in educated circles throughout Europe and the Middle East in the Middle Ages. For the modern reader, they are important as sources for the history they tell, but equally they open windows on the preoccupations and self-perceptions of those who tell it. Interest in chronicles has grown steadily in recent decades, and the foundation of a Medieval Chronicle Society in 1999 is indicative of this. Indeed, in many ways the Encyclopedia has been inspired by the emergence of this Society as a focus of the interdisciplinary chronicle community.
The online version was updated in 2014, 2016 and 2021.
Subscriptions: See Brill.com
Dąbrówka, Jan
(278 words)
[Jan z Dąbrówki, Joannes Dambrowka] ca 1400/5-72. Poland. Professor of the University of Kraków, diplomat. Author of a Latin commentary on the 13th-century chronicle of Wincenty Kadłubek. Dąbrówka studied in Kraków (BA 1421; MA 1427), where he remained as professor, going through all the stages of university career (doctorate in canon law ca 1440, in theology 1453-58; nine times rector, once vice-chancellor). True to the stream of theological thinking predominant in Kraków, Dąbrówka also wrote scholastic commentaries on Aquinas and Peter of Tharantasia, and sermons. He lef…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dacher, Gebhard
(457 words)
ca 1425-71. Southern Germany. Town councillor in Konstanz. Dacher, who is first recorded in 1458, received citizenship of Konstanz in 1461 and represented the fishermen's guild in the council from 1465. He probably died late in 1471. A social climber who frequently expressed pride in the coat of arms which had been granted to him, he established a scriptorium in Konstanz and made slightly emended copies of the chronicle of Jakob Twinger von Königshofen and the
Konzilschronik of Ulrich Richental.Dacher's main work is the vernacular
Konstanzer Stadtchronik, which runs to March 1470…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dado of Verdun
(159 words)
9th century. Northern France. Bishop of Verdun 880-923. Wrote his
Historia sui temporis in 893, as stated in a fragment of a now lost larger work, following the Viking destruction of his cathedral and its books. His short inventory of acquisitions during his own time and that of his predecessors Hatto (847-70) and Berard (870-9) is an attempt to guarantee the legitimacy of half a century's donations to the church. The fragment, inserted into the
Gesta episcoporum Virdunensium of Bertarius of Verdun, which is dedicated to Dado, is cited in R. de Wassebourg's
Antiquitez de la Gaule Belgique (…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dae cronika fan Hollandt
(151 words)
(The Chronicle of Holland) ca 1464. Low Countries. This anonymous prose chronicle in a mixture of Dutch and Frisian was probably written by a regular canon of the Augustinian monastery of Thabor, near Sneek, in Frisia. Based on the
Coronijck van Hollant (after ca 1405), it briefly notes the history of the Counts of Holland, from Dirk I (10th century) to Philip the Good (d. 1467).
Dae cronika fan Hollandt survives only in one manuscript: Leeuwarden, Tresoar, Von Richthofen no 5, fol. 182r-184r, ca 1530, in the context of the
Jus municipale Frisonum. There is no evidence of its reception…
Date:
2021-04-15
D'Alessio, Nicoletto
(374 words)
ca 1320 - 1393. Italy. Notary and historian, author of a narrative of the border war of 1372-73 between Padua and Venice. Born in Koper in Slovenia around 1320, Nicoletto d'Alessio was educated in arts and letters at the University of Padua before entering service in the Venetian chancery. His participation in the uprising of his native city against Venice in 1348 lead to his arrest, imprisonment, and eventual exile. After 1362 he spent his career as a notary and later chancellor of the court of the Carrara dynasty in Padua.For his account of the Venice-Padua war, probably put in fin…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dalimil
(1,016 words)
[Staročeská kronika tak řečeného Dalimila (The Old Czech Chronicle of the so-called Dalimil)] ca 1310/14. Bohemia. Czech national chronicle, probably from Prague, the first vernacular chronicle in the Czech Lands, written in Old Czech verse by an unknown, cultivated, patriotically-minded writer, close to the Czech nobility. During the 16th and 17th-century the chronicle was erroneously attributed to the fictitious canon of Stará Boleslav, Dalimil of Mezeříčí. Scholarly attempts to discover the real author have been unsuccessful.In nearly 4500 lines arranged in 103 chap…
Date:
2021-11-09
Dalmau de Mur
(296 words)
15th century. Catalonia (Iberia). Bishop of Zaragoza and Catalan-Aragonese chancellor. Probable author of three chronicles on the lives of Ferran I, Joan I and Martí I. At any rate, the three works, which are transmitted together in two codices, had a single author who must have been linked to the royal chancellery. They were written ca 1418-24 in Catalan.The
Crònica de Joan I [or
Crònica del regnat de Joan I] is a history of the reign of the Catalan-Aragonese King Joan/John I (1387-1396), son of Pere III "the Ceremonious".The
Crònica de Martí I [or
Crònica del regnat de Martí I] covers his …
Date:
2021-04-15
Dandolo, Andrea
(666 words)
1306-54. Italy. Doge of Venice, compiler of one of the most important histories of the town. Born of a noble Venetian family, Andrea Dandolo was a man of vast legal and historical erudition, a patron of the arts, and an advocate of the new culture in State administration that today we call "prehumanistic". His
cursus honorum in Venetian public life was precocious, leading him to the dignity of doge in 1343, a rank he held until his death 11 years later. His administration was closely linked to his cultural education, and was essentially based on the…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dandolo, Enrico
(362 words)
14th century. Italy. He was born in Venice early in the century, into the powerful Dandolo family, perhaps a kinsman of the doge Andrea Dandolo, but otherwise little is known of his life. His major work is
Cronica veneta dall'origine della città al 1373 (Chronicle of Venice from its origin to 1373).The earlier part of the
Chronica borrows heavily from other historians, whereas the latter parts consciously depart from the medieval annalist tradition. The section 1350-73 is original and detailed, valuable for its attention to economic factors, but col…
Date:
2021-04-15
Daniel's dream
(1,509 words)
The need to structure history clearly in order to find larger patterns in the mass of detail has given rise to many historiographical schemata. After the principle of the
sex aetates mundi (see Six Ages of the World), the most popular pattern for structuring Biblical and classical history in medieval chronicles is the construction of a series of empires modelled on the
Somnium Danielis, Daniel's dream in the seventh chapter of the Old Testament Book of Daniel. Sometimes this is referred to in the plural,
Somnia Danielis, for the prophet had four dreams, and at least one other - t…
Date:
2021-04-15
Danske Rimkrønike
(289 words)
(Danish Rhyme Chronicle) 15th century (second half). Denmark. In more than 5000 rhymed verses the story of Denmark is told as royal biographies, or rather "autobiographies", as the subjects present themselves and their own deeds in the first person. No less than 115 Danish kings from Dan to Christian I (1448-81) step forward to tell of their successes, shortcomings and even their own death. The monologues are of varying length, running from just a few lines to several pages. The brethren in Sorø (on Sealand) are mentioned in the prologue as composers of the Chronicle, and in one version a Niel…
Date:
2021-04-15
Danziger Chronik vom Bunde
(249 words)
15th century. Prussia. Chronicle of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk), covering the years 1439-66. This chronicle deals with the formation of the Prussian confederation under the leadership of Danzig and the subsequent conflict with the Teutonic Order. The text is written from the point of view of the city, and is therefore not neutral, and probably not always entirely reliable. Reconstructing the exact text is difficult, as the (presumed) manuscripts from the 15th century have all been lost, and we are therefore reliant on evidence from the incorporation of the chronicl…
Date:
2021-04-15
Danziger Ordenschronik
(160 words)
15th century. Prussia. Lost but reconstructable chronicle in High German. The
Preußische Chronik of Stenzel Bornbach (1530-97) states that some of its source material stems from a work written by one Heinrich Kaper, and a
Danziger Ordenchronik (chronicle of the Teutonic Order's activities in Gdańsk) was therefore attributed to Kaper. This chronicle supposedly covered the time period from 1190-1439, and focused on the history of Prussia under the Teutonic Knights. It is said to have been a well-known compilation in the 16th century, and would have been the oldest existing Pru…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dardel, Jean
(275 words)
d. 1384. France, Egypt etc. Friar Minor of the French Franciscan order, adviser and confessor to King Leo V of Armenia, and chronicler of Armenia. Dardel was born in Estampes at an unknown date and became a Franciscan towards the mid-14th century. In 1375, he joined other pilgrims on the way to Jerusalem and Mount Sinai. In Cairo, he met Leo, who had been captured by the Emir of Aleppo, and soon became his friend, advisor, confessor, secretary and ambassador. Leo sent him to various European courts to intercede for his liberty and was eventually freed thanks to the support of John I of Castile.…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dati, Agostino
(675 words)
[Augustinus Datus, Dathus]1420-April 8, 1478. Italy. Agostino Dati was born into a bourgeois family from Siena in 1420. The exact date of his birth is not recorded but we know that he was baptized on February 18. In Siena, Dati studied under the guidance of Francesco Filelfo and soon became noted for his knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and the Holy Scriptures. He was first invited to Urbino by the local duke, Oddo Antonio da Montefeltro, to teach there and then to Rome by Pope Nicholas V to serve as
magister pontificiarum epistolarum. However, Dati decided to return to his birthplac…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dati, Gregorio
(376 words)
[Goro] 1362-1435. Italy. Florentine patrician, merchant, historian. Author of two historical works,
Libro segreto and
Istoria di Firenze, both in Tuscan Italian. Following his father's métier, Dati became a
setaiolo grosso (entrepreneur in the silk business). His economic wellbeing mostly derived from his four wives' dowries. His political career led him to hold various important offices and after 1430 he appeared in the informal meetings of councillors where his ideas evidently spread.The
Libro segreto (secret Book), written between 1384 and 1428, is compiled from n…
Date:
2021-04-15
David ben Samuel of Estelle
(331 words)
[David Kochabi] d. ca 1340. France. Jewish scholar from Estelle (Étoile-sur-Rhône, Dauphiné); author of an overview of rabbinical scholarship as an introduction to his
Qiryat Sefer (Borough of the Book), written in Provence. The
Qiryat Sefer consists of three parts on God, the preservation of body and soul, and rules for social relationships. In its introduction, David includes a short history of rabbinical scholarship (
Seder ha-Qabbalah, order of tradition).Beginning with the Geonim, major scholars of the academies in Sura and Pumbedita from the 7th to the end of the 11th century, …
Date:
2021-04-15
De expugnatione Lyxbonensi
(371 words)
[Crónica da Conquista de Lisboa] mid-12th century. Portugal. Written by a certain R[aoul], a priest of the Second Crusade who landed in Lisbon in 1147, this Latin text is regarded as one of the most important accounts of a medieval siege, with details on military warfare and psychological insights into the Islamic, Christian and Crusader worlds.Having participated actively, either in the military actions during the four month siege of Lisbon, or in the diplomatic dealings between Muslims and Christians, before, during and after the siege, Raoul gives vivid details on its ambianc…
Date:
2021-04-15
De expugnatione Scalabis
(172 words)
(On the conquest of Santarém) 1147. Portugal. A two-page account of the capture of Santarém in 1147, told in the first person by King Afonso I (d. 1185). Although it only survives in a late 12th-century manuscript from the
scriptorium of Alcobaça entitled
Quomodo Sit Capta Sanctaren ciuitas a rege Alfonso comitis Henrico filio (Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, Fundo Alcobacense 415), the original text was written in Coimbra shortly after the event, very likely in the cathedral. Its unusual format, with the description of the event in the voice of the kin…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dei, Benedetto
(548 words)
1418-92. Florence, Italy. Prolific humanist writer and author of vernacular town and national chronicles. Dei is possibly best known for his assiduous activity as a writer of news letters to the princely courts of Milan, Mantua (Mantova) and Ferrara in the 1480s, which made him a free-lance journalist
avant la lettre, but his four historical works, all written in the Florentine dialect of Italian, are equally important. After having travelled extensively on Florentine merchant galleys in the Mediterranean and to Northern Europe, he returned to …
Date:
2021-04-15
Deichsler, Heinrich
(226 words)
1430-1506/7. Germany. Born and resident in Nuremberg, the wealthy and educated
pierpreu (brewer) and "guardian of the poor", whose daughter was married to the town clerk, collected a large amount of historical material from ca 1463/4 onwards, inspired by his humanistic leanings and interest in the history of his home town. After gathering information
auß vil alten puchern (from many old books) he began writing his chronicle in 1469/70, a wide-ranging compilation of texts covering the time between 730 and 17th November 1506. He used a multitude of sources of both local and m…
Date:
2021-04-15
Delapré Chronicle
(231 words)
ca 1237. England. Incomplete Anglo-Norman prose chronicle, a possible source for the Latin
Vita et Passio Sancti Waldevi, which traces the earls of Huntingdon from Siward, Earl of Northumbria (d. 1055) and recounts events involving the Cluniac nunnery of Delapré (or St. Mary de la Pré), Northampton, of which these earls were patrons. It was probably produced by Delapré Abbey to help secure lands for King Alexander II of Scotland in 1237, a claim connected to the nunnery's own dispute over lands. The lively narrative dealing with Siward contains many Scandinavi…
Date:
2021-04-15
Del Caccia, Giovanni di Matteo
(302 words)
1265/70-c. 1348. Italy. Author of a Dominican order chronicle. Del Caccia was born in Orvieto around 1265-1270. He entered the Dominican Order and, after studying in Pistoia and spending a period of time in the Dominican monastery in Tivoli, he returned to his hometown in 1311. He remained in Orvieto for the rest of his life and died around 1348.His most important work is the
Chronica conventus Urbevetani, written between 1346 and 1348. The only extant manuscript is held in Rome, Archivio Generalizio dell’Ordine Dominicano, AGOP XIV, 28. The chronicle is divid…
Date:
2021-04-15
Delfino, Gentile
(443 words)
15th century. Italy. The so-called
Diarium Romanum, attributed to Gentile Delfino, is a chronicle of various events that occurred in Rome and Italy between the second half of the 14th century and the early 15th century. The text covers different events, with no apparent order: news on major Roman families (Caetani, Colonna, Orsini, Savelli, etc.) and on the popes, on the coronation of Francesco Petrarca in Campidoglio (1341), information on the construction of the staircase leading to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli (…
Date:
2021-04-15
Denscke Kroneke
(281 words)
(Danish Chronicle) late 15th century. Northern Germany. This substantial prose chronicle in Low German is an anonymous translation of the
Compendium Saxonis (a late Medieval Latin epitome of Saxo Grammaticus'
Gesta Danorum), with an update to about 1350 from the
Chronica Jutensis and an original brief expansion up to Christian I (1448-81). It charts Danish history from its beginnings until the death of the Danish king Christian I in the year 1481. It first follows Saxo, highlighting persons and events from the mythical and historical times of Danish history like the legendary king Dan, …
Date:
2021-04-15
De origine gentis Swevorum
(226 words)
ca 1250. Germany. The
Origo is a very short anonymous account in Latin of the origins of the Swevs in the Nordschwabengau in Saxony, which was written about the mid-13th century, the estimated date of the first manuscript (Vatican, BAV, Codex Palatinus 1357). The tale is strongly influenced by the version of the
Saxon Origo to be found in Rudolf of Fulda's
Translatio Sancti Alexandri, in Widukind of Corvey and in the
Annales Quedlinburgenses as well as in the
Lombard Origo of Paul the Deacon. From these the author borrows the conflicts of his heroes with Franks and Thuringians and their vi…
Date:
2021-04-15
De origine Taboritarum et de morte Wenceslai IV regis Bohemiae
(178 words)
15th century. Bohemia. An anonymous eyewitness report in Latin, composed between 9 March 1422 and 25 June 1424, probably by a clergyman, perhaps a monk, of Czech nationality. It contains a detailed description of the events of the first eight weeks of the Hussite revolution, from the outbreak of the rebellions in the New Town of Prague on 30 July 1419 to the burial of Václav IV in the Zbraslav abbey. In four manuscript pages, the author expressed his aversion to the Hussites, and even more to the courtiers of Václav. Sole manuscript: Basel, Öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität, A II 34). Mar…
Date:
2021-04-15
De ortu principum Thuringiae
(323 words)
[Historia brevis principum Thuringie] ca 1180 or 1234-54. Germany. Brief Latin prose chronicle written by an unknown monastic author relating, in concentrated form, the history of the Ludowinger dynasty, landgraves of Thuringia from 1131, from its rise (second half of the 11th century) until its departure from the historical stage (1247).Two views hold sway within current research. The first asserts that the text was composed around 1180 by a monk of the ReinhardsbrunnBenedictine monastery, being the family monastery of the Ludowinger. The chronicle might have serve…
Date:
2021-04-15
De primo Saxonum adventu
(277 words)
[Libellus de regibus Saxonici] 12th century. England. A series of histories of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, beginning with the arrival in Britain of the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes, probably compiled at Durham Cathedral and once attributed to Symeon of Durham. The chronicler attempted to clarify the succession of rulers of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the length of their reigns, to write what Offler describes as a "little Handbook of Chronology" with such added details as the fact that Ceolwulf, the 8th-century Northumbian king and later monk at Lindisfarne, was the first to let the m…
Date:
2021-04-15
De Ritiis, Alessandro
(576 words)
1434-97/8. Italy. Franciscan born in Collebrincioni, near L'Aquila in central Italy, author of a
Chronica civitatis Aquilae (Chronicle of the city of L'Aquila) and of a
Chronica Ordinis (Chronicle of the [Franciscan] Order). He entered the Order in 1446, and in 1450 he received the ordination as Friar of the Regular Observance. From 1469 he was more than once Guardian of the monastery of St. Bernardine of Siena, one of the most important religious communities in L'Aquila. In 1479-80, he was vicar of the Observant province of Abruzzo. Meanwhile he acted as mediator in the relations…
Date:
2021-04-15
Desclot, Bernat
(302 words)
late 13th century. Catalonia (Iberia). Possibly to be identified with Bernat Escrivà, who fulfilled various administrative roles, including treasurer, in the royal court of Aragon and died in 1289. Author of the Catalan-language
Llibre del rei En Pere, one of the four great chronicles of medieval Catalan literature. The work, of some literary merit, was written in 1280-6 and then probably revised 1286-8. The revision, which gives ever greater focus to the reign of Pere III (1276-85), was left unfinished. It was probably written to influence Alfons III (1285-91).The first part provi…
Date:
2021-04-15
Descoll, Bernat
(590 words)
14th century. Catalonia (Iberia). Administrator and chronicler. His family, from Badalona, advanced through a long association with the kings of Aragon, his father rising to the rank of vice-admiral. Bernat spent 60 years in the Crown's service, with a special association with the administration of newly-conquered Sardinia where he was already lieutenant of the Mestre Racional in 1336 from 1339. From 1348 he was a scribe in the royal chancery at Barcelona and a close confidant of Pere IV of Aragon (1336-87), who sent him on many missions. From ca 1372 his administrative …
Date:
2021-04-15
Descriptio Europae Orientalis
(330 words)
(Description of Eastern Europe) Spring 1308. France. Geographical treatise in Latin, composed by an unknown monk, probably Dominican, maybe of French origin. According to one hypothesis, its author was an archbishop of Bar (Montenegro), Andreas Hungarus. The narrative was written for Charles of Valois, who planned the expedition against Constantinople and tried to enter into an alliance with Serbia, ruled by king Stephen Uroš II Milutin. Sources include the standard geographical and encyclopedic literature, such as
Speculum historiae of Vincent of Beauvais and the
Flos historia…
Date:
2021-04-15
Des Grantz Geanz
(402 words)
(On the great giants) ca 1333-34. England. Anonymous Anglo-Norman verse account of the early settlement of Britain by Albine (Albina) and her sisters that was adapted as a prologue in many
Brut chronicles. An abbreviated version in Anglo-Norman verse was translated into Latin prose and English prose and verse. The earliest surviving version of the Albine narrative, preserved in BL, Cotton Cleopatra ms. D.ix, is an Anglo-Norman verse narrative of 562 lines of rhyming couplets. This version of the tale provided a model for many subsequent retellings, but …
Date:
2021-04-15
Detmar von Lübeck
(325 words)
before 1363 - after 1394. Northern Germany. Franciscan monk and priest. Compiler of a Lübeck universal chronicle in Middle Low German. Detmar entered the Franciscan monastery of St Catherine in Lübeck in 1363, where he was a reading master 1368-80, and is attested until 1394.In 1385, two Lübeck judicial functionaries, Thomas Murkerke and Herman Langhe, engaged him to write a continuation of Johannes Rode's
Stades-Chronik. Detmar exceeded their expectations. In several phases he revised Rode's chronicle for 1350-86, completed it to 1395, then repeatedly rewor…
Date:
2021-04-15
Deutsche Chronik vom livländischen Orden der Schwertbrüder und der Brüder des Deutschen Hauses zu Jerusalem
(412 words)
After 1549. Prussia. Order chronicle in Early Modern (High) German. This text lists each of the Masters of the Sword Brothers and of the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order from 1235 until 1549. Each Master is described in a short paragraph which variously mentions the wars they fought, the castles they built, their dealings with the local church and how long they held office. The author has not been identified. On the basis of textual evidence it is likely that he was a cleric. While he comments approv…
Date:
2021-04-15
Devastatio Constantinopolitana
(218 words)
(The Devastation of Constantinople) 13th century. France/Italy. Brief (five manuscript pages) but detailed Latin eyewitness account of the Fourth Crusade, covering the period from the preaching of Peter Capuano in France in 1198 (misdated in the text as 1202) to the division of the spoils of Constantinople in the spring of 1204. Probably composed from personal notes, the
Devastatio is outstanding for its wealth of factual data and for criticizing the Fourth Crusade as a series of broken promises by the rich and powerful, who betrayed the poor of Christ…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dexippus, Publius Herennius
(259 words)
ca 200-75. Greece. Born in Athens, Dexippus was an important politician in his home city, ultimately an eponymous archon. In ad 267 he led the Athenian resistance against the invading Heruli. He wrote a chronicle of universal history (Χρονικὴ ἱστορία) in twelve books, which began with mythical times and continued until ad 269/70. The surviving fragments are transmitted in Eunapius of Sardis, the
Historia Augusta, Georgios Synkellos, Stephanos of Byzantium, the
Suda, the
Excerpta Eusebiana and the
Etymologicum Magnum. The chronological framework was based on Olympiads, and for th…
Date:
2021-04-15
Dexter, Nummius Aemilianus
(218 words)
4th century. Hispania (Spain). A son of Pacianus, bishop of Barcelona, Dexter was Proconsul of Asia from 379 to 387 and
Praefectus
Praetorio Italiae in 395, under Emperor Theodosius the Great. In 392 Jerome dedicated to him
De viris illustribus, after Dexter had suggested he write biographies of Christian authors following the model of Suetonius. Though Jerome only ever named Pacianus' son by his cognomen, scholarship has identified him as the proconsul Nummius Aemilianus Dexter on the basis of other details in Jerome's texts, Roman officials listings and epigraphy.According to
De vi…
Date:
2021-04-15