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
Shabānkāraʾī
(197 words)
[Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Shabānkāraʾī] ca 697-759 ah (1298-1358 ad). Persia. Poet and historian of Kurdish origin, of the Shabānkāra tribe from the province of Fārs. Author of the
Madjmaʿ al-ansāb fi ʾl-tawārīkh.There are different versions of his history dedicated to different high personalities of his lifetime. It was first written in 733 ah (1332-33 ad), and revised in (738, 1337) and again in (743, 1343). The first redaction is lost, but the second and third redactions survive in Istanbul, Yeni Cami, 909 and Paris, BnF, ms. supp. pers. 1278 respectively. The Istanbul manuscript…
Date:
2021-04-15
Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī
(254 words)
d. 858 ah (1454 ad). Persia. Poet and historian, a native of the Muzaffarid capital of Yazd. Author of the
Zafar-nāma [Book of Victory].Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī Yazdī served under several Tīmūrid rulers and princes. He was a favourite of Shāh Rukh, who ruled over Persia and Transoxania (1405-47). During his service to the Tīmūrid prince Mīrzā Sultān Muḥammad he became involved in the 1447 rebellion of the prince, which almost cost him his life. After the death of Shāh Rukh he retired to Yazd.His
Zafar-nāma on the legendary conqueror Tīmūr (known in the west as Tamerlane 1336-1405) is…
Date:
2021-04-15
Sherira Gaon of Pumbedita
(340 words)
[Rav Sherira bar Hanina] ca 900 - ca 1000. Mesopotamia. One of the most famous Jewish scholars,
gaon (head of the academy) of Pumbedita (modern Iraq), who wrote his
Iggeret (Epistle) in 986/87 as a response to the inquiry of Yaqob bar Nissim,
gaon of Qayrawan (North Africa).Sherira explains in detail the development of the
halakhah (Jewish law) through the ages, and lays stress upon the predominance of oral transmission. He emphasizes the redaction of the oral law by Yehudah ha-Nasi, also called Rabbi (died ca 217), into the Mishnah. He describes the nature and composition…
Date:
2021-04-15
Shirley, John
(342 words)
ca 1366-1456. England. London author and scribe, employee of Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. From 1438 Shirley rented four shops from St. Bartholomew's Hospital, which he may have used, Griffiths notes, for a scriptorium and lending library. Shirley translated works from French and Latin and collected copies of contemporary vernacular authors, such as Chaucer and Lydgate. He translated the
Cronycle of the Dethe of James Stewarde or
Dethe of the Kynge of Scotis, on the death of James I of Scotland in 1437, from a now lost Latin original, as the colophon in one manuscript records (BL, ad…
Date:
2021-04-15
Short Chronicle of 1482
(202 words)
[Chronicle of the Scots] ca 1482-1530. Scotland. A brief account of the six ages of the world in Scots English prose, followed by a list of major events in Scottish (and, to some extent, English and Continental) history from the origin of the Scots until 1482. Its most detailed entries concern James III and the Wars of the Roses. It survives only in BL, Royal ms. 17.D.xx, although it has been confused with the
Brevis cronica and thus has been said to appear in manuscripts in which it does not (Edinburgh, NLS, Adv. ms. 19.2.3 & 19.2.4). It was probably written to teach major points about Sc…
Date:
2021-10-28
Short English Metrical Chronicle
(370 words)
[Abridged Metrical Brut] ca 1307. England. Written in Middle English rhyming couplets, the
Chronicle survives in five complete manuscripts (ca 1316 to ca 1432), two 14th-century fragments, and one 16th/17th-century fragment. There is also an Anglo-Norman prose version (Cambridge, UL, Gg.1.1, ca 1307), although the precise relationship of this version to the English is undetermined. Two of the five complete witnesses cover British/English history from Brutus to 1307, whilst the others extend to 1312, 1327 and 1430/31 respectively. They vary in length from 1014 to 2370 lines. Fisher…
Date:
2021-04-15
Short Latin Chronicle of Durham Abbey
(287 words)
ca 1303. England. An anonymous Latin prose chronicle originating in Durham Abbey and thus probably a Benedictine composition. This brief chronicle, preserved in BL, Harley ms. 3860, has three parts. The first is a brief summary of British and English history, from Brutus to the death of Henry III in 1272, with the British section based primarily upon Geoffrey of Monmouth. The second part is a series of genealogies of the royal houses of England and Scotland from William I to Edward I and from Malcolm III to John Balliol, respectively (s.v. Genealogical Chronicles in English and lati…
Date:
2021-04-15
Short Latin Prose Chronicle of the Reign of Edward I
(159 words)
Early 14th century. England. Brief Latin prose chronicle for the years 1271-1306, found in Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 496, fols. 181r-188r. This is the same manuscript as the
Short Latin Verse Chronicle of the Reign of Edward I, though it is written in a different script. The prose chronicle has some similarities to the verse one but covers a shorter period in more detail and, unlike the verse chronicle, includes some world events, tells of the death of the Queen Mother Eleanor in 1290, and reports events of 1296, a year om…
Date:
2021-04-15
Short Latin Verse Chronicle of the Reign of Edward I
(195 words)
Early 14th century. England. Brief chronicle in Latin quatrains (192 lines) for the years 1239-1307, found in Dublin, Trinity College Library, MS 496, fols. 134v-137r. Completed at the beginning of the reign of Edward II, it is one of the few chronicles almost contemporary with the reign of Edward I. One peculiarity is its implication that Edward I married Margaret, sister of Philip IV of France, in France in 1299 instead of at Canterbury, the generally accepted place of the marriage. Colker sees some similarities to the
Short Latin Prose Chronicle of the Reign of Edward I, which is in the…
Date:
2021-04-15
Sibt ibn al-Jawzī
(286 words)
[Shams al-Dīn Abu ʾL-Muzaffar Yūsuf ibn Kizoghlu] ca 582-654 ah (1186-1256 ad). Mesopotamia, Syria. A native of Baghdad, the historian and preacher took his name from his grandfather, the chronicler Ibn al-Jawzī of Baghdad. He died in Damascus.His universal history, the
Mirʾāt al-zamān (Mirror of Time) begins with the creation and ends in 654 ah (1257) the year he died. For the Ayyubid period, and also for the Zengid, he uses sources like Ibn al-Qalānisī. He also relies heavily on his grandfather's work, the
Muntazam, concerning the events in Persia and Iraq as well as the arra…
Date:
2021-04-15
Sicard of Cremona
(207 words)
[Sicardus episcopus Cremonensis] ca 1155-1215. Italy. Bishop, theologian and author of the
Cremonensis Chronica (Chronicles of Cremona) and of a
Summa decretorum (A digest of decrees). He studied canon law at Bologna. In 1183, he was appointed sub deacon and in 1185 bishop of his home town Cremona. In 1183, Pope Lucius III sent him to Germany to prepare the meeting with the emperor Frederick in Verona. His
Chronicon Cremonense runs from Adam to 1212, with a continuation to 1222. Its diverse sources include Bede, Orosius, and, extensively, Giovanni Codagnello's
Gesta Frederici. The par…
Date:
2021-04-15
Siegfried of Ballhausen
(448 words)
d. after 1306/07. Germany. Priest in Ballhausen (near Bad Tennstedt, northwest of Erfurt). Composer of a Latin universal historical compilation in two versions. In older literature he appears as Siegfried von BalnhusenThe original chronicle (A) is known as
Historia universalis and runs until 1304. Shortly after it was revised and continued until 1306 as
Compendium historiarum (B). Both versions are identified by a personal testimonial in the prologue of A as work
Sifridi presbyteri indigni de Balnhusin villa Thuringie. Parts I and II of the three-part chronicle include th…
Date:
2021-04-15
Siegfried von Bacharach
(245 words)
fl. 1475-1505. Germany. Presumably from Bacharach on the Rhine. Tax assessor in Würzburg. Author of a
Würzburger Ratschronik (Chronicle of Würzburg Town Council), which provides the little information we have on the author: Siegfried joined the tax assessment office in 1475, was appointed as its head in 1481 and retired in 1505. It is based on cursory notes on random events between 1407 and the 1470s which happened to be available, with detailed accounts of the weather, harvests, famines, the fluctuation of wine prices and salaries, executions and public building works, as well as …
Date:
2021-04-15
Sigebert of Gembloux
(1,587 words)
ca 1028-1112. Low Countries. Benedictine monk in Gembloux (Brabant, Belgium) and St. Vincent (Metz), probably originating from the Meuse-region in Lotharingia. Sigebert is the author of three Latin historical works
Gesta abbatum Gemblacensium,
Chronica, and
Libellus de viris illustribus and of numerous hagiographical texts of which some display a strong historical character. He is also well known for his liturgical, computistical, polemical and theological texts.Sigebert entered the episcopal abbey of Gembloux during the abbacy of Olbert, who had managed to …
Date:
2021-04-15
Sigoli, Simone
(186 words)
later 14th century. Italy. Author of
Viaggio al Monte Sinai (Journey to Mount Sinai). Sigoli was born into an old Florentine family. He and Leonardo Frescobaldi belonged to a group of thirteen pilgrims who visited the Holy Land in 1384. Their "circuit of Jerusalem" was accompanied by Franciscan friars. After their return to Florence, both Sigoli and Frescobaldi wrote accounts of their journey, valuable because they gave detailed accounts of their expenses and discussed other practical details of daily life. The Crusca Academy, which had been founded in 1583 to preserve the p…
Date:
2021-04-15
Silvestros Syropoulos
(413 words)
ca 1400 - after 1464. Byzantium. A high-ranking ecclesiastical official in Constantinople—Grand Ecclesiarch at the church of Hagia Sophia and
dikaiophylax of the patriarchate of Constantinople—he participated in the large Byzantine delegation to the Council of Ferrara-Florence (1438–39), which was convened to reunite the eastern and western churches. His account of the council is recorded in the Ἀπομνημονεύματα (
Memoirs), which according to Laurent, the most recent editor, was written between 1443 and 1445, several years after the delegation's return to Co…
Date:
2021-04-15
Simeonov Chronicle
(161 words)
late 15th century. Russia. Muscovite annalistic compilation in Church Slavonic (Russian recension). The first part of the chronicle (entries for 1177–1412) is a Tver recension of the
Trinity chronicle lost in the fire of 1812. It was used by Michail D. Priselkov (1956) as a principal source for his reconstruction of the
Trinity Chronicle. The second part (1410–93, entries for 1410–12 being duplicated) is a compilation of at least two Moscow chronicles of the late 15th century. The manuscript from the 1540s reflects a recension of the chronicle made in the scriptorium o…
Date:
2021-04-15
Simone [di Bindo] della Tosa
(239 words)
ca 1300 - 24th October 1380. Italy. A member of one of the most renowned noble families of Florence. From 1324, he held many different military and civil functions. In 1328, he participated in an embassy at the papal legacy in Bologna and the following year in Volterra to conclude a peace treaty with Pisa. In 1330, he was in command of the fortress of Carmignano. In 1331, he was a recruiting officer and, in 1337, with the rank of captain, he took part in the war against Mastino della Scala. In 1343, he was appointed
podestà of Poggibonsi. In 1370, he separated from his lineage, declaring himself
popol…
Date:
2021-04-15
Simonetta, Cicco
(297 words)
ca 1410-1480. Italy. Chancellor, humanist and diarist. Born in Calabria, he was a loyal follower of
condottiereFrancesco Sforza. When Sforza became Duke of Milan in 1450, he picked Simonetta to organize and lead his Chancery. Cicco mostly took up government responsibilities, managing the complexities of 15th-century diplomacy, which earned him the appreciation of none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who in the
Florentine Histories praised him for his "most excellent prudence and experience". However, he was also a patron of humanists like Francesco Filelfo, Lodrisio Crivelli an…
Date:
2021-04-15
Simonetta, Giovanni
(443 words)
ca 1415-92. Italy. Chancellor, humanist and historian. Born in Calabria, he was a close collaborator of his brother Cicco Simonetta in the Sforza state chancery. Giovanni was a ducal secretary with important government responsibilities. He is more known as a historian and author of the impressive, albeit apologetic
Commentarii de rebus gestis Francisci Sfortiae (Commentaries of the deeds of Francesco Sforza). This long biography drew from many sources, both humanistic (Biondo, Crivelli, Pier Candido Decembrio, Campano, Filelfo) and diplomatic (Giovanni had unlimited ac…
Date:
2021-04-15