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later 11th century. Northern Germany. One of the foremost historians and early ethnographers of the medieval period, he joined the Archdiocese of Bremen in 1066/67 and led the cathedral school. Author of Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church).The Gesta, in the genre of the gesta episcoporum, relates in four books the history of the archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen, claiming missionary jurisdiction over the northern and northeastern regions of the Baltic, the North Sea and the North Atlantic. Books 1 and …

[Pomeranus, Pommer] 1485-1558. Poland, Germany. Prominent Protestant reformer, born in Pomerania, where he initially studied and worked as an educator. From 1521 he was in Wittenberg, first as a student of theology, later as pastor and professor. He befriended Luther and popularized the Lutheran reformation in Northern Germany and Denmark. He was the author of numerous theological publications, as well as his earliest work, the Pomerania. This is a pioneering first history of Pomerania from the beginning in 4 books, commissioned by Duke Bogislav X of Pomerania in 1517. Bugenh…

ca 1470-1530/37. Poland. Dominican friar in Gdańsk. Author of the German-language Preußische Chronik (Prussian Chronicle) in 24 tracts (1700 pages printed) including a Prussian Vocabulary ( Altpreußisches Vokabular).Grunau worked on his voluminous chronicle until 1525. Opposing the Teutonic Order and the Lutheran Reformation, he identifies strongly with the Prussian region and displays sympathy for Poland. The chronicle is the first complete history of Prussia. He employs the style of a storyteller freely, altering older sources. The main sources are Peter of Dusburg and the Äl…