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ca 1210-1282/83. Germany. Member of the Teutonic Order from 1234, Grand Master from 1273. Author of a Bericht (report) on the union of the Order of the Brethren of the Sword with the Teutonic Order in 1237, which was almost certainly composed in Middle High German, though the surviving text is Low German. Hartmann's authorship of the Bericht long remained controversial; the modern consensus accepts the attribution with the proviso that the text may have been edited (or even rendered into prose?) by a later hand. The vivid details of a sojourn at the papal court at Viterbo in 1237 presuppose an e…

ca 1340-1405. Germany, Poland. From 1376 to 1405 canonical judge for the Diocese of Pomesania. His Chronik des Landes Preußen (Chronicle of the state of Prussia) starts from 1360 and ends with events of 1419, so that it must have been continued after his death by somebody else (thus Strehlke). This assumption of multiple authorship has been challenged by Wenta, who postulates Johannes of Redden (canonical judge for Pomesania 1411-19; 1430?) as the single author for the whole work. Strehlke's view remains communis opinio, but Johannes may well have been Johann's continuator: th…

early 13th century. Northern Germany. Report in Latin and German on the early history of the Teutonic Order. The Narratio, originally composed in Latin and later translated into Middle High German, marks the beginnings of historical writing relating to and produced by the Teutonic Order. It recounts the pious foundation of a hospital in the vicinity of Accon by merchants from Bremen and Lübeck in 1190, the support of clerical and secular magnates and the transformation of the foundation from a provisional hostel into a permanent institution providing medica…

[Canonicus Sambiensis] fl. 1330s. Sambia (East Prussia). The anonymous author of annalistic records known as Epitome gestorum Prussie probably was from Königsberg. The text has been subdivided by the editors into nine (Toeppen) or twelve (Arndt) sections, which in the manuscript follow neither a systematic nor a chronological order. Nor are its short narrative entries limited to events in Prussia; they also present imperial and papal history, and the history of the Samland bishopric. The Epitome stretches from the slaughter of the Innocents up to 1338, with the supplem…

(Short Rhymed Chronicle of Prussia) 14th century (after 1338). Prussia. Fragments of a Middle High German crusade chronicle. The 256 preserved verses are transmitted on two scraps of 14th-century parchment (Berlin, SB, Fragm. 38, olim ms. boruss. qu. 299). The anonymous author was a knight of the Teutonic Order. The first fragment reports on controversies of the Order with Prussian rebels (1249-1261), the second on various struggles in the years 1330-1338. Though reminiscent of the chronicle of Nikolaus von Jeroschin, it is rather different. The account is not only more su…

fl. 1409. Germany. Author of a Middle High German rhymed chronicle on the history of the Teutonic Order in the 14th century Wigand, whose home is generally supposed to be Marburg, though Maribor in Slovenia has recently also been proposed, is documented in the Tresslerbuch (a list of the Order's expenditures), which records that in 1409 he acted as a herald in the service of the Teutonic Order. Presumably the Grand Master Konrad of Wallenrod commissioned Wigand's chronicle; the principal source is the Chronica Olivensis, embellished with material gathered orally and Wigand's ow…

(Stories concerning a confederation) 15th century. Germany/Poland. Anonymus report in High German on events in Prussia between 1440 and 1462, by a contemporary witness within the Teutonic Order. In the same introductory passage from which the modern title of the work is taken, the author declares his aim to describe the controversies and struggles between the Order and the Prussian Confederation. He is well informed, not least about events in and around the Marienburg and may have belonged to the inner circle of the Grand Master, as were Laurentius Blumenau and the author of the fir…

ca 1415-84. Germany. Chronicler of the Teutonic Order. There is scarcely any other chronicler of the Order about whom we know as much as Blumenau. From letters, deeds, and case files, his life can be charted from his matriculation at Leipzig University in 1434 until his death in the Carthusian monastery of Villeneuve. As doctor of Roman and Canon Law, he held the office of counsellor and legal adviser to the Grand Master from 1447 to 1456, dedicating himself to defending the rights of the Order at Imperial and Papal Courts against the demands of the Prussian Confederation. However, when he…

(Older Chronicle of the Grand Masters) ca 1433-40. Prussia. Middle High German prose chronicle of the Teutonic Order from 1190 to 1433. Its author remains anonymous, as do the authors of its three (strictly independent) continuations. The intentions of the authors and their intimate knowledge of the Order have led to the conclusion that all were members of the Order, except perhaps the author of the final pages (apparently an appendix), whose tone in reporting the 1435 invasion of the Hussites into Prussia distances him somewhat from the Teutonic Knights. The main part of t…

15th century. Poland. Notary in Culm (Chelmno, Poland); later holder of ecclesiastical charges. Continued Peter of Dusburg's Chronicle to 1435. Bitschin was a learned, well-read and prolific writer. He published meritorious books on the systematisation of town council documents - his Stadtbücher "fundamentally reformed the basics of municipal writing" (Boockmann 461). His De vita coniugali (On married life), certainly his chief work, gives instructions on housekeeping in the oeconomica tradition of antiquity and the middle ages.His Latin continuation of Peter's Chronicle, w…

[English Version] von Weißenburg (um 800 – um 871), wohl als Kind (puer oblatus; Oblaten: I.) dem Kloster Weißenburg (Elsaß) übergeben, Priesterweihe um 830, gründliche Ausbildung im Heimatkloster, danach Studium in Fulda bei Hrabanus Maurus, nach Rückkehr unter Abt Grimald Lehrer, Leiter des Scriptoriums und spiritus rector eines am Fuldaer Vorbild sich orientierenden theol. Programms, das auf ein vertieftes Verständnis der Hl.Schrift zielte. Zu diesem Zweck strebte O. die Kommentierung der gesamt…

(Chronicle of the Teutonic Order) [Jüngere Hochmeisterchronik (Younger chronicle of the Grand Masters)] late 15th century. Low Countries. Anonymous chronicle of the Teutonic Order, probably by a member of the Utrecht Bailiwick. The original Middle Dutch chronicle was partly translated into Middle High German in Prussia.This prose chronicle of ca 300 pages treats the history of the Teutonic Order as a part of the history of salvation, identifying their biblical prefigurations and ending with the Utrecht Land Commander Johan van Drongelen (d. 1492). It is composed in two pa…