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late 14th century. Southern Germany. Very condensed, illustrated world chronicle from Konstanz in German. In his preface, the anonymous author explicitly claims to write for einfeltige leut (uneducated people). His plan, as laid out there, includes a concise compendium of universal history including biblical and ancient history, the histories of the emperors and popes, and lastly a description of the fifteen omens of the Last Judgement and the coming of the antichrist. Most manuscripts, including the newly-discovered Berlin, SB, ms. germ. fol. 1714, mirror this plan in t…

1458-1518. Germany. Author of a lost town chronicle of Gdańsk in Low German. Born in Chojnice (West Prussia, today Poland), Beyer became a wealthy tradesman in Gdańsk, where he held several town offices and from where he undertook a number of oversees enterprises, such as a pilgrimage to San Diago di Compostella in 1479. He died in Gdańsk on 2nd February 1518.Beyer seems to have been involved in various literary activities, including genealogical and administrative works, but none of those have survived. The same is true for his town chronicle of which we…

14th century. Austria. This Latin prose chronicle is an adaptation of the continuation of the Annales Zwetlenses for the years 1348-62, with which it shares the same incipit on the big earthquake of 1348 in Friuli and Carinthia ( 1348 in conversione sancti Pauli factus est terremotus ita magnus…) but moves on rather more independently. The title, which is original to the text, is misleading, for the chronicle's focus is markedly wider than just on the house of Habsburg. The sole extant manuscript (Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 691) was written by Georg Leeb, who, however, do…

17th century. Italy. Title for a collection of notes, documents, and materials concerning the history of Faenza (Italy, Emilia-Romagna) in no strict chronological order. It draws upon various sources, such as Tolosanus and some excerpts from an unidentified yet allegedly widespread chronicle of Faenza ( ex Cronica Faventie reperta in multis libris). Besides local information on Faenza and the region of Ravenna we find episodes of imperial history, including scenes from the lives of Charlemagne, Otto IV and Frederick II.The manuscript (Faenza, Archivio del capitolo della catt…

ca 1450-1518. Germany. Author of a Worms Memorial for 1493-1509 in German prose. Born from a wealthy family of craftspeople in Worms, Noltz studied in Heidelberg and Cologne. In 1489 he became a mem­ber of the town council, later holding several town offices and diplomatic missions, mainly to the royal and imperial court. Eleven letters of his survive.Noltz's memorial - he himself called it a chronick - is regarded the most important narrative source for Worms town his­tory of the period. Despite generally narrating in first person, Noltz gives only few per­s…

ca 1270. Austria. This Latin verse chronicle of 877 lines (seven beats per line, so-called Vagantenzeilen) was written by an unknown cleric, possibly in or near Klosterneuburg. Presumably he is identical with the author of a longer poem on Frederick II and Innocent IV, written ca 1247/50. The chronicle deals with the history of the Empire from 1190 to 1268 with particular attention to the history of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. We know nothing of the author's motives. He mainly draws on lost annalistic records from Heiligenkreuz (Cistercian abbey near Vienna) and the Schottenkloster (Hibe…

Sisterbooks are biographical collections of visions and revelations experienced by female members of a spiritual community.On the narrow definition of the term, all works of this genre derive from the Dominican province of Teutonia (Adelhausen: Anna von Munzingen; Diessenhofen; Engeltal: Christine Ebner; Gotteszell; Kirchberg; Oetenbach; Töss: Elsbeth Stagel; Unterlinden: Katherina von Gebersweiler; Weiler) and were written during the 14th century in Germany. Typically these are vernacular works, but Katharina von Gebersweiler's Vitae sororum was originally written …

(Blossoms of the times) ca 1300. Germany. World chronicle compendium in Latin prose. Written by an unknown Swabian Minorite (some manuscripts give Hermannus or Martinus Minorita) in the last years of the 13th century, the Flores temporum with its adaptations and continuations became one of the most widely spread world chronicles of the later Middle Ages in Southern Germany.The Flores temporum was conceptualized as a tool for preparing homilies and sermons. Still, unlike contemporary world chronicles, it does include pre-Christian history, covering world …

fl. 1378-89. Germany. Wealthy canon at the collegiate church of Schliersee, near Munich; documented by a number of donations to his church. Died 2nd November 1389.Teuffenbeck's Chronicon Schlierseense seu brevis historia de ortu, fundatione, benefactoribus et praediis antiquissimae ecclesiae collegiatae Schlierseensis (Schliersee chronicle or short history of the origin, foundation, patrons and endowments of the ancient collegiate church of Schliersee) gives a short history of the house from early Carolingian times, but quickly moving…

fl. 1458 - ca 1484. Germany. Author of an adaptation of the Flores temporum in Latin prose. In this work Kraus identifies himself as a parish priest at Niedermotzing (near Straubing, incorporated parish of St. Johann, Regensburg) in 1458 (fol. 169v). Otherwise, nothing is known of his biography. In 1484 a new candidate (of the same name) was assigned to the parish, so probably he died a little before. He also translated Cato.The chronicle survives only in the autograph: Wolfenbüttel, HAB, Cod. 110 Extrav., 9v-135r. While for the earlier years Kraus mainly draws on a version of …

[Marquard, Marcuardus Fuldensis] d. 1168. Germany. Abbot of Fulda. Markward counts among the most well-known abbots of Fulda during the high middle ages. Educated at the monastery of Michelsberg (Bamberg) he came to Fulda in 1150. There he engaged in the reorganization of the abbey's economic activities and administration. He resigned in 1165, during the heights of the conflict between Frederick I and Alexander III.In the Fulda copial book (the so-called "Codex Eberhardi", Marburg, SA, cod. K. 426, fol. 191r-195v) Markward left an autobiographic account of his tenure that …

d. 1417. Germany. Pastor, Canon and Lüneburg town clerk. Wrote an eyewitness account in Low German of the recapture of Lüneburg by Duke Magnus II in 1371, which prefaces the town book Donatus burgensium (Lüneburg, StA, AB 3, fol. 1), written 1409-11. Kule briefly depicts the actual battle, lists Lüneburg's dead, and describes the annual commemoration (22nd October, prohibited by Duke Frederick in 1637). This supplements the report of Nikolaus Floreke. Hiram KümperBibliography Text W. Reinecke, CDS 36, 20-22. Literature H. Droste, Schreiben über Lüneburg, 2000. H. Droste, "Zu zeitg…

[Bartolfus peregrinus] fl. shortly before 1109. France. Author of the Gesta Franco­rum Iherusalem expugnatium, covering the years 1095-1106. Bartolf is one of the least famous and hence most neglected chroniclers of the first crusade, probably because his Gesta Francorum draws so heavily on Fulcher's Historia Hierosolymitana that it is usually treated as one of its two early adaptations rather than as an intellectually independent work. Still, Bartolf is frequently cited in more extensive accounts of the history of the crusades. He adds ma…

1277-1356. Germany. Author of the Engelthal sisterbook in German prose. Christine was born in Nuremberg to a well-placed family. From the age of fourteen she was a nun at the Dominican convent of Engelthal (near Nuremberg), from 1345 prioress. She wrote the convent's sisterbook, entitled Von der genaden uberlast (On the abundance of His mercy), often referred to as a "convent chronicle" by modern scholars. Though it is basically a compilation of 47 nuns' lives, Christine promises to tell dez closters ze Engeltal anvank und die menig der genaden gotes die er mit den frawen …

fl. 1489-1512. Germany. Author of a number of historical poems and songs and two vernacular rhymed chronicles. Born in Ebersbach, Kurtz first appears in the records in 1489 in nearby Kaufbeuren, in the diocese of Augsburg. After studying in Freiburg and Tübingen, he became head of the Munich grammar school sometime before 1500, the year in which he visited Rome for the jubilee year. During the Landshut war of succession Kurtz served in the Wurttemberg forces. His works were mostly distributed as broadsheets; a short poem on the Landshut war, which ap­pears to be a copy from a lost …

ca 1250. France. Latin. Anonymous short chronicle of the Carthusian order. This first comprehensive history of the order, ranging from 1084 up to the death of Guigo de Chastel (fifth prior of the Grand Chartreuse, d. 1136), is named after its incipit ( Laudemus viros gloriosos parentes nostros in generationibus suis: Let us praise the glorious men of their times, our [spiritual] parents). It mostly draws on an earlier catalogue of the first priors of the Grand Chartreuse (sometimes refered to as Magister) and the Life of Hugh of Grenoble by Guigo de Castro (Guigues du Chastel). It was…

ca 1429-1519. Switzerland. Born in Brugg (Aargau, Austria), Fricker studied canon law in Heidelberg, Freiburg (Breisgau), Pavia and probably also in Basel, graduating as doctor in Pavia in 1473. From 1467 he assisted his father, who then was town clerk in Berne). In 1470 he followed in his father's office. He reorganized the municipal chambers (he was the originator of the Ratsmanuale) and appears several times as a town's legate at confederate Tagsatzungen as well as in Rome. In 1514 he resigned from office and returned to die in his home town of Brugg. Fricker has left a dramatic eyewitness…

14th century. Austria. A short anonymous Latin prose chronicle with a marked focus on the house of Habsburg. The sole extant manuscript is Munich, BSB, clm 19804. Folio 310 presents a genealogy with the German inscription das ist die sippzal des hauses van Osterreich (this is the genealogy of the House of Austria). Hiram KümperBibliography Text H. Pez, Scriptores rerum Austriacarum veteres ac genuini 2, 1725, 469-70. Literature A. Lhotsky, Quellenkunde zur mittelalterlichen Geschichte Österreichs, 1963, 410. RepFont 3, 278.

fl. 14th-15th century. Germany. Born to a branch of the well-known Vener family in Gmünd, Slecht made a considerable career as a cleric in Strasbourg. At least from 1378 on he held several benefices and ecclesiastical offices there. According to both the Anniversarium of the church of Jung St. Peter's and his own grave stone, he died on 1st Sepember 1430.Slecht wrote a Latin continuation of the Flores temporum for 1290-1422, with further historical notes presumably by another hand for 1431-44. Although it is impossible to identify which manuscript of the Flores he based his work on, i…

1452-1517. Germany. Mayor of Hamburg. Wrote a Low German report on the Hamburg insurrection of 1483 (Hamburg, Stiftung Hanseatisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, Safebestand Commerzbibliothek, S/666; two other manuscripts lost). Though at first accused himself of involvement in the riots, Langenbeck played a crucial role in abating them. He also formulated the short, collective oath which symbolically ended the rising and remained in use as citizen's oath until 1844 (officially abolished 1918). Langenbeck's biography is …