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(Portuguese chronicle of Spain and Portugal) early 14th century. Portugal. This first chronicle in Portuguese vernacular, also known as the Crónica Galego-Portuguesa de Espanha e Portugal, was partially copied and summarized under the title Crónica Galega by Cristóvão Rodrigues Acenheiro (1474-1538) in 1535. It was used as a source for Pedro Afonso's Crónica de 1344 and the Breve Crónica IV (see Crónicas Breves de Santa Cruz de Coimbra). The text is known in a partial copy by the 16th century Cristóvão Rodrigues Acenheiro. Aengus WardBibliography Text "Chronicas dos Senhores Reis…

12th century. France. An anonymous Latin chronicle which narrates the history of Europe in general, and of France in particular, from creation to the years 1160/61, thus ending during the reign of Louis VII of France. It focuses primarily on the deeds of French kings, dukes, and counts, but also on various events of European significance such as Robert Guiscard's campaigns in Calabria and Sicily and the early crusades, on the lives of famous ecclesiastics and philosophers including Pope Urban II, Anselm of Canterbury, and Hugh of St. Victor, and on the foundations of new churches.…

Georgenberger Chronik.

(Chronicle of the deeds of the Normans in France) 12th century. France. Compilation of extracts from the Annales Bertiniani and Annales Vedastini concerning the Vikings in Normandy covering 833-912, possibly using an immediate source like St. Omer, BM, 706, where the St. Bertin and St. Vaast texts appear in a single document. It is inserted into the Liber floridus, a miscellany ascribed to Lambert of Saint-Omer. Main manuscript: Ghent, UB, ms. 92 (dated 1121). Keith BateGraeme DunphyBibliography Text A. Derolez, Liber Floridus codex autographus bibliothecae universitatis Ga…

[Hulme] ca 1333. England. Unedited Latin annals, from the Nativity, with emphasis on events from 1100 to 1333, in BL, Cotton Vitellius ms. D.ix, fol. 5-22. Luxford associates them with the Benedictine monastery of St. Benet at Holme in Norfolk primarily because of references to St. Margaret, who was buried there, and to Cnut, who founded the monastery in 1019. The annals refer to events in England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France and the Holy Land with emphasis upon English saints and kings. They are followed by a brief continuation concerned primarily with the Peasants' Revolt (1382) …

11th-13th century. England, France. Several lives of Edward the Confessor were written after the Conquest, some as hagiography, but some of historical importance.The earliest is the 11th-century Vita Aedwardi regis qui apud Westmonasterium requiescit, known as the Anonymous Life, preserved in BL, Harley ms. 526 (ca 1100). A Latin prose account with a verse prologue and some Latin verses, it was written shortly after 1066 by a monk of St. Bertin (St.Omer, France), who boasts that he was the first to write the history of those times. He claims to have known some of t…

(Annals of Tiel aan de Waal) 14th or 15th century. Low Countries. A Latin history of Holland, Utrecht and Guelders covering 696 to 1345, perhaps by a citizen of Tiel.The Annales Tielenses are surrounded by mystery. Perhaps only a fragment of the original has come down to us. According to Waitz, they were written around 1350, but Bruch places them ca 1440, while Coster for his part thinks they were written by Bartholomaeus de Beka in the mid-14th century, with 15th-century additions concerning the city of Tiel.The author takes the history of the diocees of Utrecht as his point of …

14th century. Wales. The chronicle of the Cistercian abbey of Tintern (Monmouthshire), preserved in BL, Royal 14.C.6, covers the years 1305-23 and is added to the conclusion of the version of Flores Historiarum which is an abridgment of Matthew Paris's Chronica Majora. The manuscript was originally produced at the abbey of St. Benet at Holm but was moved to Tintern in early 1305. It includes both details relating to the abbey, such as the confirmation of its liberties in 1307, and events, both national (troubles during the reign of Edward II, the Battle of Bannockburn in 1313, the civil …

15th century. Germany. The two "recensions" of this chronicle are in fact two separate and independent anonymous East Central German prose translations and adaptations of Johannes Tylich's Chronicon Missnense. Recension I, made before 1426, covers only the years 785-1346, whereas recension II contains a continuation for 1426-78. A third recension, a shortened compilation of De origine (up to 1440) and other chronological sources, was printed in the 16th century.The chronicle starts out with the Saxon noble Widukind who fought against Charles the Great, dealing with marriage…

7th century. Northern Italy. A brief Latin history of the Lombards from the archaic period in Scandinavia to the reign of Grimoaldus. The work may well be a creation of the intellectual group in the royal Lombard court, which was largely made up of notarii and scriptores of Germanic origin. In effect, the composition and the circulation of the Origo are strictly linked to the publication of the Law code by king Rhotari in 643, the Edictum Rothari. The prologue of the Edictum contains a list of the Lombard kings from the mythical Agelmundus to Rothari, whose genealogy is also provided. I…

[Abd al-Rahman bin Abi Bakr Jalal al-Din] 849-911 ah (1445-1505 ad). Egypt. Born in Cairo, but of Persian origin, al-Suyūtī was a teacher of hadith, jurist, philologist, historian and Sufi, and his works embrace all the aspects of Islamic science. He wrote over 500 works on diverse themes, including the tradition of the Prophet ( Sunna), narrations and hādith, jurisprudence ( fiqh), linguistics, geography, history and literature. In all of these fields he is important not only for his own insights but for the many earlier lost sources which he quotes prec…

14th century. Italy. Fragmentary Latin chronicle of the Italian campaign of Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg. The first part (more that half of the short manuscript) deals with Henry's stay in Cremona and with his military actions against Florence, reporting (among other things) the widespread rumour that Henry was murdered by a Dominican, who is said to have given him a poisoned host during communion. The second part deals with the peace established in 1316, three years after the Emperor's death, between the Guelph and Ghibelline parties of the city, and then reports on the new …

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…

ca 1470-1536. Poland. Franciscan chronicler and preacher, warden of the friaries in Vilnius, Warsaw and Poznań, minister of the Polish province of the Observants. He was a delegate of the Polish province to the Chapter General in Rome (1517) and Lyon (1518).His Latin chronicle Memoriale ordinis Fratrum Minorum relates to the organisation and pastoral activities of the Polish province of the order and is one of the more interesting monuments of monastic historiography in Poland. It survives in two copies, Kraków, Biblioteka Czartoryskich, ms. 3793 and Kraków, Biblioteka Jagiell…

(The Frisian rhyme) 15th century (extant version ca 1509-15). Low Countries. Vernacular verse chronicle ofthe origins of the Frisians from biblical times and their acquisition of freedom from Charlemagne ( Friese Vrijheid) in 1671 lines, possibly written by a cleric from the Windesheim monastery of Thabor near Sneek (Frisia). The text alludes to a master Alwyn as an authority of the history of Frisian freedom. In later times this Alwyn was identified as a 15th-century school rector in Sneek, but it is now clear that the name refers to Alcuin, author of the well-known Life of Willibrord, wh…

(From the Age of Vortigern the Most Slender)14th century. Wales. A short prose chronicle in Welsh. It begins "From the age of Vortigern the Most Slender until the Battle of Badon, Arthur and his progenitors fought the Saxons" and ends "The year thereafter King John went to Ireland, and Randolf earl of Chester came to Degannwy [in North Wales] against King John". It therefore extends from the 5th-century Vortigern (whose epithet "thin" occurs in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum) and Battle of Badon (located at Ringsbury, near Braydon, Wiltshire) to the campaigns of 1210-11.In spite of…

(Annals of Aachen) 12th century. Germany. Imperial annals covering ad 1-1196, first compiled in Aachen around 1169 and later continued to 1196. The anonymous author assembled the text from several parts, starting with a terse list of the successions of Roman emperors for ad 1-684, followed by a Carolingian set of annals for 688-809 closely related to the Annales s. Amandi, then another series of brief reports almost exclusively on the successions of Frankish and German rulers up to 1109, and finally some more detailed reports favourable to emperor Henry …

ca 1380-1438. Germany. Augustinian canon at St. Mang near Regensburg. Collector and editor texts on contemporary politics and ecclesiastical and civil law (1421-30); author of a papal and imperial chronicle and of a territorial and dynastic chronicle of Bavaria in German and Latin versions (1427/8-36). Andreas joined the house at St. Mang in 1401 and was dean in the 1430s. Although he seldom left Regensburg, he built up a network of sources of historical information. He made use of the rich monastic libr…

[of Berchem] ca 1415/20 - post-1481. Low Countries. Priest from Guelders, who wrote several Latin chronicles about Guelders, Brabant, Holland, Liège, and some noble families. Born in Nijmegen, Willem studied in Cologne during the 1430s. From 1452 onwards he is mentioned as a priest of the church of St. Steven (the parish church of Nijmegen), as a notary, and as a priest of the parish church of Niel and Cuijk. In 1475 he became canon of the St. Steven.The Gelderse kroniek is Willem's most important work. Together with the chronicles of the group Beginsel des lantz van Gelre, the Gelderse kroni…

Renaissance humanismIn modern Renaissance scholarship, the term "Renaissance historiography" is often used to refer to historical studies about the Renaissance, in contrast to the use of the word "historiography" by medievalists, who use it most commonly to refer to the historical texts of the time they study and to the constructions, theories and methodologies underlying these writings. In the current context "Renaissance historiography" will be understood to comprise the approaches to the writi…