Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle

[Ḥāfiz-i Abrū ʿAbd Allāh ibn Lutf Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Bihdādīnī] d. 833 ah (1430 ad). Persia. Hāfiz-i Abrū  took part in several campaigns of Shāh Rukh (ruler over Persia and Transoxania between 1405 and 1447), whose service he entered after the death of Tīmūr (known in the west as Tamerlane 1336-1405). He wrote several historical works and also a geographical work in Persian.Hāfiz-i Abrū 's three early historical works were: the Dhayl-i Djāmiʿ al-tawārikh, dealing with the reigns of Uldjaytū and Abū Saʿīd. A continuation of the work of Rashīd al-Dīn (d. 1318 ad); the Dhayl-i Zafar…

ca 1230/40-1299. Germany. Town clerk of Cologne, highly educated and active in various influential positions in Cologne. In 1262 he introduced German (Ripuarian) as a written language for charters; 25 charters by his own hand still exist, most of them in the vernacular. He is the author of the Reimchronik der Stadt Köln (Rhyme Chronicle of the Town of Cologne), 6292 verses in German, completed in 1270 with an appendix added in 1271.This work, with the manuscript title Dat boich van der stede Colne, is the first chronicle in German to focus exclusively on the history of a singl…

1440 - ca 1503. Germany. Monk and provost at the Benedictine monastery of St. Ludger (Ludgerikloster) in Helmstedt, Lower Saxony, where he probably taught at the local school. In 1490-91, Hagen wrote a Low German prose chronicle of the town of Helmstedt ( Der staed croneke to Helmstede) covering approximately the years 1228 to his present, which survives in an autograph manuscript - Helmstedt, StA, cod. BI8. The chronological order of the work, which was sparsely continued through the 16th century by another hand, is haphazard; its skeleton consists of some four hundred en…

fl. 840-60. France. Monk and abbot. Probable author of a Latin chronicle. Haimo was a monk at the abbey of St-Germain in Auxerre and abbot at Cessy-les-Bois (Sasceium). He wrote a large number of very widely disseminated commentaries on biblical books; more than 100 manuscripts are known of his commentaries on the Canticles and on the Pauline Epistles. However, much of his work was misattributed to Haimo of Halberstadt or to other writers such as Remigius of Auxerre.He is probably the author of the Historiae sacrae epitome, sive de Christianarum rerum memoria, an epitome of the eccles…

(Private Chronicle from Halberstadt) 16th century. Germany. A compilation of various historiographical notes in German covering the years from 1500 to 1514 without chronological order. The unknown author refers to Halberstadt as his hometown and to the Duke of Lüneburg as his lord. The text is a collection of anecdotes about thunderstorms, fires, crimes, noble marriages, and some political events in the region between Halberstadt, Braunschweig, and Lüneburg showing the author's private historiograph…

ca 1378-ca 1465. England. Northumbrian soldier and squire, spy, forger, and cartographer. Author of two versions of a chronicle in English verse. Born in Northumbria, ca 1378, Hardyng began his career as a soldier and squire to Sir Henry Percy (d. 1403). From 1403-37 he served Sir Robert Umfraville (d. 1437) and acted as a spy for Henry V in Scotland (ca 1418-21). By 1440 he was a corrodarian at the Augustinian priory at South Kyme, Lincolnshire, where he began composing the first version of his Chronicle (ca 1450). Comprising 2674 rhyme-royal stanzas and seven folios of Latin prose…

ca 1060-1143. France. A Benedictine monk and author of the Latin Gesta ecclesiae Centulensis or Chronicon Centulense, a chronicle of the abbey of St. Riquier (Ponthieu) from its foundation in 625 until the end of the 11…

mid-13th century. England. Five anonymous fragments of an Anglo-Norman verse translation (3361 alexandrine lines) of books V-X of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae. Fragmentary codex: BL, Harley ms. 1605. Blakey analysed the features of these fragments, in particular the anonymous translator's respect for the source, although key elements related to Welsh place-names, the list of British earls and heroes, and Geoffrey's eulogies of Caerleon and York are omitted. There are expansions of Geoffrey's Latin text, e…

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15th century. Germany. Historian and monk, born about 1440 at Schwanenkirchen (near the abbey of Niederaltaich at Deggendorf), date and place of death unknown. He was admitted to the abbey of Niederaltaich and became prior in the year 1478. In 1485 Hauer was chosen as administrator of the abbot Friedrich II, but actually held the position of the abbot. Because of several reproaches he fell in disrepute with the bishop and was under arrest at the abbey for several months in 1490. For the period a…

[Hetʾum, Hetoum, Ayton, Haytonus; of Corycus] ca 1235/1240-after 1316. Cilician Armenia. Armenian pro-Latin statesman and monk, diplomat, writer, and traveller, author of genealogical, historical, geographical-ethnographic works in Armenian, French, and Latin. Born in Cilicia, Hayton was a relative of the king of Cicilian Armenia Hayton (Hethum) I and became lord of Korykos (modern Turkey) in ca 1280, Premonstratensian monk in Cyprus in 1305, and Constable of Armenia in 1308 or 1309. He composed two genealogies of Eastern-Latin dynasties in Armenian; the chronicle Patmutʿiwn…

[A Remarkable Fragment of an Old English Chronicle] 1516-24. England.Perhaps associated with Thomas Howard, 1st Earl of Surrey and 2nd Duke of Norfolk. Dealing with Edward IV, Yorkist in sympathy, and presenting itself as the author's personally witnessed recollections, the chronicle emphasizes events beginning with 1459, including Edward's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville. It breaks off mid-sentence with an episode of 1470. According to its opening paragraphs, the author was prompted to write by the 1516 publication of Pynson's New cronycles of Englande and of Fraunce, with whi…

1478-1515. Germany. Canon of Mainz. In 1500, Hebelin of Heimbach composed a Historia Maguntina, which is still preserved in the autograph. It is dedicated to Jakob Merstetter, a professor at the university of Mainz, and encompasses the period from the legendary founding of Mainz to the year 1484. In its main part the …

(Deeds of the constable...) 15th century. Castile (Iberia). This chivalric biographical chronicle of the Grand Master of the Order of Santiago, Miguel Lucas de Iranzo, was patronised by Lucas himself. We have no certainty about its authorship: it might have been the work of his servant Juan de Olid, or of Pedro de Escavias or Gonzalo de Mexía, who both loom large in the text.A low-ranked nobleman who was brought to the court by leading noble (and the king's favourite) Juan Pacheco, Lucas had been honoured by Enrique IV with offices and privileges that gained…

1494/95–1552. Germany. Theologian, reformer, and translator. Born in Ettlingen, Hedio went to Freiburg im Breisgau to commence his studies, graduating with a master's degree in 1516. Afterwards he continued his academic education in Basel where he received his Licentiate of Theology in 1519. In October 1520, he followed Wolfgang Capito to Mainz and took over the office of Cathedral Preacher from his friend and mentor. Having received the Doctorate of Theology in October 1523, he follo…

15th century. Germany. Professional scribe from Regensburg. Wrote a Latin world chronicle, the Imago mundi. Heff matriculated at the faculty of arts in Vienna in 1459, graduating in 1461. In 1466 he settled in Regensburg, where he copied a number of Latin literary texts, especially for clerical clients. He is last attested in 1476.In 1470-71, under commission to the Regensburg city treasurer Erasmus Trainer, he made a German translation of the Chronica summorum pontificum et imperatorum Romanorum of Andreas of Regensburg under the title Buch von den römischen Kaisern und Päpsten, whi…

2nd century ad (fl. ca 160-80). Palestine. Perhaps a Palestinian Jew who around the middle of the 2nd century converted to Christianity and visited Rome, Corinth and other major ecclesiastical centres throughout the East and West. Author of historical notes in Greek. His intention was to document the ties between these various Christian communities and the primitive church so that he could defend the integrity of the apostolic tradition against the Gnostics and other heretical sects.Around 180 he compiled his data in the five books of his Memoirs (Ὑπομνήματα), which are completely lost except for a few excerpts preserved by Eusebius, Philip of Side, and Stephen Gobarus. Jerome, who did not know this work firsthand, supposed that it was a history of the church from Jesus' crucifixion down to Hegesippus' time ( De viris illustribus 22). However, this inference is slightly misleading, for while the Memoirs did contain a wealth of antiquarian information (e.g. episcopal succession lists for Rome and Jerusalem and accounts of the apostles' martyrd…

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[Heinricus Surdus (the deaf); Heinrich of Rebdorf] ca 1300-64. Germany. Author of a compilation of homilies and biographies of the Eichstätt bishops of his time (1306-55) and a chronicle of emperors and popes. Born into a knightly family, he took a masters degree in law, after which he worked at the papal rota in Avignon. From ca 1336 onwards he held a prebend in Eichstätt (Bavaria), and later acted also as chaplain to the bishop, penitentiary and member of the chancery. The Chronica imperatorum et paparum was designed as a continuation of the Flores temporum both in content and textual …

mid-15th century. Germany. Author of the so-called Agrippina (1469-72), a German (Ripuarian) prose chronicle of Cologne. Next to nothing is known about Heinrich. His name is reported in town charters but without any statement on his status. More information can be adduced from 16 letters from the city of Cologne to a Kaufhausmeister Heinrich van Beecke in Mainz (1471-75), whom Meier has identified as our author. This would suggest that after f…