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 …

ca 1230/40-1299. G…

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 16…

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 ecclesiastical history of Eusebius in the Latin version of Rufinus of Aquileia, abbreviated, but with material (sometimes of some interest) added in from a variety of sources (Nikephoros Patriarches, Sozomen, the Historia tripartita of Epiphanius scholasticus, and others). The chronicle runs from the life of Christ to the death of Emperor Honorius, ending explicitly where Rufinus does. A 15th-century manuscript containing the work, Munich, BSB, clm 19859 (for…

(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 privat…

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 …

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 11th century. Having completed a first version in 1088, Hariulf revised and completed the text with a description o…

mid-13th century. England. Five anonymous fragments o…

[Hartvicus episcopus Iauriensis; Hartvik, Hartwik, Chartvicius] 11th/12th century. Hungary. Author of a life of St. Stephen of Hungary presenting himself as Cartuicus episcopus. He is unknown from other sources, therefore he has been identified with other Hungarian bishops of the time of Coloman the Learned, mainly with Arduin, bishop of Győr. The surviving text opens with a letter of dedication to King Coloman. The work connects two earlier Legends of St. Stephen: the Legenda maior (ca 1083) and the Legenda minor (post 1083, possibly ca 1100) and their two differen…

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 Xronikon (History in the form of chronicle), likewise in Armenian (1296); and La Fleur des histoires de la terre d'Orient (or Flos historiarum terrae Orientis) in French and Latin versions (1307).Starting with the birth of Christ, Hayton's Patmutʿiwn Xronikon focuses especially on the history of Popes, emperors, French kings, and Crusader kingdoms. It relies upon Frankish sources, Martin of Opava, and the author’s own knowledge of Armenian history. It is preserved in Yerevan, Maštocʿ Matenadaran, Ms. 1898, which also includes Hayton’s two genealogies.The Fleur des histoires was one of the most widely known texts about the East to circulate in Western Europe. Hayton presented it to Pope Clement V in Poitiers in 1307, aiming to trigger a new crusade in the Middle East, which mig…

[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 which he disagrees. Morgan proposes that this chronicle represents "the (fragmentary) memoirs of Thomas Howard" (?1443-1524), perhaps as reported to a member of his household. In his long career, Howard served several kings, including Edward IV. Morgan also associates the fragment's claim of representing personal memory with the "prehistory" of the historical memoir as a genre whose development was belated in England, as compared to earlier examples on the continent. Although written in the early 16th century, this chro…

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 Historia Maguntina is a chronicle of the (arch)diocese of Mainz, which follows the succession of the bishops and archbishops. Scholarly research has mainly been interested in Hebelin's chronicle because of the inscriptions, in particul…

(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 followed Capito …

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…

ca 1085-1139. Germany. Disciple of Frutolf von Michelsberg. Author of a Latin universal chronicle in seven books entitled Consideratio annorum seculi et Christi Iesu (1135), also known as De decursu temporum.Heimo's work is notable for its preoccupation with computistic matters. In his Consideratio he dated the year of Christ's Passion to am 4026. He accepted the Latin tradition that Christ had died on 25th March, but he corrected the corresponding age of the moon from luna xv into luna xiv, claiming that the Jewish luna xv is identical to the Roman luna xiv. According to the Roman lun…

[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 finishingthe chronicle in Cologne in 1471/72, Heinrich went to Mainz to take abetter job in the administration of …