The Chronicon Ambrosianum or Chronica parva Ambrosianum ("short Ambrosian chronicle") is a set of exceedingly terse Latin

Medieval Latin

Medieval Latin was the form of Latin used in the Middle Ages, primarily as a medium of scholarly exchange and as the liturgical language of the medieval Roman Catholic Church, but also as a language of science, literature, law, and administration. Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors,...

 annals

Annals

Annals are a concise form of historical representation which record events chronologically, year by year. The Oxford English Dictionary defines annals as "a narrative of events written year by year"...

 that, together with the Annales Compostellani

Annales Compostellani

The Annales Compostellani or Anales castellanos terceros are a set of Latin annals found in, and named after, Santiago de Compostela...

and the Chronicon Burgense

Chronicon Burgense

The Chronicon Burgense is a collection of Latin annals that, together with the Annales Compostellani and the Chronicon Ambrosianum, may form a group of related histories sometimes called the Efemérides riojanas because they may have been compiled in La Rioja...

, forms a group of related histories first called the Efemérides riojanas by Manuel Gómez-Moreno because they may have been compiled in La Rioja

La Rioja (Spain)

La Rioja is an autonomous community and a province of northern Spain. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, and Nájera.-History:...

. The Chronicon is named after the Biblioteca Ambrosiana

Biblioteca Ambrosiana

The Biblioteca Ambrosiana is a historic library in Milan, Italy, also housing the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, the Ambrosian art gallery. Named after Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan, it was founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo , whose agents scoured Western Europe and even Greece and Syria for books...

 in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, where the Chronicon was first discovered in manuscript and published by Ludovico Antonio Muratori

Ludovico Antonio Muratori

Ludovico Antonio Muratori was an Italian historian, notable as a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragment, the earliest known list of New Testament books....

.

The Chronicon contains a list of ten feast days with the names of their saints and seventeen years, each described by one event. The first event, in Era 38

Spanish era

The Spanish era, Hispanic era or Caesar era refers to the dating system used in Hispania until the 14th century, when the Anno Domini system was adopted. It began with year one in what is 38 BC, probably the date of a new tax imposed by the Roman Republic on the subdued population of Iberia....

, is the nativity of Jesus

Nativity of Jesus

The Nativity of Jesus, or simply The Nativity, refers to the accounts of the birth of Jesus in two of the Canonical gospels and in various apocryphal texts....

. Besides deaths, the only events mentioned are the Massacre of the Innocents

Massacre of the Innocents

The Massacre of the Innocents is an episode of infanticide by the King of Judea, Herod the Great. According to the Gospel of Matthew Herod orders the execution of all young male children in the village of Bethlehem, so as to avoid the loss of his throne to a newborn King of the Jews whose birth...

 (Era 47), the passion of Jesus (Era 69), the assumption of John the Evangelist

John the Evangelist

Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...

 (Era 108), and the prophesying of Mohammed (Era 656). The final year (Era 1208, that is, AD 1170), though it is placed out of chronological order, is the death of Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket

Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...

. The last event in the list is the death of Juan de Ortega (Johannes de Urteca, Era 1201, that is, 1163).

Editions

• In Ludovico Antonio Muratori
  Ludovico Antonio Muratori
  Ludovico Antonio Muratori was an Italian historian, notable as a leading scholar of his age, and for his discovery of the Muratorian fragment, the earliest known list of New Testament books....
  
  , ed. Rerum italicarum scriptores, II (Milan: 1724), col. 1024.
• In Enrique Flórez
  Enrique Florez
  Enrique Flórez de Setién y Huidobro was a Spanish historian.Florez was born in Valladolid. At 15 years old, he entered the order of St Augustine. He subsequently became professor of theology at the University of Alcala, where he published a Cursus theologiae in five volumes...
  
  , ed. España Sagrada, XXIII (Madrid: 1767), 304–5.
• In Miguel Bravo Tedín, ed. Efemérides riojanas. La Rioja: Editorial Canguro, 1992.