The Fragmentum chesnii or chesnianum, sometimes called the Annales Laureshamenses antiquiores, is a brief set of Reichsannalen

Reichsannalen

The Reichsannalen are a class of annals composed anonymously in the Carolingian Empire throughout the 9th century. They first appeared under Pepin the Short in 741 and became ubiquitous at monasteries throughout the empire in the following decades...

describing the history of Francia during the years 768 to 790. It is named after André Duchesne

André Duchesne

André Duchesne was a French geographer and historian, generally styled the father of French history. He was educated at Loudun and afterwards at Paris...

 (Andreas Chesneus), who first edited and published it in his book Historiae Francorum scriptores (1:21–23) in 1636. It has been re-edited by Georg Heinrich Pertz

Georg Heinrich Pertz

thumb|Georg Heinrich PertzGeorg Heinrich Pertz , was a German historian born at Hanover.From 1813 to 1818 he studied at the University of Göttingen, chiefly under A. H. L. Heeren...

 for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica

Monumenta Germaniae Historica

The Monumenta Germaniae Historica is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published sources for the study of German history from the end of the Roman Empire to 1500.The society sponsoring the series was established by the Prussian reformer Heinrich Friedrich Karl Freiherr vom...

, Scriptores I, 33–34 (Hanover: 1826).

For the years up to 785, the Fragmentum is textually almost identical with the Annales laureshamenses

Annales laureshamenses

The Annales laureshamenses or Annals of Lorsch are a set of annals of the history of Francia covering the years from 703 to 803 with a brief prologue. They were perhaps begun as a continuation of the "Minor Chronicle" of Bede, contained in his De temporibus...

(AL) and the Annales mosellani

Annales mosellani

The Annales mosellani or mosellenses or Moselle Annals are a set of minor Reichsannalen covering the years 703 to 798. Its entries are brief and unliterary, but broad in scope and generally accurate. They have only partially been translated into English.J. M...

(AM). With a manuscript of the former (from Sankt-Paul) it shares an identical entry for the first half of the year 786. This indicates the existence of a stem text from which all three sets of annals derive (the "Lorsch Annals of 785") and the existence of a brief continuation of this text that was not used by the compiler of the AM but which bequeathed a short entry for 786 to both the Fragmentum and the AL, which diverge completely after that. The major divergence of the texts before the year 786 is in the mention of events related to the Abbey of Lorsch, which were probably found in the exemplar (the "Lorsch Annals of 785") and retained in the AL, but have all been excised from the Fragmentum (which was probably not compiled at Lorsch). The Fragmentum is generally briefer than the AL.

The Fragmentum is found between the Chronicle of Fredegar

Chronicle of Fredegar

The Chronicle of Fredegar is a chronicle that is a primary source of events in Frankish Gaul from 584 to around 641. Later authors continued the history to the coronation of Charlemagne and his brother Carloman on 9 October 768....

and a section of the Annales regni francorum (years 791–806) in a late ninth- or tenth-century manuscript from Reims

Reims

Reims , a city in the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lies east-northeast of Paris. Founded by the Gauls, it became a major city during the period of the Roman Empire....

, now in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (MS Reg. Lat. 213, fols. 149–51). In the manuscript there is no division between the Fragmentum and the Annales regni francorum, which picks up where the former leaves off. It has been hypothesised that the multiplication of distinct annalistic traditions in the 780s was sponsored by Charlemagne

Charlemagne

Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

 as part of a wider programme of cultural/educational renewal

Carolingian Renaissance

In the history of ideas the Carolingian Renaissance stands out as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in Europe occurring from the late eighth century, in the generation of Alcuin, to the 9th century, and the generation of Heiric of Auxerre, with the peak of the activities coordinated...

. This would explain the divergence of the Fragmentum and the AL in 786. Likewise the abrupt end of various annals in the 790s may be explained by the centralisation of the historiography in the "authorised" Annales regni francorum around that time (or by 807/8 at the latest).