Kaiserchronik
Encyclopedia
Middle High German
Middle High German , abbreviated MHG , is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. It is preceded by Old High German and followed by Early New High German...
verse. It runs from Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar was a Roman general and statesman and a distinguished writer of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the gradual transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire....
to Conrad III
Conrad III of Germany
Conrad III was the first King of Germany of the Hohenstaufen dynasty. He was the son of Frederick I, Duke of Swabia, and Agnes, a daughter of the Salian Emperor Henry IV.-Life and reign:...
, and seeks to give a complete account of the history of Roman and German emperor
German Emperor
This article is about the emperors of the German Empire. For full list of German monarchs before 1871, see List of German monarchs.The German Emperor was the official title of the Head of State and ruler of the German Empire, beginning with the proclamation of Wilhelm I as emperor during the...
s and kings, based on a historiographical view of the continuity of the Roman and German successions. The overall pattern is of a progression from pagan to Christian worlds, and theological disputations stand at the turning-points of the Christianization of the Empire. However, much of the material is legendary and fantastic, suggesting that large sections are compiled from earlier works, mostly shorter biographies and saints' lives.
The chronicle was written in Regensburg
Regensburg
Regensburg is a city in Bavaria, Germany, located at the confluence of the Danube and Regen rivers, at the northernmost bend in the Danube. To the east lies the Bavarian Forest. Regensburg is the capital of the Bavarian administrative region Upper Palatinate...
some time after 1146. The poet (or at least the final compiler) was presumably a cleric in secular service, a partisan of the Guelphs. However the view that it was written by Konrad der Pfaffe
Konrad der Pfaffe
Konrad der Pfaffe, 'Conrad the Priest', was a German Roman Catholic epic poet of the twelfth century, author of the "Rolandslied", a German version of the famous "Chanson de Roland".We know almost nothing concerning his life...
, author of the Rolandslied, has been discredited. Known sources include the Chronicon Wirzeburgense, the Chronicle Ekkehard of Aura
Ekkehard of Aura
Ekkehard of Aura was the Abbot of Aura from 1108...
, and the Annolied
Annolied
The Annolied was composed around 1100 in Early Middle High German rhyming couplets by a monk of Siegburg Abbey.-Dating:A principal point of reference for the dating is the mention of Mainz as a place of coronation...
; the relationship to the Annolied has received particular attention in scholarship, as earlier views of the priority of the Kaiserchronik, or of a shared source, were gradually dismissed. Judging from the large number of surviving manuscripts (twelve complete and seventeen partial), it must have been very popular, and it was twice continued in the 13th century: the first addition, "Bavarian continuation", comprised 800 verses, while the second, the "Swabian continuation", which brought the poem to the Interregnum (1254–73), consisted of 483 lines. The Kaiserchronik in turn was used as an important source for other verse chronicles in the thirteenth century, most notably Jans der Enikel
Jans der Enikel
Jans der Enikel, i.e. "Jans the Grandson" was a Viennese poet and historian of the late 13th century. He wrote a Weltchronik and a Fürstenbuch , both in Middle High German verse....
.
The chronicle was first published in full in 1849-54 by Massmann, whose work has been described as an "editionsphilologischer Amoklauf", though it does present an impressive collection of analogues. The only critical edition is that of Schröder. There is also a classroom edition of excerpts with parallel translations in English.
External links
- etext (virginia.edu)