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chronicle

{{short description|Historical account of facts and events}}

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{{redirect-distinguish|Chronicler|the Chronicler}}

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File:Képes_krónika_első_lapja.jpg, the "Illuminated Chronicle" from the royal Hungarian court from 1358]]

A chronicle ({{langx|la|chronica}}, from Greek {{lang|grc|χρονικά}} chroniká, from {{lang|grc|χρόνος}}, chrónos – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler. A chronicle which traces world history is a universal chronicle. This is in contrast to a narrative or history, in which an author chooses events to interpret and analyze and excludes those the author does not consider important or relevant.

The information sources for chronicles vary. Some are written from the chronicler's direct knowledge, others from witnesses or participants in events, still others are accounts passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition.Elisabeth M. C. Van Houts, Memory and Gender in Medieval Europe: 900–1200 (Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1999), pp. 19–20. Some used written material, such as charters, letters, and earlier chronicles. Still others are tales of unknown origin that have mythical status. Copyists also changed chronicles in creative copying, making corrections or in updating or continuing a chronicle with information not available to the original chronicler. Determining the reliability of particular chronicles is important to historians.

Many newspapers and other periodical literature have adopted "chronicle" as part of their name.

Subgroups

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| source = – John Gough Nichols, critical edition foreword to Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London (1852){{Cite web |title=Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London : Camden Society (Great Britain) : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive |author= |work=Internet Archive |date= |access-date=18 June 2023 |url= https://archive.org/details/greyfriarsof00camduoft/page/n9/mode/2up}}

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Scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups: live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle is one where the author assembles a list of events up to the time of their writing, but does not record further events as they occur. A live chronicle is where one or more authors add to a chronicle in a regular fashion, recording contemporary events shortly after they occur. Because of the immediacy of the information, historians tend to value live chronicles, such as annals, over dead ones.{{cn|date=October 2024}}

The term often refers to a book written by a chronicler in the Middle Ages describing historical events in a country, or the lives of a nobleman or a clergyman, although it is also applied to a record of public events. The earliest medieval chronicle to combine both retrospective (dead) and contemporary (live) entries, is the Chronicle of Ireland, which spans the years 431 to 911.Roy Flechner, '"The Chronicle of Ireland: Then and Now" Early Medieval Europe v.21:4(2013) 422-54 [http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/emed.12025/abstract Article] doi:10.1111/emed.12025

Chronicles are the predecessors of modern "time lines" rather than analytical histories. They represent accounts, in prose or verse, of local or distant events over a considerable period of time, both the lifetime of the individual chronicler and often those of several subsequent continuators. If the chronicles deal with events year by year, they are often called annals. Unlike the modern historian, most chroniclers tended to take their information as they found it, and made little attempt to separate fact from legend. The point of view of most chroniclers is highly localised, to the extent that many anonymous chroniclers can be sited in individual abbeys.{{Cite journal |last=Kuijpers |first=Erika |last2=Lenarduzzi |first2=Carolina |last3=Pollmann |first3=Judith |last4=Dekker |first4=Theo |last5=Lassche |first5=Alie |date=2024-12-27 |title=Profiling local chroniclers in the early modern Low Countries |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/profiling-local-chroniclers-in-the-early-modern-low-countries/F9A0CE687017280D09433D596190A7AE |journal=Urban History |language=en |pages=1–26 |doi=10.1017/S0963926824000531 |issn=0963-9268}}

It is impossible to say how many chronicles exist, as the many ambiguities in the definition of the genre make it impossible to draw clear distinctions of what should or should not be included. However, the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle lists some 2,500 items written between 300 and 1500 AD.{{Cite journal |last=Pollmann |first=Judith |date=2016-11-01 |title=Archiving the Present and Chronicling for the Future in Early Modern Europe |url=https://academic.oup.com/past/article/230/suppl_11/231/2884264?login=false |journal=Past & Present |volume=230 |issue=suppl_11 |pages=231–252 |doi=10.1093/pastj/gtw029 |issn=0031-2746}}

Citation of entries

Entries in chronicles are often cited using the abbreviation s.a., meaning sub anno (under the year), according to the year under which they are listed. For example, "ASC MS A, s.a. 855" means the entry for the year 855 in manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The same event may be recorded under a different year in another manuscript of the chronicle, and may be cited for example as "ASC MS D, s.a. 857".

English chronicles

The most important English chronicles are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, started under the patronage of King Alfred in the 9th century and continued until the 12th century, and the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577–87) by Raphael Holinshed and other writers; the latter documents were important sources of materials for Elizabethan drama.'A Glossary of Literary Terms' – M.H. Abrams Later 16th-century Scottish chronicles, written after the Reformation, shape history according to Catholic or Protestant viewpoints.

Cronista

A cronista is a term for a historical chronicler, a role that held historical significance in the European Middle Ages. Until the European Enlightenment, the occupation was largely equivalent to that of a historian, describing events chronologically that were of note in a given country or region. As such, it was often an official governmental position rather than an independent practice. The appointment of the official chronicler often favored individuals who had distinguished themselves by their efforts to study, investigate and disseminate population-related issues. The position was granted on a local level based on the mutual agreements of a city council in plenary meetings. Often, the occupation was honorary, unpaid, and stationed for life. In modern usage, the term usually refers to a type of journalist who writes chronicles as a form of journalism or non-professional historical documentation.{{Cite book|last=Dadson|first=Trevor J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8UW-D822uBMC&q=Cronista+spain&pg=PA51|title=The Genoese in Spain: Gabriel Bocángel Y Unzueta, 1603-1658 : a Biography|date=1983|publisher=Tamesis|isbn=978-0-7293-0161-9|language=es}}

=Cronista in the Middle Ages=

Before the development of modern journalism and the systematization of chronicles as a journalistic genre, cronista were tasked with narrating chronological events considered worthy of remembrance that were recorded year by year. Unlike writers who created epic poems regarding living figures, cronista recorded historical events in the lives of individuals in an ostensibly truthful and reality-oriented way.

Even from the time of early Christian historiography, cronistas were clearly expected to place human history in the context of a linear progression, starting with the creation of man until the second coming of Christ, as prophesied in biblical texts.Richard W. Burgess, Studies in Eusebian and post-Eusebian Chronography, Stuttgart (1999).

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Lists of chronicles

= Alphabetical list of notable chronicles =

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File:Archive-ugent-be-2A0E426C-68E4-11E8-87FC-F6DB0AD9BE4D DS-21 (cropped).jpg

= Rhymed chronicles =

Rhymed or poetic chronicles, as opposed to prosaic chronicles, include:

  • {{ill|Rhymed Chronicle of 1682|uk|Римована хроніка (1682)}}
  • Rhymed Chronicle of Armenia Minor
  • {{ill|Cronache aquilane|it|Cronache aquilane}} ("Chronicle of L'Aquila"), both in prose and verse form
  • Brabantsche Yeesten ({{circa}} 1315–1351) by Jan van Boendale (continued by an anonymous author){{sfn|Stein|2021|pp=300–301}}
  • Cornicke van Brabant (1415) by Hennen van Merchtenen{{sfn|Stein|2021|p=301}}
  • Cronijck van Brabant ({{circa}} 1435–1460), anonymous, until 1430{{sfn|Stein|2021|p=309}}
  • {{ill|Rhymed Chronicle of Brunswick|de|Braunschweigische Reimchronik}}
  • {{ill|Rhymed Chronicle of Cologne|de|Reimchronik der Stadt Köln}} by Gottfried Hagen
  • Chronicle of Dalimil
  • {{ill|Danish Rhymed Chronicle|da|Den danske Rimkrønike}}
  • {{ill|Chronicon Egmundanum|nl|Chronicon Egmundanum}}
  • {{ill|Engelbrekt's Chronicle|sv|Engelbrektskrönikan}}
  • Erik's Chronicle
  • Rhymed Chronicle of Flanders, part of the {{ill|Comburg Manuscript|nl|Comburgse handschrift}}. It is unique as all other surviving Dutch-language chronicles of Flanders were written in prose.
  • Die olde Freesche cronike (1474), anonymous history of Friesland until 1248{{cite book |last=Carasso-Kok |first=M. |title=Repertorium van verhalende historische bronnen uit de middeleeuwen: heiligenlevens, annalen, kronieken en andere in Nederland geschreven verhalende bronnen |publisher=Nijhoff |series=Bibliografische Reeks van het Nederlands Historisch Genootschap |year=1981 |isbn=978-90-247-9132-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALjPDDIIJY0C&pg=PA170 |language=nl |access-date=8 October 2024 |page=170}}
  • {{ill|Rhymed Chronicle of Gandersheim|de|Gandersheimer Reimchronik}}
  • Rhymed Chronicle of Holland by Melis Stoke
  • {{ill|Karl's Chronicle|sv|Karlskrönikan}}
  • Rhymed Chronicle of Kastl (Kastler Reimchronik)
  • {{ill|Rhymed Chronicle of Klaas Kolijn|nl|Rijmkroniek van Klaas Kolijn}}, notorious 17th-century forgery pretending to be written in the 12th century
  • Livonian Rhymed Chronicle
  • Rhymed Chronicle of Mecklenburg by Ernest of Kirchberg
  • Chronique métrique de Philippe le Bel or Chronique rimée (1316) by Geoffrey of Paris
  • Chronique rimée ({{circa}} 1250) by Philippe Mouskes
  • New Prussian Chronicle by Wigand of Marburg
  • Roman de Brut by Wace
  • Spieghel Historiael by Jacob van Maerlant
  • {{ill|Sture's Chronicle|sv|Sturekrönikan}}
  • {{ill|Styrian Rhymed Chronicle|de|Steirische Reimchronik}}
  • Rhymed Chronicle of Utrecht ({{Circa}} 1378)
  • Rhyming Chronicle of Worringen{{sfn|Avonds|1988|p=199}}

See also

References

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External links

  • {{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Chronicle |volume=6 |last1= Bémont |first1= Charles |author1-link= Charles Bémont | pages = 298–299 |short=1}}
  • {{Cite journal |last1=Avonds |first1=Piet |date=1988 |url=https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_lit003198801_01/_lit003198801_01_0031.php |title=Van Keulen naar Straatsburg. Jan van Heelu's rijmkroniek over de slag bij Woeringen (1288) |journal=Literatuur: tijdschrift over Nederlandse letterkunde |volume=5 |issue=1 |pp=196–204 |lang=nl}}
  • {{Cite book |last1=Stein |first1=Robert |editor-last1=van Anrooij |editor-first1=W. |editor-last2=Verbij-Schillings |editor-first2=J. |date=2021 |chapter=Levend verleden: de Cronijck van Brabant |chapter-url=https://hdl.handle.net/1887/3247548 |title=Werken van Gelre |location=Hilversum |publisher=Verloren |pages=299–315 |isbn= |accessdate=27 June 2024 |lang=nl}}

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Category:Medieval literature

Category:Works about history