![Codex-sangallensis915 196](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Codex-sangallensis915_196.jpg)
The ''Annales Almannici'', which are also referred to as the ''Annals of St. Gall'', provide one of the earliest records of Medieval Europe available. The core text of the ''Annales Alamannici'' covers the years 709 through to 799. Spread over several
Swabia
Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.
The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...
n monasteries, the annals were continued independently in several places, in the
Reichenau Abbey
Reichenau Abbey was a Benedictine Order, Benedictine monastery on Reichenau Island (known in Latin as Augia Dives). It was founded in 724 by the itinerant Saint Pirmin, who is said to have fled Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders, with patronage ...
up to 939 (continued by
Hermannus Contractus
Blessed Hermann of Reichenau (18 July 1013– 24 September 1054), also known by other names, was an 11th-century Benedictine monk and scholar. He composed works on history, music theory, mathematics, and astronomy, as well as many hymn ...
), in
Abbey of Saint Gall
The Abbey of Saint Gall (german: Abtei St. Gallen) is a dissolved abbey (747–1805) in a Catholic religious complex in the city of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The Carolingian-era monastery existed from 719, founded by Saint Othmar on the spot ...
up to 926. The
St. Gallen
, neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach
, twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic)
, website ...
version was continued from 927 to 1059 as the ''
Annales Sangallenses maiores
The ''Annales Sangallenses maiores'' (Latin for ''Greater Annals of St Gall'') are annals compiled in St Gallen, covering the years 927 through to 1059. They continue the ''Annales Alamannici
The ''Annales Almannici'', which are also referred ...
''. They depict a limited number of events, in short prose, but their value to scholars is in their medieval representational style.
Context
They are notable for their very short, cursory style and limited narrative. To the modern scholar, they might appear to be incomplete, and for that reason, of limited value. However, in recent years, historians such as Hayden White have argued that the style of the chronicles depict a worldview that is distinctly medieval where "things happen to people rather than one in which people do things." For that reason, they provide insight into the medieval mind and what things the people of the Dark Ages considered important.
[H. White, “The value of narrativity in the representation of reality,” Critical Inquiry (1980): p. 6.]
Sources
*''Annales Alamannici'', ed. W. Lendi, Untersuchungen zurfruhalemannischen Annalistik. Die Murbacher Annalen. (Freiburg, 1971)
References
{{reflist
Carolingian historiography
German chronicles
8th-century Latin books
9th-century Latin books
10th-century Latin books
11th-century Latin books
8th-century Latin writers
8th-century Frankish writers