Burchard of Ursperg, also called Burchard of Biberach (c.1177–1230/1) was a German priest and chronicler. His ''Ursperger Chronicle'' (or ''Chronicon Urspergensis'') is the most important

universal history A universal history is a work aiming at the presentation of a history of all of mankind as a whole, coherent unit. A universal chronicle or world chronicle typically traces history from the beginning of written information about the past up to t ...

of the late Staufer era.Mathias Herweg, "Burchard of Ursperg", in '' Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle'', ed. Graeme Dunphy, Cristian Bratu. First published online in 2016, consulted online on 19 May 2019. What is known of Burchard's life is drawn mainly from his chronicle. He was born in the

imperial free city In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

of Biberach in the

Duchy of Swabia The Duchy of Swabia (German: ''Herzogtum Schwaben'') was one of the five stem duchies of the medieval German Kingdom. It arose in the 10th century in the southwestern area that had been settled by Alemanni tribes in Late Antiquity. While the ...

. He was at the

Papal court The papal household or pontifical household (usually not capitalized in the media and other nonofficial use, ), called until 1968 the Papal Court (''Aula Pontificia''), consists of dignitaries who assist the pope in carrying out particular ceremoni ...

in 1198–99 and was ordained a priest at Constance in 1202. He joined the

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Schussenried Abbey in 1205 and became its provost in 1209. He spent 1210–11 at the Papal court again before he was called to Ursperg Abbey in 1215 to serve as provost. He wrote his chronicle there in 1229/30.Patricius Schlager
"Ursperger Chronicle"
in ''

Catholic Encyclopedia The ''Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church'' (also referred to as the ''Old Catholic Encyclopedia'' and the ''Original Catholic Encyclopedia'') i ...

'', Volume 15, ed. Charles Herbermann (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1913). He died on 11 January in either 1230 or 1231. Burchard was succeeded as provost by Conrad of Lichtenau, who was long thought to have finished his chronicle or at least edited it.Peter Godman, ''The Saint as Censor: Robet Bellarmine between Inquisition and Index'' (Leiden: Brill, 2000), p. 163. The ''Ursperger Chronicle'', composed in

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prose, begins with the legendary King

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, founder of

Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ba ...

, and extends to the year 1229. For the earlier part Burchard uses Ekkehard of Aura and Frutolf of Michelsberg. During his two stays in Rome he gathered information in the papal ''

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''. Although a partisan of the Staufer, he made use of the '' Historia Welforum'' of their chief rivals, the Welfs. His original work, drawing on events he witnessed or had heard about from witnesses, starts with the last years of Henry VI. The autograph of Burchard's chronicle was lost to fire in the 16th century. His critiques of papal policy made him a favourite among early

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. This led to its being placed on the Catholic

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in 1575, a sentence lifted by Cardinal Bellarmine in 1593.

Caspar Hedio Caspar Hedio, also written as Kaspar Hedio, Kaspar Heyd, Kaspar Bock or Kaspar Böckel ( Ettlingen, 1494 - Strasbourg, 17 October 1552) was a German historian, theologian and Protestant reformer. He was born into a prosperous family and atten ...

added a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

continuation to bring the ''Chronicon'' down to 1537. The

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was brought out by Miller and Foeniseca at Augsburg in 1515 from a copy in the possession of Konrad Peutinger. Another edition by Melanchthon and Mylius appeared at Basel in 1569, erroneously attributing the sole authorship of the chronicle to Burchard's successor, Conrad. The last edition was printed at Strasbourg in 1609.Arthur F. J. Remy
"Konrad of Lichtenau"
in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', Volume 8, ed. Charles Herbermann (New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910).

References

{{authority control 1230s deaths Premonstratensians Medieval Latin histories German chroniclers 13th-century German historians 13th-century German writers 13th-century Latin writers Year of birth uncertain