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The ''Kaiserchronik'' (''Imperial Chronicle'') is a 12th-century chronicle written in 17,283 lines of
Middle High German Middle High German (MHG; german: Mittelhochdeutsch (Mhd.)) is the term for the form of German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High German and into Early New High German. Hi ...
verse. It runs from
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
to Conrad III, and seeks to give a complete account of the history of
Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
and
German emperor The German Emperor (german: Deutscher Kaiser, ) was the official title of the head of state and hereditary ruler of the German Empire. A specifically chosen term, it was introduced with the 1 January 1871 constitution and lasted until the offi ...
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 or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the ...
some time after 1146. The poet (or at least the final compiler) was presumably a cleric in secular service, a partisan of the
Guelph Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...
s. However the view that it was written by Konrad der Pfaffe, author of the ''
Rolandslied ''The Song of Roland'' (french: La Chanson de Roland) is an 11th-century '' chanson de geste'' based on the Frankish military leader Roland at the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 AD, during the reign of the Carolingian king Charlemagne. It is ...
'', has been discredited. Known sources include the '' Chronicon Wirzeburgense'', the Chronicle of
Ekkehard of Aura Ekkehard of Aura ( la, Ekkehardus Uraugiensis; died 1126) was the Abbot of Aura (a monastery founded by Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, on the Franconian Saale river, near Bad Kissingen, Bavaria) from 1108. A Benedictine monk and chronicler, he made up ...
, and the ''
Annolied The ''Annolied'' (''"Song of Anno"'') is an Early Middle High German poem in praise of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne. Anno died in 1075 and the poem, probably written in the years immediately after his death, can be seen as part of a campaign fo ...
''; 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, the "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 that of
Jans der Enikel Jans der Enikel (), or Jans der Jansen Enikel (), was a Viennese chronicler and narrative poet of the late 13th century. He wrote a ''Weltchronik'' () and a ''Fürstenbuch'' (, a history of Vienna), both in Middle High German verse. Name and ...
. The text of the ''Kaiserchronik'' is preserved in a total of some 50 manuscripts, of which 20 have the full text. Of these, five predate the 14th century, including one of the late 12th century (the Vorau ms.). The main witnesses are: *Vorau, Stiftsbibl., Cod. 276 (früher XI), c. 1175-1200 (Schröder ms. 1) *Heidelberg, Universitätsbibl., Cpg 361, mid-13th c. (Schröder ms. 4) *Prag, Nationalbibl., Cod. XXIII.G.43, c. 1225-1250 (Schröder ms. 18) *Wien, Österr. Nationalbibl., Cod. 413, mid-13th c. (Schröder ms. 25) *Wien, Österr. Nationalbibl., Cod. 2693, c. 1275-1300 (Schröder ms. 16) *München, Staatsbibl., Cgm 37, c. 1325-1350 (Schröder ms. 2) *Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibl., Cod. 15.2 Aug. 2°, early 14th c. (incomplete text, Schröder ms. 3) The chronicle was first edited in full in 1849-54 by
Hans Ferdinand Massmann Hans Ferdinand Massmann (german: Maßmann; 15 August 1797 – 3 August 1874) was a German philologist, known for his studies in Old German language and literature, and for his work introducing gymnastics into schools in Prussia. Biography Massma ...
. Massmann was in a bitter academic dispute with
August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben August Heinrich Hoffmann (, calling himself von Fallersleben, after his hometown; 2 April 179819 January 1874) was a German poet. He is best known for writing " Das Lied der Deutschen", whose third stanza is now the national anthem of Germany, a ...
, an "almost proprietal struggle" over the priority of the respective manuscripts they had access to. Müller (1999) categorizes Massmann's work as an ''editionsphilologischer Amoklauf'' (as it were "editorial philology gone postal"), as Massmann goes out of his way to ignore the Vorau ms., to the point of using the 1639 edition of ''
Annolied The ''Annolied'' (''"Song of Anno"'') is an Early Middle High German poem in praise of Archbishop Anno II of Cologne. Anno died in 1075 and the poem, probably written in the years immediately after his death, can be seen as part of a campaign fo ...
'' by
Martin Opitz Martin Opitz von Boberfeld (23 December 1597 – 20 August 1639) was a German poet, regarded as the greatest of that nation during his lifetime. Biography Opitz was born in Bunzlau (Bolesławiec) in Lower Silesia, in the Principality of ...
as a "Kaiserchronik fragment" in higher standing than the Vorau ms. The only critical edition besides Massmann's is that of
Edward Schröder Edward Schröder (18 May 1858 – 9 February 1942) was a Germanist and mediaevalist who was a professor at the University of Göttingen and published editions of numerous texts. Life and career Born in Witzenhausen and educated in Kassel, S ...
(1892). There is also a classroom edition of excerpts with parallel translations in English.James A. Schultz (ed./tr), ''Sovereignty and Salvation in the Vernacular, 1050-1150. Das Ezzolied, Das Annolied, Die Kaiserchronik vv. 247-667, Das Lob Salomons, Historia Judith''. (= Medieval German Texts in Bilingual Editions vol. 1), Kalamazoo MI: Western Michigan University Press, 2000.


References


Further reading

* Dale, Johanna. "Imperial Self-Representation and the Manipulation of History in Twelfth-Century Germany: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 373", ''German History'', 29:4 (2011), 557–83. *Myers, Henry A
''The Book of Emperors: A Translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik''
Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2013. * Rubel, Alexander. "Caesar und Karl der Große in der Kaiserchronik. Typologische Struktur und die translatio imperii ad Francos", ''Antike und Abendland'', 47 (2001), 146–63.


External links


The Munich manuscript digitisedKaiserchronik Digital
Include

{{Authority control German chronicles Middle High German literature 12th-century history books 12th-century German writers