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. Hig ...

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, ...

to Conrad III, and seeks to give a complete account of the history of Roman 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 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'', 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 upda ...

, and the '' Annolied''; 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. 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, an ...

, 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'' 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 (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

External links

The Munich manuscript digitisedKaiserchronik Digital
Include

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

References

Further reading

External links