Chronicle of Fredegar

Last updated
Pen drawing from the earliest manuscript which is believed to depict Eusebius and Jerome, 715 AD Chronique de Fredegaire-deux personnages.jpg
Pen drawing from the earliest manuscript which is believed to depict Eusebius and Jerome, 715 AD

The Chronicle of Fredegar is the conventional title used for a 7th-century Frankish chronicle that was probably written in Burgundy. The author is unknown and the attribution to Fredegar dates only from the 16th century.

Contents

The chronicle begins with the creation of the world and ends in AD 642. There are also a few references to events up to 658. Some copies of the manuscript contain an abridged version of the chronicle up to the date of 642, but include additional sections written under the Carolingian dynasty that end with the death of Pepin the Short in 768. The Chronicle of Fredegar with its Continuations is one of the few sources that provide information on the Merovingian dynasty for the period after 591 when Gregory of Tours' the Decem Libri Historiarum finishes.

Authorship

None of the surviving manuscripts specify the name of the author. [2] The name "Fredegar" (modern French Frédégaire) was first used for the chronicle in 1579 by Claude Fauchet in his Recueil des antiquitez gauloises et françoises. [3] [4] The question of who wrote this work has been much debated, although the historian J. M. Wallace-Hadrill admits that "Fredegar" is a genuine, if unusual, Frankish name. [5] The Vulgar Latin of this work confirms that the Chronicle was written in Gaul; beyond this, little is certain about the origin of this work. As a result, there are several theories about the authorship: [6]

Fredegar is usually assumed to have been a Burgundian from the region of Avenches because of his knowledge of the alternate name Wifflisburg for this locality, a name only then coming into usage. This assumption is supported by the fact that he had access to the annals of many Burgundian churches. He also had access to court documents and could apparently interview Lombard, Visigoth, and Slavic ambassadors. His awareness of events in the Byzantine world is also usually explained by the proximity of Burgundy to Byzantine Italy.

Manuscripts

The chronicle exists in over thirty manuscripts, which both Krusch and the English medievalist Roger Collins group into five classes. [10] [11] The original chronicle is lost, but it exists in an uncial copy made in 715 by a Burgundian monk named Lucerius. This copy, the sole exemplar of a class 1 manuscript, is in the Bibliothèque nationale de France (MS Latin 10910) and is sometimes called the Codex Claromontanus because it was once owned by the Collège de Clermont in Paris. [12] [lower-alpha 1] A diplomatic edition was prepared by the French historian Gabriel Monod and published in 1885. [13] The Codex Claromontanus was also the basis of the critical edition by Krusch published in 1888 and of the partial English translation by Wallace-Hadrill published in 1960. [14] Most of the other surviving manuscripts were copied in Austrasia and date from the early ninth century or later. [15]

Chronicle mentions about tsar Dervan. Chronicle of Fredegar, Vienna, Cod. 482.jpg
Chronicle mentions about tsar Dervan.

The first printed version, the editio princeps , was published in Basel by Flacius Illyricus in 1568. [16] He used MS Heidelberg University Palat. Lat. 864 as his text. [17] The next published edition was Antiquae Lectiones by Canisius at Ingolstadt in 1602. [lower-alpha 2]

Structure

In the critical edition by Krusch the chronicle is divided into four sections or books. The first three books are based on earlier works and cover the period from the beginning of the world up to 584; the fourth book continues up to 642 and foreshadows events occurring between 655 and 660. [18] In the prologue the author (traditionally Fredegar) writes:

I have most carefully read the chronicles of St Jerome, Hydatius and a certain wise man, of Isidore as well as of Gregory, from the beginning of the world to the declining years of Guntram's reign; and I have reproduced successively in this little book, in suitable languages and without many omissions, what these learned men have recounted at length in their five chronicles. [19]

In fact, Fredegar quotes from sources that he does not acknowledge and drastically condenses some of those he does. He also inserts additional sections of text that are not derived from his main sources. These inserted sections are referred to as "interpolations". For most of them the sources are not known. [9] Some of the interpolations are used to weave a legend of a Trojan origin for the Franks through the chronicle. [20] [21]

Book I

The initial 24 chapters of the first book are based on the anonymous Liber generationis which in turn is derived from the work of Hippolytus. The remainder of the book contains a compendium of various chronological tables including a list of the Roman Emperors, a list of Judaic kings, a list of popes up to the accession of Theodore I in 642 and Chapter 3 of the chronicle of Isidore of Seville. [22] On the reverse of the folio containing the papal list is an ink drawing showing two people which according to Monod probably represent Eusebius and Jerome. [23] [24]

Book II

The first 49 chapters of the second book contain extracts from Jerome's Latin translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius. The text includes some interpolations. The remaining chapters contains extracts from the Chronicle of Hydatius. [19] [25]

Book III

The third book contains excerpts from Books II–VI of the Decem Libri Historiarum by Gregory of Tours with several interpolations. Fredegar's source appears to have lacked the last four books of Gregory's text and his narrative ends in 584. [25]

Book IV

The 90 chapters in the fourth book contain details of events concerning the Burgundian court. Fredegar does not reveal his sources but the earlier chapters are presumably based on local annals. Chapters 24–39 contain an accounts from witnesses of events between 603 and 613. [25] Chapter 36 is an interpolation on the life of Saint Columbanus that is copied, almost without change, from the Vita Columbani by Jonas of Bobbio. [26] [27] The book ends abruptly with the Battle of Autun in 642. [25] Book IV has been the most studied by historians as it contains information that is not present in other medieval sources.

Continuations

One group of manuscripts (Krusch's Class 4) contain a reworking of the Chronicle of Fredegar followed by additional sections that describe events in Francia up to 768. These additional sections are referred to as the Continuations. Krusch in his critical edition, appends these extra chapters to the text of the Codex Claromontanus creating the false impression that the two parts originate from the same manuscript. [9] [28]

Class 4 manuscripts are divided into three books. The first begins with a section based on the treatise De cursu temporum by the obscure fourth century Latin writer Quintus Julius Hilarianus. This is followed by a version of Fredegar's Book II incorporating an expanded account of the Trojan origin of the Franks. The second book is an abridged version of the histories by Gregory of Tours corresponding to Fredegar's Book III. The third and final book consists of the 90 chapters of Fredegar's Book IV followed by the Continuations. [9]

The Continuations consists of three parts. The first ten chapters are based on the Liber Historiae Francorum , an anonymous Neustrian chronicle that ends in around 721. The second part (Chapters 11–33) covers the years up to 751. At this point a colophon is inserted in the text explaining that the writing of the chronicle was ordered by Charles Martel's brother, Count Childebrand. Wallace-Hadrill's translation is:

Up to this point, the illustrious Count Childebrand, uncle of the said King Pippin, took great pains to have this history or "geste" of the Franks recorded. What follows is by the authority of the illustrious Count Nibelung, Childebrand's son. [29] [lower-alpha 3]

The chronicle then continues for another twenty chapters covering events in Francia up to the year 768. [31]

The medievalist Roger Collins has argued that the text in the Class 4 manuscripts is sufficiently different from the Fredegar Chronicle of the Codex Claromontanus that it should be considered a separate work. He has proposed the new title Historia vel Gesta Francorum which occurs in the colophon mentioned above. He has suggested that one author was responsible for the text up to 751, and that a different author probably wrote the additional chapters. [32] [33]

Notes

  1. ↑ See the Bibliothèque nationale de France,Frédégaire. Latin 10910 at the following site: https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc72579m
  2. ↑ The manuscript was made available on the World Digital Library on December 20, 2017. See the Library of Congress holding, The Chronicle of Fredegar here: https://www.loc.gov/item/2021668236
  3. ↑ The Latin text reads: Usque nunc inluster vir Childebrandus comes, avunculus praedicto rege Pippino, hanc historiam vel gesta Francorum diligentissime scribere procuravit. Abhinc ab inlustre viro Nibelungo, filium ipsius Childebrando, itemque comite succedat auctoritas. [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepin of Herstal</span> Duke and Prince of the Franks (635–714)

Pepin II, commonly known as Pepin of Herstal, was a Frankish statesman and military leader who de facto ruled Francia as the Mayor of the Palace from 680 until his death. He took the title Duke and Prince of the Franks upon his conquest of all the Frankish realms.

In textual criticism of the New Testament, the Western text-type is one of the main text types. It is the predominant form of the New Testament text witnessed in the Old Latin and Syriac translations from the Greek, and also in quotations from certain 2nd and 3rd-century Christian writers, including Cyprian, Tertullian and Irenaeus. The Western text had many characteristic features, which appeared in text of the Gospels, Book of Acts, and in Pauline epistles. The Catholic epistles and the Book of Revelation probably did not have a Western form of text. It was named "Western" by Semmler (1725–1791), having originated in early centers of Christianity in the Western Roman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Codex Claromontanus</span> New Testament manuscript

Codex Claromontanus, symbolized by Dp, D2 or 06 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1026 (von Soden), is a Greek-Latin diglot uncial manuscript of the New Testament, written in an uncial hand on vellum. The Greek and Latin texts are on facing pages, thus it is a "diglot" manuscript, like Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis. The Latin text is designated by d (traditional system) or by 75 in Beuron system.

<i>Royal Frankish Annals</i>

The Royal Frankish Annals, also called the Annales Laurissenses maiores, are a series of annals composed in Latin in the Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state of the monarchy from 741 to 829. Their authorship is unknown, though Wilhelm von Giesebrecht suggested that Arno of Salzburg was the author of an early section surviving in the copy at Lorsch Abbey. The Annals are believed to have been composed in successive sections by different authors, and then compiled.

Liber Historiae Francorum is a chronicle written anonymously during the 8th century. The first sections served as a secondary source for early Franks in the time of Marcomer, giving a short breviarum of events until the time of the late Merovingians. The subsequent sections of the chronicle are important primary sources for the contemporaneous history. They provide an account of the Pippinid family in Austrasia before they became the most famous Carolingians.

Genial was the Duke of Gascony (Vasconia) in the early seventh century. He is mentioned in the Chronicle of Fredegar.

Aighyna, Aeghyna, Aegyna, Aigino, or Aichina, probably a Saxon, was the duke of Gascony (Vasconia) from 626 or 627 to his death in 638. He succeeded Genial. The chief source for his reign is Fredegar.

Austrovald, Astrobald, and Austrevald was the Duke of Aquitaine from 587.

Landric was the mayor of the palace of Neustria. According to the Vita Aldegundis, he and his probable brother Gundoland were uncles of Saint Aldegunda. The chief sources for his reign are the Chronicle of Fredegar and the Liber Historiae Francorum.

Leudesius was the son of Erchinoald, Mayor of the Palace of Neustria, and his wife Leutsinde.

The pagan religion of the Germanic tribal confederation of the Franks has been traced from its roots in polytheistic Germanic paganism through to the incorporation of Greco-Roman components in the Early Middle Ages. This religion flourished among the Franks until the conversion of the Merovingian king Clovis I to Nicene Christianity, though there were many Frankish Christians before that. After Clovis I, Frankish paganism was gradually replaced by the process of Christianisation, but there were still pagans in the late 7th century.

Roger J. H. Collins is an English medievalist, currently an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh.

<i>Annales laureshamenses</i>

The Annales laureshamenses, also called Annals of Lorsch (AL), are a set of Reichsannalen that cover the years from 703 to 803, with a brief prologue. The annals begin where the "Chronica minora" of the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede leaves off—in the fifth year of the Emperor Tiberios III—and may have originally been composed as a continuation of Bede. The annals for the years up to 785 were written at the Abbey of Lorsch, but are dependent on earlier sources. Those for the years from 785 onward form an independent source and provide especially important coverage of the imperial coronation of Charlemagne in 800. The Annales laureshamenses have been translated into English.

<i>Fragmentum chesnii</i>

The Fragmentum (annalium) chesnii or chesnianum, sometimes called the Annales Laureshamenses antiquiores, is a brief set of Reichsannalen describing the history of Francia during the years 768 to 790. It is named after André Duchesne, who first edited and published it in his book Historiae Francorum scriptores (1:21–23) in 1636. It has been re-edited by Georg Heinrich Pertz for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores I, 30–34.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Lucofao</span> 679 battle

The Battle of Lucofao was the decisive engagement of the civil war that afflicted the Frankish kingdoms during and after the reign of Dagobert II (676–79). In the battle, the Neustrian forces of Theuderic III and his majordomo Ebroin defeated the forces of Austrasia under the dukes Pippin and Martin.

The Battle of Autun was a pitched battle in 642 or 643, concluding a feud between Flaochad and Willebad, two magnates of the Merovingian kingdom of Burgundy. The battle is recounted in detail in the final chapter of the contemporary Chronicle of Fredegar and also in the biographies of saints Eligius of Noyon and Sigiramn. While Fredegar seems hostile to Willebad, the hagiographers are hostile to Flaochad. The anonymous author of Fredegar may have been an eyewitness.

<i>Chronicon universale usque ad annum 741</i>

The Chronicon universale usque ad annum 741 is an anonymous Latin chronicle from the creation of the world to AD 741. It was written in Francia, probably in Burgundy, between 741 and 775. It survives wholly or partially in at least six manuscripts.

<i>Chronicle of Aniane</i>

The Chronicle of Aniane is an anonymous Latin history covering the rise of the Carolingian family from 670 to 840. It was composed by a monk of the Abbey of Aniane (Hérault).

<i>Gesta Dagoberti</i>

The Gesta Dagoberti, fully Gesta domni Dagoberti regis Francorum, is an anonymous Latin biography of Dagobert I, king of the Franks (623–639). It combines deeds from the life of Dagobert with numerous accounts of miracles to present Dagobert as a saint and the founder of the Abbey of Saint-Denis. It was written in the early 9th century. As a historical source, it is "extremely unreliable", but not totally useless.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quintus Julius Hilarianus</span>

Quintus Julius Hilarianus, commonly known as Hilarian, was a Roman African chronographer and computist. He is sometimes identified with the bishop Hilarianus who attended the Council of Carthage in 411. This is uncertain and he may have even been a Donatist. His writings point to his having been a monk.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Monod 1885, p. 25 fn. 1.
  2. ↑ Schwedler 2013, p. 73.
  3. ↑ Collins 2007, p. 16.
  4. ↑ Fauchet 1579.
  5. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1960, p. xv.
  6. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1960, pp. xvi–xxv.
  7. ↑ Hellmann 1934.
  8. ↑ Goffart 1963.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Goffart 2009.
  10. ↑ Krusch 1882.
  11. ↑ Collins 2007.
  12. ↑ Goffart 1963, p. 209.
  13. ↑ Monod 1885.
  14. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1960.
  15. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1958, pp. 527–528.
  16. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1958, p. 529.
  17. ↑ Krusch 1888, p. 16.
  18. ↑ Goffart 1963, p. 206.
  19. 1 2 Goffart 1963, p. 210.
  20. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1958, pp. 536–539.
  21. ↑ Goffart 1963, p. 215.
  22. ↑ Goffart 1963, pp. 211–212.
  23. ↑ Monod 1885, p.  25 fn. 1.
  24. ↑ Goffart 1963, p. 211.
  25. 1 2 3 4 Schwedler 2013, p. 74.
  26. ↑ Goffart 1963, p. 232.
  27. ↑ Krusch 1888, pp. 134–138.
  28. ↑ Krusch 1888, p.  168.
  29. ↑ Wallace-Hadrill 1958, p. 528.
  30. ↑ Krusch 1888, p.  182.
  31. ↑ Fouracre 2000, p. 7.
  32. ↑ Collins 2009a.
  33. ↑ Collins 2009b.

Sources

  • Collins, Roger (2007), Die Fredegar-Chroniken, Monumenta Germaniae Historica Studien und Texte, 44 (in German), Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, ISBN   978-377525704-6 .
  • Collins, Roger (2009a), "Fredegar", in Thomas, David Richard; Roggema, Barbara; Sala, Juan Pedro Monferrer (eds.), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History (600-900), Leiden: Brill, pp. 137–138, ISBN   978-904744368-1 .
  • Collins, Roger (2009b), "Historia vel Gesta Francorum", in Thomas, David Richard; Roggema, Barbara; Sala, Juan Pedro Monferrer (eds.), Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History (600-900), Leiden, South Holland: Brill, pp. 293–294, ISBN   978-904744368-1 .
  • Fauchet, Claude (1579), Recueil des antiquitez gauloises et françoises (in French), Paris: Chez Iacques du Puys, OCLC   862092071 .
  • Fouracre, Paul (2000), The age of Charles Martel, Harlow, England: Longmans, ISBN   978-058206475-1 .
  • Goffart, Walter (1963), "The Fredegar Problem Reconsidered", Speculum, 38 (2): 206–241, doi:10.2307/2852450, JSTOR   2852450, S2CID   162319287 . Reprinted in Goffart, Walter (1989), Rome's Fall and After, London: Hambledon Press, pp. 319–354, ISBN   978-185285001-2 .
  • Goffart, Walter (8 February 2009), "Review of: Collins, Roger. Die Fredegar-Chronikon. Monumenta Germaniae Historica Studien und Texte vol. 44. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2007", The Medieval Review.
  • Hellmann, Siegmund (1934), "Das Fredegarproblem", Historische Vierteljahrschrift (in German), 29: 36–92.
  • Krusch, Bruno (1882), "Die Chronicae des sogenannten Fredegar", Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde (in German), 7: 247–351, 421–516.
  • Krusch, Bruno, ed. (1888), "Chronicarum quae dicuntur Fredegarii Scholastici libri IV. cum Continuationibus", Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum, Volume 2 Fredegarii et aliorum Chronica. Vitae sanctorum (in Latin), Hannover: impensis bibliopolii Hahniani.
  • Monod, Gabriel (1885), Études critiques sur les sources de l'histoire mérovingienne. La Compilation dite de "Frédégaire" (in Latin), Paris: F. Vieweg.
  • Schwedler, Gerald (2013), "Lethe and 'Delete'—Disgarding the past in the early Middle Ages: the case of Fredegar", in Goeing, Anja-Silvia; Grafton, Anthony; Michel, Paul (eds.), Collectors' Knowledge: What Is Kept, What Is Discarded / Aufbewahren oder wegwerfen: wie Sammler entscheiden, Leiden, South Holland: Brill, pp. 71–96, ISBN   978-900426216-4 .
  • Wallace-Hadrill, J.M. (1958), "Fredegar and the history of France", Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 40 (2): 527–550, doi:10.7227/BJRL.40.2.10 . Reprinted in: Wallace-Hadrill, J. M. (1962), "Fredegar and the history of France", The Long-Haired Kings, and other studies in Frankish history, London: Methuen, pp. 71–94, OCLC   1102824 .
  • Wallace-Hadrill, J. M., ed. and trans. (1960), The Fourth Book of the Chronicle of Fredegar: with its Continuations, London: Nelson, OCLC   401901 {{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.