Conrad Justinger was probably born in Strasbourg. [1] Justinger, who had learned the trade of a chronicler in his home-town, appears to have moved to the city of Bern in the last quarter of the 14th century. [1] From 1390 until his death, Justinger served the city of Bern as a magistrate and notary public. [1]
Strasbourg is the capital and largest city of the Grand Est region of France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located at the border with Germany in the historic region of Alsace, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin department. In 2016, the city proper had 279,284 inhabitants and both the Eurométropole de Strasbourg and the Arrondissement of Strasbourg had 491,409 inhabitants. Strasbourg's metropolitan area had a population of 785,839 in 2015, making it the ninth largest metro area in France and home to 13% of the Grand Est region's inhabitants. The transnational Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau had a population of 915,000 inhabitants in 2014.
Bern or Berne is the de facto capital of Switzerland, referred to by the Swiss as their Bundesstadt, or "federal city". With a population of 142,493, Bern is the fifth-most populous city in Switzerland. The Bern agglomeration, which includes 36 municipalities, had a population of 406,900 in 2014. The metropolitan area had a population of 660,000 in 2000. Bern is also the capital of the canton of Bern, the second-most populous of Switzerland's cantons.
In 1388, Justinger copied Jakob Twinger von Königshofen’s treatise Computus Novus Chirometralis . Justinger’s handwriting furthermore appears in a number of chancellery documents of the city of Bern, such as the Udelbuch from 1390, the Satzungenbuch (German: ‘Statutes Book’) from 1398, the Freiheitenbuch (German: ‘Book of Liberties’) from 1431 as well as a Habsburg urbarium written after 1415. [2] In 1420, Justinger, who was appointed chronicler of the city of Bern around 1400, was entrusted by the Bernese council to chronicle the history of his hometown. [3] This chronicle, which Justinger completed in 1430, is known under the name of Bernese Chronicle (German: Chronik der Stadt Bern). [2]
Jacob Königshofen was a German chronicler.
An urbarium, is a register of fief ownership and includes the rights and benefits that the fief holder has over his serfs and peasants. It is an important economic and legal source of medieval and early modern feudalism.
The Bernese Chronicle contains information about the early history of the city of Bern, Switzerland.
Conrad Justinger, whose name was frequently omitted in later publications of the Bernese Chronicle, probably died childless in April 1438. [3] The original is lost, but a copy of the text survives in Jena. The original may have been illustrated; if so, that would make it the precursor of the late 15th century Swiss illustrated chronicles.
Jena is a German university city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of about 110,000. Jena is a centre of education and research; the Friedrich Schiller University was founded in 1558 and had 18,000 students in 2017 and the Ernst-Abbe-Fachhochschule Jena counts another 5,000 students. Furthermore, there are many institutes of the leading German research societies.
Several illustrated chronicles were created in the Old Swiss Confederacy in the 15th and 16th centuries. They were luxurious illuminated manuscripts produced for the urban elite of Bern and Lucerne, and their copious detailed illustrations allow a unique insight into the politics and daily life of late medieval Switzerland on the eve of the Reformation. The most important of these chronicles are the works of the two Diebold Schillings, their luxurious execution, as well as their content reflecting the growing confidence and self-esteem of the leaders of the confederacy after their spectacular successes in the Burgundian Wars.
