The ''Annales laureshamenses'', also called ''Annals of Lorsch'' (AL), are a set of ''

Reichsannalen The ''Reichsannalen'' are a class of annals composed anonymously in the Carolingian Empire throughout the 9th century. They first appeared under Pepin the Short in 741 and became ubiquitous at monasteries throughout the empire in the following dec ...

'' (annals of the

Frankish empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as kings of the Franks since 751 and as kings of the Lomba ...

) 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 Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most f ...

leaves off—in the fifth year of the Emperor

Tiberios III Tiberius III (), born Apsimar (; ), was Byzantine emperor from 698 to 705. Little is known about his early life, other than that he was a , a mid-level commander, who served in the Cibyrrhaeot Theme. In 696, Tiberius was part of an army sent b ...

—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 Lorsch Abbey, otherwise the Imperial Abbey of Lorsch (; or ''Laurissa''), is a former Imperial abbey in Lorsch, Germany, about east of Worms. It was one of the most important monasteries of the Carolingian Empire. Even in its ruined state, it ...

(whence the name), 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 Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 – 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...

in 800. The ''Annales laureshamenses'' have been translated into English.

Manuscript history

An eight-leaf copy of the Lorsch annals for 703–803 was produced probably in 835 by a single scribe.

Rosamond McKitterick Rosamond Deborah McKitterick (born 31 May 1949) is an English medieval historian. She is an expert on the Frankish kingdoms in the eighth and ninth centuries AD, who uses palaeographical and manuscript studies to illuminate aspects of the pol ...

(2004), ''History and Memory in the Carolingian World'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 107–10. The "Sankt-Paul codex", as it is now called, which is the sole surviving quire of an otherwise lost manuscript, was still in the library of Sankt-Blasien in 1790, when it was edited by Aemilianus Ussermann,

Roger Collins Roger J. H. Collins (born 2 September 1949) is an English medievalist, currently an honorary fellow in history at the University of Edinburgh. Collins studied at the University of Oxford ( Queen's and Saint Cross Colleges) under Peter Brown ...

(2005), "Charlemagne's Imperial Coronation and the Annals of Lorsch," ''Charlemagne: Empire and Society'', ed. Joanna Story (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 54–64 (with images on 60–1).

bishop of Bamberg This is a list of bishops and archbishops of the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg and the modern Archdiocese of Bamberg in Germany. __TOC__ Bishops, 1007–1245 * Eberhard I 1007-1040 * Pope Clement II, Suidger von Morsleben 1040-1046 (Later Pope Clemen ...

, in his collection of documents illustrative of " Alemannian" German history, ''Germaniae sacrae prodomus seu collectio monumentorum res Alemannicas illustrantium''. In 1809, as a result of the

Napoleonic Wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

, the monks of Sankt-Blasien moved, with their library, to the Abbey of Sankt-Paul im Lavanttal. In 1820 G. H. Pertz sought the manuscript for the ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

'', but it could not be found and so the ''MGH'' version was based on Ussermann's printed edition of 1790. The manuscript was recovered by 1889, when Eberhard Katz edited a new version. Katz described the codex (today lost again), dated it to the ninth century and suggested it originated at the

Abbey of Reichenau Reichenau Abbey was a Benedictine monastery on Reichenau Island (known in Latin as Augia Dives) in southern Germany. It was founded in 724 by the itinerant Saint Pirmin, who is said to have fled Visigothic Spain ahead of the Moorish invaders, w ...

because of a marginal notice of the burial of Charlemagne's brother-in-law

Gerold of Anglachgau Gerold I ({{circa, 725 – 784) was the count of Kraichgau and {{ill, Anglachgau, de.{{sfn, Jackman, 2007, p=22 His daughter, Hildergard married King Charlemagne in 771.{{sfn, Lapidge, 2017, p=5-6 Life Little is known about Gerold. He belonged t ...

there. A fragment of a manuscript conserved in Vienna (now no. 515 in the

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek The Austrian National Library (, ) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of Vienna. Since 2005, some of the collection ...

) also contains a section of the Lorsch annals for mid-794 to 803, and was copied around 803. This manuscript too appears to originate at Reichenau, as it is written in Alemannian script. It was discovered in Vienna in 1551 by Wolfgang Lazius. Katz argued that both the Vienna fragment and the Sankt-Paul codex are derived from an earlier exemplar. Though the Sankt-Paul codex is later, it is not a copy of the Vienna, since it contains errors that must originate in some other exemplar. There is an ongoing debate whether the Vienna fragment represents the original copy of the annalist, who was probably from the region of Alemannia. Four distinct scribal hands have been identified in the Vienna fragment, corresponding to different entries: *A (fol. 1r, fol. 1v l. 18 to 2v l. 13): 794 (fragment), second half of 795, all of 796–97 *B (fol. 1v ll. 1–18, fol. 2v l. 14 to 3r l. 1): first half of 795 *C (fol. 3r l. 2 to 4r l. 17): all of 799–801 *D (fol. 4r l. 18 to 5r l. 10): all of 802–3 The post-785 annals in the Sankt-Paul and Vienna manuscripts do not show any special connexions with Lorsch and were probably composed elsewhere. They may have been written nearly continuously from 785, or in spurts with months or years between additions.

Textual transmission

The Lorsch annals for the years up to 785 are almost identical with the '' Annales mosellani'' and also with those of the '' Fragmentum chesnii'', which also shares with the Sankt-Paul version a brief extension to the year 786. From the year 785, the Lorsch annals being dating events since the death of

Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I (; ; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great (; ), was the 64th Bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 until his death on 12 March 604. He is known for instituting the first recorded large-scale mission from Rom ...

(605). The 785 entry contains a reference to the "present", indicating perhaps that the original compilation of annals 703–85 was made in the latter year. The annals for 785–803 were compiled independently and not necessarily at Lorsch. This original stem—the Lorsch Annals of 785—from which all three annalistic traditions diverge after 785 was probably composed at the

. Textually it is related to the '' Annales nazariani'', '' Annales guelferbytani'', and ''

Annales alamannici The ''Annales Alamannici'' provide one of the earliest records of Medieval Europe available. The core text of the ''Annales Alamannici'' covers the years 709 through to 799. Spread over several Swabian monasteries, the annals were continued indep ...

'', all depending on the earlier, hypothetical "Murbach Annals", composed at

Murbach Abbey Murbach Abbey () was a famous Benedictine monastery in Murbach, southern Alsace, in a valley at the foot of the Grand Ballon in the Vosges. The monastery was founded in 727 by Eberhard, Count of Alsace, and established as a Benedictine house ...

(founded 727) and covering the years up to 751. Since the Lorsch annals of 785 were based on an erroneous copy of these Murbach annals, events in the 750s are consistently mis-dated. The frequency of references to the abbey of Lorsch between the years 764 and 785 suggests that the work of compilation done in 785 was performed there. The Abbey of Gorze is also mentioned, but less frequently, and the death of only one of its abbots is mentioned, whereas all the Lorsch abbots of the period receive obituaries. These Lorsch annals may have been circulated in batches of years, before they were completed. The nature of the Sankt-Paul codex supports the contention that unfinished batches of annals were circulated in ''libelli'' (booklets) comprising single quires. A copy of the Lorsch annals eventually found its way into the ''

Marca Hispanica The Spanish March or Hispanic March was a march or military buffer zone established c. 795 by Charlemagne in the eastern Pyrenees and nearby areas, to protect the new territories of the Christian Carolingian Empire—the Duchy of Gascony, the D ...

'', where it was used by the compiler(s) of the '' Chronicle of Moissac''. The Belgian historian

François-Louis Ganshof François-Louis is a French masculine compound given name which may refer to: * François-Louis David Bocion (1828–1890), Swiss painter, designer and art professor * François-Louis de Brach, 18th century French Navy lieutenant-colonel * Fran� ...

believed that the ''Chronicle of Moissac'' represented a fuller version of the Lorsch annals that had been extended down to 818. More likely, the years 803–18 in the Moissac chronicle are derived from another source with a different geographic focus. The so-called " Northern Annals" that cover the years 732 to 802, and which comprise a section of the ''

Historia regum The ''Historia Regum'' ("History of the Kings") is a historical compilation attributed to Symeon of Durham, which presents material going from the death of Bede until 1129. It survives only in one manuscript compiled in Yorkshire in the mid-to-lat ...

'' of

Simeon of Durham __NOTOC__ Symeon (or Simeon) of Durham (fl. c.1090 to c. 1128 ) was an English chronicler and a monk of Durham Priory. Biography Symeon was a Benedictine monk at Durham Cathedral at the end of the eleventh century. He may have been one of 23 mon ...

, contain a reference to the golden lettering of the poetic epitaph on the marble memorial Charlemagne provided to commemorate

Pope Hadrian I Pope Adrian I (; 700 – 25 December 795) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 772 until his death on 25 December 795. Descended from a family of the military aristocracy of Rome known as ''domini de via Lata'', h ...

. This may have been derived from the Lorsch annals, which are the only continental source to provide the detail.

Authorship and viewpoint

Heinrich Fichtenau argued that the author of the Lorsch annals was Richbod, a pupil of

Alcuin of York Alcuin of York (; ; 735 – 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invita ...

and a member of Charlemagne's court circle until about 784. From 785 he was the abbot of Lorsch and from 791 the

bishop of Trier The Diocese of Trier (), in English historically also known as ''Treves'' () from French ''Trèves'', is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic church in Germany.Synod of Frankfurt, which Richbod attended in 794 and which condemned

adoptionism Adoptionism, also called dynamic monarchianism, is an early Christian nontrinitarian theological doctrine, subsequently revived in various forms, which holds that Jesus was adopted as the Son of God at his baptism, his resurrection, or his ...

in the same terms as a treatise of Alcuin's, is displayed in the annals under that year. There is no evidence, however, that the annals that best correspond to Richbod's abbacy in fact originate from Lorsch, and so they can provide little support for Fichtenau's attribution. The text of the oldest manuscript of the ''

Annales regni francorum The ''Royal Frankish Annals'' (Latin: ''Annales regni Francorum''), also called the ''Annales Laurissenses maiores'' ('Greater Lorsch Annals'), are a series of annals composed in Latin in Carolingian Francia, recording year-by-year the state of ...

'', discovered at Lorsch and long kept in the Bavarian ducal library, closely resemble the Lorsch annals for the years 789–93. The year entries unique to the ''Annales laureshamenses'' may have been written in 803 as a single coherent narrative in annal form as a response to the "slant" of the ''Annales regni francorum''. The Lorsch annals for the years from 799 to 801 demonstrate its own slant in stressing the legitimacy of Charlemagne's imperial title. The Lorsch annalist argues that the absence of the ''nomen imperatoris'' (name of the emperor) in 800 and the ''femineum imperium'' (female empire) of the Byzantines at the time justified the Pope in granting the imperial title to Charlemagne, who already held Rome, the imperial capital, and all the imperial cities in

Gallia Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . According to Ju ...

Germania Germania ( ; ), also more specifically called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Germania Superio ...

, and

Italia Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

.Collins (2005) examines the different accounts of Charlemagne's imperial coronation in the ''Annales laureshamenses'' and the ''Annales regni francorum'' on pp. 64–69.

The most complete version of the ''Annales laureshamenses'', from the library at Sankt-Paul, is a

universal history Universal history may refer to: * Universal history (genre), a literary genre **''Jami' al-tawarikh'', 14th-century work of literature and history, produced by the Mongol Ilkhanate in Persia ** Universal History (Sale et al), ''Universal History'' ...

that begins with a

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literature, literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface o ...

describing its dating scheme, adopted from

Orosius Paulus Orosius (; born 375/385 – 420 AD), less often Paul Orosius in English, was a Roman priest, historian and theologian, and a student of Augustine of Hippo. It is possible that he was born in '' Bracara Augusta'' (now Braga, Portugal), ...

' '' Seven Books of History Against the Pagans'' and counts 5,199 years from Creation to the Nativity. The ''

anno Domini The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used when designating years in the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian and Julian calendar, Julian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means "in the year of the Lord" but is often presented using "o ...

'' system is used to date events. The first sixty-five years (703–67) are described in a prose narrative that is not divided into single-year entries. Beginning with the year 768 the work is divided into chapters (1 to 36) and each entry receives a separate line. The manuscript also contains a calendar from 777 to 835 (folios 5r–7r) for the dating of

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

, using the unusual 19-year cycles of Theophilus of Alexandria. This calendar suggests the manuscript may have originated before 835. Significantly, the Lorsch annals are the only primary source to contradict the statement of

Einhard Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart; ; 775 – 14 March 840) was a Franks, Frankish scholar and courtier. Einhard was a dedicated servant of Charlemagne and his son Louis the Pious; his main work is a biography of Charlemagne, the ''Vita Karoli M ...

that Charlemagne was ignorant of

Pope Leo III Pope Leo III (; died 12 June 816) was bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 26 December 795 to his death on 12 June 816. Protected by Charlemagne from the supporters of his predecessor, Adrian I, Leo subsequently strengthened Charlem ...

's intention to crown him Emperor on 25 December 800. Rather the Lorsch annals state that the idea was discussed at an assembly held in Rome after Charlemagne's arrival (24 November), probably beginning on 30 November or 1 December. This entry was drawn up only after Charlemagne's return to Francia in 801, since an entry under 799 reports how the conspirators who overthrew Leo in April that year were then in exile. They were only finally exiled early in 801. This entry has, however, generated as much controversy as Einhard's statement of Charlemagne's ignorance. While Ganshof argued that the ''Annales'' were more trustworthy than Einhard, others have argued that Charlemagne's policy towards the Byzantine empire both before and after 800 shows little support for the pope's initiative. What Einhard shows Charlemagne objecting to is the Roman imperial title, not necessarily equality with the Byzantine emperors; thus the emphasis the ''Annales laureshamenses'' place on justifying the "name of the emperor".Ullmann, 116. In the Lorsch annals, the year 802 ends with the arrival of the elephant

Abul-Abbas Abul-Abbas ( – 810) was an Asian elephant brought back to the Carolingian emperor Charlemagne by his diplomat Isaac the Jew. The gift was from the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid and symbolizes the beginning of Abbasid–Carolingian relatio ...

at Charlemagne's court. The year 803 is recounted briefly: Charlemagne held Easter at Aachen, held an assembly at Mainz, and did not go on campaign all year. And there the annals end.

Notes

References

{{reflist

External links

*Th
''Annales laureshamenses''
in the MGH Scriptores nnales et chronica aevi Carolini pp. 22–39. *Digital facsimile o
Cod. 515 (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek)
at Bibliotheca Laureshamensis

at

Medieval Sourcebook The Internet History Sourcebooks Project is located at the Fordham University History Department and Center for Medieval Studies. It is a web site with modern, medieval and ancient primary source documents, maps, secondary sources, bibliographies, ...