Fragmentum Chesnii

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 (Andreas Chesneus), 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 (Hanover: 1826).

For the years up to 785, the ''Fragmentum'' is textually almost identical to the ''Annales laureshamenses'' (''AL'') and the '' Annales mosellani'' (''AM''). With a manuscript of the former (from Sankt-Paul) it shares an identical entry for the first half of the year 786. This indicates the existence of a stem text from which all three sets of annals derive (the "Lorsch Annals of 785") and the existence of a brief continuation of this text that was not used by the compiler of the ''AM'' but which bequeathed a short entry for 786 to both the ''Fragmentum'' and the ''AL'', which diverge completely after that. The major divergence of the texts before the year 786 is in the mention of events related to the Abbey of Lorsch, which were probably found in the exemplar (the "Lorsch Annals of 785") and retained in the ''AL'', but have all been excised from the ''Fragmentum'' (which was probably not compiled at Lorsch).Most references to Lorsch have also been omitted from the ''AM''. The ''Fragmentum'' is generally briefer than the ''AL''.

The ''Fragmentum'' is found between the ''Chronicle of Fredegar'' and a section of the ''Annales regni francorum'' (years 791–806) in a late ninth- or tenth-century manuscript from Reims, now in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (MS Reg. Lat. 213, fols. 149–51). In the manuscript there is no division between the ''Fragmentum'' and the ''Annales regni francorum'', which picks up where the former leaves off. It has been hypothesised that the multiplication of distinct annalistic traditions in the 780s was sponsored by Charlemagne as part of a wider programme of cultural/educational renewal. This would explain the divergence of the ''Fragmentum'' and the ''AL'' in 786. Likewise the abrupt end of various annals in the 790s may be explained by the centralisation of the historiography in the "authorised" ''Annales regni francorum'' around that time (or by 807/8 at the latest).

Notes

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References

*Roger Collins (2005), "Charlemagne's Imperial Coronation and the Annals of Lorsch," ''Charlemagne: Empire and Society'', ed. Joanna Story (Manchester: Manchester University Press), 56–59 and notes.
*Rosamond McKitterick (2004), ''History and Memory in the Carolingian World'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 108.

Carolingian historical texts in Latin