HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

158 ROLF SPRANDELepochs of the world and that of the four empires of the world, thereare also variations in this respect amongst the authors named above.The world-epochs model is more prevalent. However, Burchard ofUrsperg prefers the world-empires model and begins first with theAssyrians. Manuscript C of Frutolf and Ekkehard takes a third routeand begins with Charlemagne. This version has been characterizedas a Frankish-German folk and imperial history. 2In addition to the Latin world historiography, a vernacular worldhistoriography in prose and verse is also attested in the GermanHigh Middle Ages. This vernacular historiography, similar to theLatin one, reaches back to pre-Christian times and extends to theGerman empire.All three types of world history—Martin of Troppau’s and theLatin as well as the vernacular in Germany—are continued in thelate Middle Ages, whether written anonymously as in the Codices,or written by attested authors with their own individual conceptions.This is not self-explanatory. The European world suffered a blow asa result of the collapse of the Staufer Empire and the fate of thepapacy after 1303. The attempts by German emperors to re-associatethemselves with the history of the high medieval empire do not carrymuch persuasive power. The council movement of the fifteenth centuryis also too short to provide a new basis for world history.If one is to examine the motives for the continuation of worldhistory, one must differentiate several layers. In a foundational layerthere is, to a certain extent, the autonomous task of continuation,which is addressed, called-upon, and awakened time and again bythe chroniclers. The author of the Saxon World Chronicle calls for thecontinuation of his work. 3 Johan Spies of Rattenberg collects, ashe states, notes for those who wish to continue the Flores Temporum. 4In the codex of the world chronicle of Johannes of Utino thereare blank pages intended expressly for later additions. 5 Conversely,Johannes of Viktring wishes to name his work a subplementum [sic],because it is intended to expand upon alia chronicalia, 6 and the Italian2Wattenbach/Holtzmann (1948).3Sächsische Weltchronik, verses 77–87, ed. L. Weiland, MGH Dt. Chron. 2 (1877).4Riedmann (1970).5Ott (1980/1981); Melville (1980).6Johannes von Viktring, Liber certarum historiarum, II.242, ed. F. Schneider, MGHSS rer. Germ. 36 (1909).