HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

188 NORBERT KERSKENof which (1110/12) goes back to the monk Nestor. 27 The depictionof the historical context of the Rus’ was indebted to its imbeddednessin the Byzantine world chronicle (Georgios Hamartolos), whichled in the depiction to retention of the annalistic frame of depiction.This also led to the consideration of the central paradigm of OldRussian historical-political thought, namely that of the Russian territory(russkaja zemlja), while the idea of an ethnic substratum thatensures the unity of Russian history is hardly developed.At approximately the same time, a first attempt at writing Polishhistory 28 was undertaken. The author was an unknown clergymanof foreign, probably north French, origin, who was located at theKrakow ducal court and is referred to as Gallus Anonymous. Around1113/17 he wrote Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum, 29 literarilya very carefully composed work that is divided into threebooks. He devotes his attention mainly to the ruling duke Boles∑awIII, whose life and deeds take up more than half of the entire work.This directs attention to the background of the writing and to theintended reception of the work; it was written in a time of domesticpoliticalcrisis in the rule of Boles∑aw, who had his older half-brotherZbigniew blinded in 1112 after years of fighting for sole power. Forhis own rehabilitation as well as for political safeguarding, he notonly underwent acts of penance such as pilgrimages but also madethe first attempt at writing Polish history, which placed his rule andthe Piast dynasty in a larger context that reflected on the entiretyof Polish history and thereby legitimated it. It should be emphasizedthat Polish history begins, accordingly, not with the beginnings ofthe Polish people but with the origin of the dynasty.Shortly thereafter, in the years 1119/25, the canon Cosmas ofPrague (ca. 1045–1125) wrote a Chronica Boemorum. 30 The depictionis organized with an annalistic skeleton in three books, which areeach divided into chapters. It also contains predominantly contem-27Povest’ vremennych let. Po Lavrent’evskoj letopisi 1377 g, ed. V. P. Adrianova-Peretc,D. S. Licha‘ev, 2 vols. (Moskva-Leningrad 1950). See also Noonan (1983); Hannick(1995).28On this topic, see D[browski (1964).29Galli Anonymi Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum, ed. K. Maleczy…ski,Monumenta Poloniae Historica Nova Series 2 (Kraków, 1952). See especially Plezia(1947); Deptu∑a (2000).30Cosmae Pragensis Chronica Boemorum, ed. B. Bretholz, MGH SS rer. Germ. N.S. 2(1955). See also T®e“tík (1968).