HISTORIOGRAPHY IN THE MIDDLE AGES - Julian Emperor

HIGH AND LATE MEDIEVAL NATIONAL HISTORIOGRAPHY 211Rimkrønike, 110 appeared, which was printed in Copenhagen in 1495.The text depicts in over 5,000 verses the periods of rule of 116Danish kings from the legendary Humble to Christian I.Among the most significant late medieval national historical synthesesin the European context is the Polish history of Jan D∑ugosz(1415–80), who performed outstanding functions first in the chancelleryof the bishop of Krakow and later at the court of the Polishking Casimir IV. He had finished the first version of his Annales seucronicae inclyti regni Polonorum 111 in 1458/61 and then continued theaccount up to 1480. His account of medieval Polish history, dividedinto twelve books, was the basis for all subsequent historians untilthe eighteenth century.In contrast, the Corónica abreviada de Espana of Diego de Valera(1411/12–88?), 112 a politician and diplomat under John II, Henry IV,and Isabella, was very much bound to the concept of the CrónicaGeneral but, due to multiple printings since 1482, had the characterof a standard work for over a century. In a similar way, JánosThuróczy, (ca. 1435–ca. 1490), jurist in the king’s chancellery, heldhimself conceptually in his Chronica Hungarorum 113 to the tradition ofthe Hungarian national chronicle but added an independent accountfor the last hundred years from 1387–1487. This chronicle retreatedadmittedly to the background after the printing of Bonfini’s Decades.In Muscovian Russia the so-called Chronograf compendia were establishedat the end of the fifteenth century, compilation works thatintegrated Russian history in a universal-historical framework inthe tradition of Byzantium. The oldest preserved version dates backto 1512. 114110Den danske Rimkrønike, ed. H. Toldberg, 3 vols. (Copenhagen, 1958–61). Seealso Nielsen (1986), 10–14.111Ioannis Dlugossii Annales seu cronicae incliti regnis Poloniae, Bd. 1–[7] (Warsaw,1964–[2000]). See also Koczerska (1985); Kürbis (1987).112Diego de Valera, Crónica de España abeviada, ed. J. de Mate Carriazo (Madrid,1927).113The work had appeared in print twice already in 1488 (Brünn, Augsburg).Johannes de Thurocz, Chronica Hungarorum, ed. E. Galántai, G. Kristó, and E. Mályusz,2 vols., Bibliotheca Scriptorum medii recentisque aevorum. S.N. 7, 9 (Budapest,1985, 1988); fourth part: János Thuróczy, Chronicle of the Hungarians, trans. P. Engel,Indiana University Uralic and Altaic Series 155 (Bloomington, 1991).114Russkij chronograf, part 1, Chronograf redakcii 1512 goda, Polnoe sobranie russkichletopisej 22,1 (Saint Petersburg, 1911; repr. Düsseldorf, 1973). See also Lichatschow(1975); Tvorogov (1975), esp. chaps. 6 and 7 and 232–34.