Lorsch annals

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The Lorsch Annals ( Annales Laureshamenses ) are coherent annual reports from the Franconian Empire , which, based on earlier annals, describe the period from 703 to 803 and are considered to be important contemporary evidence of Charlemagne's coronation as Roman Emperor in 800. They were created in the Lorsch monastery in southern Hesse .

However, the Lorsch Annals only offer independent material from the year 785; for the time before that, the description is identical to that in the Annales mosellani . Presumably the death of the author of the Lorsch Annalen prevented him from continuing the presentation beyond the year 803.

A fragment of the Lorsch Annals is now in the possession of the Austrian National Library as manuscript 515 . Whether it is the autograph is disputed. Despite their small size and incompleteness, the annals are among the most important sources of historiography from the Carolingian era .

Research today assumes that manuscript 515 of the Lorsch Annals was written by a total of four people. The Austrian historian Heinrich Fichtenau suspected Bishop Richbod of Trier to be the main author . He belonged to Charlemagne's circle of friends, had been abbot in Lorsch Abbey since 784 and finally Bishop of Trier and had access to all the important sources of information of that time. However, this thesis is quite controversial.

In addition to the Latin historical entries, an Old High German text was also entered at the very end of the manuscript , namely the reconstruction of the biblical text about Christ and the Samaritan woman from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of John ( Joh 4,1  LUT ) in Old Alemannic . This text, which in its rhyme form is related to the gospel book of Otfrid von Weißenburg , is an important source , especially for historical linguistics .

A complete copy of the Lorsch Annals can be found in Cod. 8/1 of the library of St. Paul Abbey in Lavanttal .

See also

literature

Information on editions and secondary literature can be found in the historical sources of the German Middle Ages , which are placed online (and updated at intervals) , published by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Part A, PDF file , p. 101 f. to find.

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