Brunonis de bello Saxonico liber

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Brunonis de bello Saxonico liber ( Bruno's Book of the Saxon War) is a pro-Saxon party publication about the disputes between Henry IV and the Saxons .

The author Bruno was a cleric and belonged to the immediate circle of Archbishop Werner von Magdeburg . After his death, he joined the inner circle of Bishop Werner von Merseburg. He dedicated his work to him. It was assumed that Bruno agrees with the Chancellor Bruno named in Hermann von Salm's two documents .

After a prologue and an introductory overview in 15 chapters, the work describes the youth of Henry IV, then the prehistory of the Saxon uprising and finally the Saxon War from 1073 to the elevation of Hermann von Salm as the anti-king on December 26, 1081. It is generally assumed that Bruno completed his work at the beginning of 1082, because a mention of Otto von Northeim († January 11, 1083) in the last chapter shows that the latter was still alive at the time of writing. According to Franz-Josef Schmale, however, it is questionable whether the book with its unclear end point has been passed on to posterity in its original and complete form. What is certain is that Bruno completed his work after December 26, 1081 and must have given it to Werner von Merseburg before January 11 or 12, 1093, the day Werner von Merseburg died.

In his portrayal, Bruno saw everything right with the Saxons and charged the king and his helpers with every injustice. As a result, Bruno's book on the Saxon War was temporarily denied any source value. Oral reports were particularly significant sources for his presentation and, above all, information from Archbishop Werner von Magdeburg. It is possible that the annals of Lampert von Hersfeld were available to him, as his work is often closely related to their depiction. Bruno's book was not widely used in his time and has only been preserved by the author of the Gesta archiepiscoporum Magdeburgensium, the chronicle of the so-called Annalista Saxo and the Nienburg annals of Abbot Arnold von Kloster Berge near Magdeburg and Nienburg. Abbot Arnold included this work in its entirety in his Gesta written in 1143/44 and in the Annalista Saxo around 1152.

According to Gerd Althoff , Bruno's book was an “indictment ... which has the form of historiography”. Its main purpose is to record and list what the Saxons had to say against King Henry IV. The indictment was supposed to provide evidence of the need to depose the king. Althoff reveals this function as a source from Bruno's story about the conversation between the Heinricians and their opponents in February 1081 in the Kaufunger Wald . The fictitious speech by Archbishop Gebhard von Salzburg at the end of Bruno's Sachsenbuch (c. 127) was intended to summarize the arguments necessary for the Saxon position in the negotiating context. Wolfgang Eggert contradicted Althoff's remarks about the pragmatic use of the source. Eggert pointed out the different perspectives (limited regionally only to Saxony, then again to the whole Reich) and the formal elements (excellent language, impeccable grammar, exact reproduction of facts) that make it appear questionable that Bruno's book the Saxon War is solely a matter of argumentation. Eggert also points out why Bruno should have taken the trouble of writing an extensive history, if the form of the polemic would have been far better suited for a “reservoir of arguments”. With regard to the pragmatic benefit, Eggert refers to an assumption formulated by Wilhelm von Giesebrecht in 1890. Bruno would have made it clear in his book that a valid alternative to Heinrich's unfortunate work could not be avoided.

Work editions

  • Bruno's book of the Saxon War (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica. German Middle Ages. Vol. 2). Revised by Hans-Eberhard Lohmann. Hiersemann, Leipzig 1937 ( digitized version )
  • Franz-Josef Schmale, Irene Schmale-Ott (Eds.): Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 2006 (= selected sources on the German history of the Middle Ages Freiherr vom Stein-Gedächtnisausgabe. Volume 12). 5th edition, unchanged reprint of the 4th edition, Darmstadt 2006, ISBN 3-534-19876-X . (contains the Brunonis de bello Saxonico liber. Bruno's book of the Saxon War (pp. 191–404))

literature

  • Gerd Althoff, Stephanie Coué: Pragmatic historiography and crises. I. On the function of Bruno's book on the Saxon War. In: Hagen Keller , Klaus Grubmüller, Nikolaus Staubach (eds.): Pragmatic writing in the Middle Ages. Appearances and stages of development (= Münster medieval writings. Volume 65). Fink, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-7705-2710-0 , pp. 95-107 ( digitized version )
  • Wolfgang Eggert: How “pragmatic” is Bruno's book about Sachsenkrieg? In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 51 (1995), pp. 543–553 ( digitized version )
  • Otto-Hubert Kost : Eastern Lower Saxony in the investiture dispute. Studies on Bruno's book of the Saxon War (= studies on the church history of Lower Saxony. Volume 13). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1962.
  • Franz-Josef Schmale: On Bruno's book about the Saxon War. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 18 (1962), pp. 236–244 ( digitized version )
  • Klaus Sprigade. About the dating of Bruno's book about the Saxon War. In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 23 (1967), pp. 544–548 ( digitized version )

Remarks

  1. ↑ Franz-Josef Schmale, Irene Schmale-Ott: Introduction to Bruno's book from the Sachsenkrieg. In: Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. 5th edition, unaltered reprint of the 4th edition, Darmstadt 2006, pp. 28–34, here: p. 28.
  2. ↑ Franz-Josef Schmale: On Bruno's book of the Saxon War . In: German Archive for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 18 (1962), pp. 236–244, here: p. 243.
  3. ↑ Franz-Josef Schmale, Irene Schmale-Ott: Introduction to Bruno's book from the Sachsenkrieg. In: Sources on the history of Emperor Heinrich IV. 5th edition, unmodified reprint of the 4th edition, Darmstadt 2006, pp. 28–34, here: p. 29.
  4. ↑ Gerd Althoff, Stephanie Coué: Pragmatic historiography and crises. I. On the function of Bruno's book on the Saxon War. In: Hagen Keller , Klaus Grubmüller, Nikolaus Staubach (eds.): Pragmatic writing in the Middle Ages. Appearances and stages of development. Munich 1992, pp. 95-107, here: p. 104 and p. 106.
  5. ↑ Gerd Althoff, Stephanie Coué: Pragmatic historiography and crises. I. On the function of Bruno's book on the Saxon War. In: Hagen Keller, Klaus Grubmüller, Nikolaus Staubach (eds.): Pragmatic writing in the Middle Ages. Appearances and stages of development. Munich 1992, pp. 95-107, here: pp. 100ff.
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Eggert: How “pragmatic” is Bruno's book about Sachsenkrieg? In: German Archives for Research into the Middle Ages , Vol. 51 (1995), pp. 543–553, here: pp. 551f.