John of Biclaro
Johannes von Biclaro ( Iohannes Biclarensis , † approx. 620) was a late antique bishop and chronicler.
John was born (perhaps around 540) in Lusitania in the Visigoth Empire . At a young age he went to Constantinople , where he received a thorough training in Latin and probably also Greek literature. After 576 he returned to Hispania, where as a Catholic he quickly came into conflict with the Arian Visigoth king Leovigild , who even banished Johannes to Barcelona for a short time . Around 586 Johannes founded the Biclaro (Biclarum) monastery and became its abbot . In 589 the Visigoths converted to Catholicism, and in 590/591 John was appointed Bishop of Girona . He is attested in this capacity in the early 7th century.
At the beginning of his activity as abbot, Johannes wrote a Latin chronicle , which was intended as a continuation of the chronicle of Victor of Tunnuna , the text of which John had brought with him from Constantinople to Hispania. The Chronicle of John covers the period from 567 to 591. It is structured according to the years of rule of both the (Eastern) Roman emperors and the Visigoth kings. It is noteworthy that, although John was persecuted under Leovigild, in the chronicle he did not express disdain for the king, but rather made an effort to be neutral.
At the center of the chronicle are both what went on in the Eastern Roman Empire and (to a lesser extent) what happened in Hispania. Despite some errors, it represents an important source for the history of the Visigothic Empire and also offers some important information for the history of Eastern Europe. It is also fundamentally noteworthy that John, like his contemporary Gregor von Tours , who worked in the Merovingian Empire, still saw himself as a subject of the emperor and as a member of the Roman Empire and tried to inform his readers about the events in the east of the Mediterranean region.
The Chronicle was published in 1600 in Ingolstadt by Heinrich Canisius first time in print.
Isidore of Seville reports other works that John is said to have written, but none of them has survived.
Editions and translations
- Iohannis Abbatis Biclarensis Chronica . In: Theodor Mommsen (Ed.): Auctores antiquissimi 11: Chronica minora saec. IV. V. VI. VII. (II). Berlin 1894 ( Monumenta Germaniae Historica , digitized version )
- Kenneth Baxter Wolf: Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain . 2nd Edition. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 1999, ISBN 0-853-23554-6 ( Translated Texts for Historians 9), p. 57 ff. [English translation of the chronicle]
literature
- Adolf Jülicher : Ioannes 51 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume IX, 2, Stuttgart 1916, column 1809.
- Martin Schanz , Carl Hosius , Gustav Krüger: History of Roman literature . Vol. 4, 2. Beck, Munich 1920, p. 114.
- Arnulf Kollautz: Orient and Occident at the end of the 6th century: Johannes, Abbot of Biclarum, Bishop of Gerona, the chronicler of Visigothic Spain . In: Byzantina 12, 1983, pp. 465-506.
- Suzanne Teillet: Des Goths à la nation gothique . Paris 1984.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | John of Biclaro |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Johannes Biclarensis |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | late antique bishop and chronicler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 6th century |
| DATE OF DEATH | around 620 |