Chronograph from 354

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Depiction of a Largitio of Constantius II in the chronograph of the year 354

Chronograph from 354 (the name was coined by Theodor Mommsen ; also calendar from 354 ) is the modern name for a late antique codex that Furius Dionysius Filocalus created in AD 354 on behalf of the Christian aristocrat Valentinus.

It was an extraordinarily lavishly designed work that contained the first full-page book illuminations in Western cultural history. The original has not been preserved.

It contained consular fasts ( fasti consulares ), a list of city prefects ( praefecti urbis Romae ) and a city history of Rome ( chronica urbis Romae ) up to the year 354. The latter contained a list of kings, dictators and emperors with the length of the reign, place of death and additional entries . It did not fall back on Enmann's imperial history and was compiled before the death of Constantine I (337). The scripture is also the first authentic documentation that dates the birth of Jesus on December 25th.

List of works

There have been several edits, each of which met the wishes of the customer. The chronograph from 354 has survived in several copies and was also used by Eutropius , among others, in the following years .

The chronograph has the following content (with the Latin headings introduced by Mommsen, some of which contradict the handwritten tradition):

  1. Dedicatio : The dedication to Valentinus.
  2. Imagines urbium : The representation of the city personifications of the cities of Rome , Constantinople , Trier and Alexandria .
  3. Dedicatio et natales Caesarum : An imperial dedication with a list of the emperors' birthdays.
  4. Imagines planetarum VII : The planets and their legends.
  5. Signa zodiaci eorumque utilitates : The signs of the zodiac and their meaning.
  6. Imagines mensium XII cum fastis mentruis : The months and the associated legends as well as an illustrated calendar text with distiches on the months. Quatrains were added later. Specification of match and senate days.
  7. Imagines imperatorum : portraits identified with Emperor Constantius II and Caesar Julian .
  8. Fasti consulares : A list of the Roman consuls.
  9. Cyclus paschalis : calculations of Easter (Easter tables from 312 to 100 years)
  10. Praefecti urbis Romae : A list of the city prefects of Rome from 245 from urbe condita to 354 p. Chr.
  11. Depositiones episcoporum Romanorum : Days of death and burial places of 12 Roman bishops from Lucius (254) to Julius I in 352.
  12. Feriale ecclesiae Romanae. Item depositio martirum : Days of death and burial places of martyrs. From this later the martyrologies emerged .
  13. Episcopi Romani : A List of the Bishops of Rome from Peter to Liberius . There are some inaccuracies in the first part up to 230. The list contains chronological information.
  14. Regiones urbis Romae : A description of the 14 regions of Rome (added later?).
  15. Liber generationis : A world chronicle from Adam to 354. It is based partly on the chronicle of Hippolytus (added later?).
  16. Chronica urbis Romae : A list of rulers from the royal period to Licinius (added later?), Which is headed in the manuscript with Origo gentis Romanorum .

A lot of information from paganism has been included, although it is controversial whether it is about current conditions (Michele Renee Salzman) or looking back at past times (Theodor Mommsen).

The illustrations for the signs of the zodiac show an interest in astrology. Unillustrated sections contain rich historical and chronological material.

An illustrated copy of the original, the Codex Luxemburgensis , was made in the Carolingian era , of which further copies were made in the 16th and 17th centuries. The best of these, the Codex Romanus , is in the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana . Even before the Renaissance copies were made, the Codex Luxemburgensis was damaged. Some pages were lost. Today he is completely lost and there is only a detailed description of him.

A number of entries have turned out to be later addenda because they have AD dating that was introduced much later. Other dates are given redundantly , but the information is mutually exclusive, as in the case of the birth of Jesus.

expenditure

literature

  • Joseph Strzygowski : The calendar pictures of the chronograph from the year 354 (= yearbook of the Imperial German Archaeological Institute . First supplement). Reimer, Berlin 1888 ( digitized version ).
  • Otto Seeck : Chronograph from J. 354 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume III, 2, Stuttgart 1899, Col. 2477-2481.
  • Carl Nordenfalk : The calendar from the year 354 and the Latin illumination of the IVth century . Gothenburg 1936.
  • Henri Stern : Le calendrier de 354. Étude sur son texte et ses illustrations (= Bibliothèque archéologique et historique Volume 55). Geuthner, Paris 1953.
  • Michele Renee Salzman: On Roman Time. The Codex Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (= Transformation of the Classical Heritage . Volume 17). Berkeley 1990.
  • Michele Renee Salzman: Chronograph from 354. In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Volume 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-476-01472-X , Sp. 1172-1174.
  • Theodora Hantos : Chronograph from the year 354 . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 1187-1188 .
  • Konrad Weidemann : Roman state calendar from late antiquity. The Roman state calendars handed down by Furius Dionisius Filocalus and Polemius Silvius and their historical classification (= monographs of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Volume 130). Publishing house of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum, Mainz 2016, ISBN 978-3-88467-257-0 .

Web links

Commons : Chronograph of 354  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ See Susan B. Roll: Toward the Origins of Christmas , Kampen 1995, pp. 83 ff .; s. Cyril Charles Martindale: Christmas . In: The Catholic Encyclopedia . Volume 3, New York 1908 (with a critical investigation into the indication of the birthday of Jesus in the chronograph).
  2. ↑ This is where auc (ab urbe condita) and p. Chr. (Post Christum): auc 753 Lentulo et Pisone 1. Caesaro et Paulo hoc cons. Dominus Iesus Christ natus est viii kal. Ian. d. Ven. luna xv.
  3. ↑ The list begins with the entry: “viii kal. Ian Ianuarius natus Christ in Betleem Iudeae. "
  4. ^ New edition: Bruno Bleckmann , Jan-Markus Kötter, Mehran A. Nickbakht, In-Yong Song, Markus Stein : Origo gentis Romanorum - Polemius Silvius - Narratio de imperatoribus (= small and fragmentary historians of late antiquity B 5–7). Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78791-0 , pp. 1–140.