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Thietmar (Dietmar or Dithmar) of Merseburg (July 25, 975
975

Events...
 - December 1, 1018), was bishop of Merseburg and a German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 chronicler.

tmar was a son of Siegfried, count of Walbeck, and was related to the family of the emperor Otto the Great
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duchy of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan....
. He was educated at Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval old town was set on the UNESCO World Heritage Site....
 and at Magdeburg
Magdeburg

Magdeburg , the Capital of the States of Germany of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, lies on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
, became provost
Provost (religion)

A provost is a senior official in a number of Christianity churches....
 of Walbeck Abbey in 1002 and bishop
Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
 of Merseburg seven years later. He took some part in the political events of the time; in 994 he was a hostage in the hands of the Northmen, and he was not unfamiliar with the actualities of war.

He died on December 1, 1018, and was buried in Merseburg cathedral
Merseburg Cathedral

Merseburg Cathedral is a cathedral in Merseburg, Germany. Construction on the Gothic architecture cathedral was begun by Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg in 1015....
.

een 1012 and 1018 Thietmar wrote a Chronicon, or Chronicle, in eight books, which deals with the period between 908 and 1018.






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Thietmar (Dietmar or Dithmar) of Merseburg (July 25, 975
975

Events...
 - December 1, 1018), was bishop of Merseburg and a German
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 chronicler.

Life

Thietmar was a son of Siegfried, count of Walbeck, and was related to the family of the emperor Otto the Great
Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I the Great , son of Henry I the Fowler and Matilda of Ringelheim, was Duchy of Saxony, King of Germany, King of Italy, and "the first of the Germans to be called the emperor of Italy" according to Arnulf of Milan....
. He was educated at Quedlinburg
Quedlinburg

Quedlinburg is a town located north of the Harz mountains, in the Harz in the west of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. In 1994 the medieval old town was set on the UNESCO World Heritage Site....
 and at Magdeburg
Magdeburg

Magdeburg , the Capital of the States of Germany of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, lies on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
, became provost
Provost (religion)

A provost is a senior official in a number of Christianity churches....
 of Walbeck Abbey in 1002 and bishop
Bishop

A bishop is an ordination or consecration member of the Clergy#Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight....
 of Merseburg seven years later. He took some part in the political events of the time; in 994 he was a hostage in the hands of the Northmen, and he was not unfamiliar with the actualities of war.

He died on December 1, 1018, and was buried in Merseburg cathedral
Merseburg Cathedral

Merseburg Cathedral is a cathedral in Merseburg, Germany. Construction on the Gothic architecture cathedral was begun by Bishop Thietmar of Merseburg in 1015....
.

Thietmar's Chronicle

Page of Thietmars Chronicle
Between 1012 and 1018 Thietmar wrote a Chronicon, or Chronicle, in eight books, which deals with the period between 908 and 1018. For the earlier part he used Widukind of Corvey
Widukind of Corvey

Widukind of Corvey was a Saxon people historical chronicler, named after the Saxon duke and national hero Widukind who had battled Charlemagne....
's Res gestae Saxonicae, the Annales Quedlinburgenses
Annals of Quedlinburg

The Annals of Quedlinburg were written between 1008 and 1030 in the convent of Quedlinburg Abbey. In recent years a consensus has emerged that the annalist was a woman....
 and other sources; the latter part is the result of personal knowledge.

The Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 style and the composition are not of a high standard, largely because, as the original manuscript reveals, Thietmar continued to make amendments and insertions to the text after it was completed. Nor does he always discriminate between important and unimportant events.

The chronicle is nevertheless an excellent authority for the history of Saxony
Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a States of Germany of Germany. Located in the southeastern part of present-day Germany. It is the tenth-largest German state in area and the sixth largest in population , of Germany's sixteen states....
 during the reigns of the emperors Otto III
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto III was the fourth ruler of the Saxon or Ottonian dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. He was elected king of Germany in 983 on the death of his father Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor....
 and Henry II
Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor

Saint Henry II , called the Holy or the Saint, was the fifth and last Holy Roman Empire of the Ottonian dynasty from his coronation in Rome in 1014 until his death a decade later....
. No kind of information is excluded, but the fullest details refer to the bishopric of Merseburg, and to the wars against the Wends
Wends

The term Wends or Wendish is used in Germanic languages for Slavs living near or within Germanic peoples settlement areas after the migration period....
 and the Poles
Poles

The Polish people, or Poles , are a West Slavs ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Poles are sometimes defined as people who share a common Polish culture and are of Polish descent....
.

The original manuscript of the work was moved in 1570 to Dresden
Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Germany Federal Free state of Saxony. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon triangle metropolitan area....
. When the city was destroyed by bombing during World War II
Bombing of Dresden in World War II

The Bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force between 13 February and 15 February 1945, 12 weeks before the German Instrument of Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, remains one of the most controversial Allied actions of the World War II....
 the manuscript was severely damaged, and only a few folios remain intact. Fortunately a complete facsimile edition had been published by L Schmidt (Dresden, 1905).

Thietmar's statement that the Gero Cross in Cologne cathedral
Cologne Cathedral

Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne, under the administration of the Roman Catholic Church and is renowned as a monument of Christianity, of Gothic architecture and of the faith and perseverance of the people of the city in which it stands....
 was commissioned by Archbishop Gero, who died in 976, was dismissed by art historians, who thought he meant another cross, until the 1920s, and finally confirmed as correct in 1976 by dendrochronology
Dendrochronology

Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the method of scientific dating based on the analysis of tree-ring growth patterns. This technique was developed during the first half of the 20th century originally by the astronomer A....
.

Editions and translations of Thietmar's Chronicle

Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon:

  • Mentzel-Reuters, Arno und Gerhard Schmitz. Chronicon Thietmari Merseburgensis. MGH. Munich, 2002. Images of the Dresden MS (prepared by Birgit Arensmann und Alexa Hoffmann), a search facility and Holtzmann's 1935 edition,
  • Holtzman, Robert (ed.) and J.C.M. Laurent, J. Strebitzki und W. Wattenbach (trs.). Die Chronik des Thietmar von Merseburg. Halle, 2007 (1912). ISBN 978-3-89812-513-0. New publication based on earlier editions and German translations and including 48 illustrations by Klaus F. Messerschmidt.
  • Holtzmann, Robert (ed.). Die Chronik des Bischofs Thietmar von Merseburg und ihre Korveier Überarbeitung. MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum NS 9. Berlin, 1935. Available from
  • Wattenbach, Wilhem
    Wilhelm Wattenbach

    Wilhelm Wattenbach , was a Germany historian.He was born at Ranzau in Holstein. He studied philology at the universities of University of Bonn, University of G?ttingen and Humboldt University, and in 1843 he began to work upon the Monumenta Germaniae Historica....
     and Friedrich Kurze (eds.). Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon. MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum separatim editi 54. Hanover, 1889. PDF available online from the .
  • Lappenberg, J.M.
    Johann Martin Lappenberg

    Johann Martin Lappenberg , was a Germany historian....
     (ed.). "Thietmari Chronicon a 919-1018." In Annales, chronica et historiae aevi Saxonici, ed. Heinrich Pertz. MGH Scriptores (in Folio) 3. Hanover, 1839. 723–871.
  • Warner, David A. (tr.). Ottonian Germany. The Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg. Manchester, 2001. ISBN 0-7190-4925-3. English translation.
  • Trillmich, Werner (tr.). In Thietmar von Merseburg. Chronik. Ausgewählte Quellen zur Deutschen Geschichte des Mittelalters vol 9. 8th ed. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2002 (1957). ISBN 3-534-00173-7. Translation into modern German.
  • Holtzmann (tr.). 1938. GdV, 4.Aufl. German translation.
  • von Laurent (tr.). 2. Aufl. Berlin, 1879. German translation.


External links

(full text of the facsimile of the Dresden MS and Holtzmann's edition)*