A chronicle (Latin: chronica, from Greek χρονικά chroniká, from χρόνος, chrónos – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler. A chronicle which traces world history is a universal chronicle. This is in contrast to a narrative or history, in which an author chooses events to interpret and analyze and excludes those the author does not consider important or relevant.
The information sources for chronicles vary. Some are written from the chronicler's direct knowledge, others from witnesses or participants in events, still others are accounts passed down from generation to generation by oral tradition. Some used written material, such as charters, letters, and earlier chronicles. Still others are tales of unknown origin that have mythical status. Copyists also changed chronicles in creative copying, making corrections or in updating or continuing a chronicle with information not available to the original chronicler. Determining the reliability of particular chronicles is important to historians.
Many newspapers and other periodical literature have adopted "chronicle" as part of their name.
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Subgroups
Scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups: live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle is one where the author assembles a list of events up to the time of their writing, but does not record further events as they occur. A live chronicle is where one or more authors add to a chronicle in a regular fashion, recording contemporary events shortly after they occur. Because of the immediacy of the information, historians tend to value live chronicles, such as annals, over dead ones.
The term often refers to a book written by a chronicler in the Middle Ages describing historical events in a country, or the lives of a nobleman or a clergyman, although it is also applied to a record of public events. The earliest medieval chronicle to combine both retrospective (dead) and contemporary (live) entries, is the Chronicle of Ireland, which spans the years 431 to 911.
Chronicles are the predecessors of modern "time lines" rather than analytical histories. They represent accounts, in prose or verse, of local or distant events over a considerable period of time, both the lifetime of the individual chronicler and often those of several subsequent continuators. If the chronicles deal with events year by year, they are often called annals. Unlike the modern historian, most chroniclers tended to take their information as they found it, and made little attempt to separate fact from legend. The point of view of most chroniclers is highly localised, to the extent that many anonymous chroniclers can be sited in individual abbeys.
It is impossible to say how many chronicles exist, as the many ambiguities in the definition of the genre make it impossible to draw clear distinctions of what should or should not be included. However, the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle lists some 2,500 items written between 300 and 1500 AD.
Citation of entries
Entries in chronicles are often cited using the abbreviation s.a., meaning sub anno (under the year), according to the year under which they are listed. For example, "ASC MS A, s.a. 855" means the entry for the year 855 in manuscript A of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The same event may be recorded under a different year in another manuscript of the chronicle, and may be cited for example as "ASC MS D, s.a. 857".
English chronicles
The most important English chronicles are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, started under the patronage of King Alfred in the 9th century and continued until the 12th century, and the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577–87) by Raphael Holinshed and other writers; the latter documents were important sources of materials for Elizabethan drama. Later 16th-century Scottish chronicles, written after the Reformation, shape history according to Catholic or Protestant viewpoints.
Cronista
A cronista is a term for a historical chronicler, a role that held historical significance in the European Middle Ages. Until the European Enlightenment, the occupation was largely equivalent to that of a historian, describing events chronologically that were of note in a given country or region. As such, it was often an official governmental position rather than an independent practice. The appointment of the official chronicler often favored individuals who had distinguished themselves by their efforts to study, investigate and disseminate population-related issues. The position was granted on a local level based on the mutual agreements of a city council in plenary meetings. Often, the occupation was honorary, unpaid, and stationed for life. In modern usage, the term usually refers to a type of journalist who writes chronicles as a form of journalism or non-professional historical documentation.
Cronistas in the Middle Ages
Before the development of modern journalism and the systematization of chronicles as a journalistic genre, cronistas were tasked with narrating chronological events considered worthy of remembrance that were recorded year by year. Unlike writers who created epic poems regarding living figures, cronistas recorded historical events in the lives of individuals in an ostensibly truthful and reality-oriented way.
Even from the time of early Christian historiography, cronistas were clearly expected to place human history in the context of a linear progression, starting with the creation of man until the second coming of Christ, as detailed in biblical texts.
Lists of chronicles
Babylonian Chronicles (loosely-defined set of 25 clay tablets)
Burmese chronicles
Cambodian Royal Chronicles (loosely-defined collection)
List of collections of Crusader sources (most of them chronicles)
List of Danish chronicles
List of English chronicles
List of Hungarian chronicles
List of Rus' chronicles
Muslim chronicles for Indian history
Chronicles of Nepal
Serbian chronicles
List of Spanish chronicles
Alphabetical list of notable chronicles
History of Alam Aray Abbasi – Safavid Iran
Alamgirnama – Mughal Empire
Alexandrian World Chronicle – Greek history of the world until 392 AD
Altan Tobchi – Mongol Empire
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – England
Annales Bertiniani – West Francia
Annales Cambriae – Wales
Annales Posonienses – Kingdom of Hungary
Annales seu cronicae incliti Regni Poloniae – Poland
Annals of Inisfallen – Ireland
Annals of Lough Cé – Ireland
Annals of the Four Masters – Ireland
Annals of Spring and Autumn – China
Annals of Thutmose III – Ancient Egypt
Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty – Korea
Babylonian Chronicles – Mesopotamia
Anonymous Bulgarian Chronicle – Bulgaria
Barnwell Chronicle – England
Bodhi Vamsa – Sri Lanka
Books of Chronicles attributed to Ezra – Israel
Rhymed chronicles
Rhymed or poetic chronicles, as opposed to prosaic chronicles, include:
Rhymed Chronicle of 1682
Rhymed Chronicle of Armenia Minor
Cronache aquilane ("Chronicle of L'Aquila"), both in prose and verse form
Brabantsche Yeesten (c. 1315–1351) by Jan van Boendale (continued by an anonymous author)
Cornicke van Brabant (1415) by Hennen van Merchtenen
Cronijck van Brabant (c. 1435–1460), anonymous, until 1430
Rhymed Chronicle of Brunswick
Rhymed Chronicle of Cologne by Gottfried Hagen
Chronicle of Dalimil
Danish Rhymed Chronicle
Chronicon Egmundanum
Engelbrekt's Chronicle
Erik's Chronicle
Rhymed Chronicle of Flanders, part of the Comburg Manuscript. It is unique, as all other surviving Dutch-language chronicles of Flanders were written in prose.
Die olde Freesche cronike (1474), anonymous history of Friesland until 1248
Rhymed Chronicle of Gandersheim
Rhymed Chronicle of Holland by Melis Stoke