The Chronicle of the Anonymus Leobiensis. A Critical Editon

Research project P 13913 The Chronicle of the Anonymus Leobiensis. A Critical Edition. Winfried STELZER 28.06.1999 The chronicle of the A. L. is an historiographic compilation, highly characteristic of the 14 th century. Its transmission in five medieval manuscripts which are independent of each other is unusually good and attests to its wide currency in the Austrian territories under Habsburg rule. Previous scholarly attention has chiefly focussed on the fact that the A. L. preserves more or less fully an otherwise unknown recension of John of Viktring`s Liber certarum historiarum. The chronicle covering the years from 1 A.D. to 1343 A.D. was made up of the following constituent parts: a repeatedly revised version of the chronicle of Martinus Polonus which originated from the Dominican house of Leoben (Styria), annals and John of Viktring`s Liber certarum historiarum. To this stock was added a Latin-German continuation comprising annals to 1350 (in German), a prophecy and an account of the battle of Crecy and a German narrative of the battle of Mühldorf. The very nature of such compilations did not appeal to an older tradition of research which was exclusively interested in `original` texts and hence failed to recognize the value of such miscellanies as historical handbooks of the time and as giving expression to the way in which history was conceived. Obviously, such an assessment did not take into account contemporary views of the writing of history. The choice of source material, the combination of selected texts lifted unaltered from the available sources and their adequate presentation in an organized narrative were the current, generally recognized principles of work. In view of the fact that embedded in sacred history the chronicle provides a regionally as well as dynastically orientated story of the Habsburg territories Austria, Styria and Carinthia, moreover in view of its closeness to the Habsburg court and its remarkable success with later historiographers, one cannot but endorse the verdict of Alphons Lhotsky, the greatest authority on Austrian historiography, that a complete edition of the chronicle of the A. L. is one of the most urgent desiderata. The transmission has already been critically examined, the decision as to which manuscTipt-to base the edition on has been taken. The "Zentraldirektion" of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica agreed on principle to publish the edition within the series "Scriptores rerum Germanicarum".

The project`s aim was to produce a critical edition of a historical manual which originated close to the Habsburg court in the middle of the 14th century. The core of the "handbook" is formed by the chronicle of the so called Anonymus Leobiensis, a historiographic compilation, highly characteristic of the 14th century, compiled by an anonymous friar of the Dominican house of Leoben (Styria). Its transmission in five medieval manuscripts which are independent of each other is unusually good and attests to its wide currency in the Austrian territories under Habsburg rule. Previous scholarly attention has chiefly focussed on the fact that the A. L. preserves more or less fully an otherwise unknown recension of John of Viktring`s chronicle. The compilation covering the years from the foundation of Rome to 1343 A. D. was made up of the following constituent parts: a repeatedly revised version of the chronicle of Martinus Polonus which originated from the Dominican house of Leoben, annals and John of Viktring`s chronicle. To this stock was added a Latin-German continuation comprising annals to 1350 (German), a prophecy and an account of the battle of Crecy and a German narrative of the battle of Mühldorf. Altogether the chronicle provides a regionally as well as dynastically orientated history of the Habsburg territories Austria, Styria and Carinthia embedded in sacred history and that of the Empire. The very nature of such compilations did not appeal to an older tradition of research which was exclusively interested in `original` texts and hence failed to recognize the value of such miscellanies as historical handbooks of the time and as giving expression to the way in which history was conceived. Obviously, such an assessment did not take into account contemporary views of the writing of history. The choice of source material, the combination of selected texts lifted unaltered from the available sources and their adequate presentation in an organized narrative were the current, generally recognized principles of work. The edition of the text has almost been completed while the project leader is still busy in preparing the commentary. In order to establish the critical text all the manuscript copies had to be collated as well as the manuscripts of the compilation`s sources. The Zwettl-MS. was choosen as the basic manuscript since in the other manuscripts the medieval Latin had been adapted by the copyists to a more classical Latin. The project presents for the first time a critical edition of a late medieval historical manual according to modern standards and demands. At the same time it serves as a new and modern edition of the recensio B of John of Viktring`s chronicle, thus replacing the MGH-edition by Fedor Schneider (1909/10) who had ignored the crucial manuscript. The edition will also serve as an important research-tool in the field of medieval Latin as in the notes the copyists`s philological alterations to the text in regard of syntax and stylistics are documented in detail.