Chronicle

A chronicle (Latin: chronica, from Greek χρονικά chroniká, from χρόνος, chrónos – "time") is a historical account of facts and events arranged in chronological order, as in a time line. 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. This is in contrast to a narrative or history, which sets selected events in a meaningful interpretive context and excludes those the author does not see as important.

Chronicles information sources vary; some chronicles are written from first-hand knowledge, some are from witnesses or participants in events, still others are accounts passed mouth to mouth prior to being written down.[1] Some used written material: Charters, letters, or the works of earlier chroniclers.[1] Still others are tales of such unknown origins so as to hold mythical status.[1] Copyists also affected chronicles in creative copying, making corrections or in updating or continuing a chronicle with information not available to the original author(s).[1] The reliability of a particular chronicle is an important determination for modern historians.[1]

In modern times various contemporary newspapers or other periodicals have adopted "chronicle" as part of their name. Various fictional stories have also adopted "chronicle" as part of their title, to give an impression of epic proportion to their stories. A chronicle which traces world history is called a universal chronicle.

Subgroups

Scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups: live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle is one where the author gathers his list of events up to the time of his 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.[2]

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.
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.[3] Later 16th century Scottish chronicles, written after the Reformation, shape history according to Catholic or Protestant viewpoints.

Alphabetical list of notable chronicles t.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — England
Annales Bertiniani – West Francia
Annales Cambriae – Wales
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
Babylonian Chronicles — Mesopotamia
Anonymous Bulgarian Chronicle — Bulgaria
Bodhi Vamsa — Sri Lanka
Buranji — Ahoms, Assam, India
Cāmadevivaṃsa — a Northern Thai Chronicle
Culavamsa — Sri Lanka
(Chronica Polonorum): see Gesta principum Polonorum
Cheitharol Kumbaba (kumpapa) – Manipur, India
Chronica Gentis Scotorum
Chronica seu originale regum et principum Poloniae – Poland
Chronicon of Eusebius
Chronicon Scotorum – Ireland
Chronicon of Thietmar of Merseburg
Chronicle (Crònica) by Ramon Muntaner - 13th/14th-century Crown of Aragon. Third and longest of the Grand Catalan Chronicles.
Chronicle of Finland (Chronicon Finlandiae) by Johannes Messenius – Finland
Dioclean Priest's Chronicle — Europe
Chronicle of the Slavs — Europe
Chronicle of Greater Poland – Poland
Chronicle (Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh)
Chronica Hungarorum – History of Hungary
Chronicle of Jean de Venette – France
Chronicle of the Bishops of England (De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum) by William of Malmesbury
Chronicle of the Kings of England (De Gestis Regum Anglorum) by William of Malmesbury
Chronographia – 11th century History of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) by Michael Psellos
Comentarios Reales de los Incas
Conversion of Kartli — Georgia
Cronaca fiorentina – Chronicle of Florence up to the end of the 14th Century by Baldassarre Bonaiuti
Cronicae et gesta ducum sive principum Polonorum – Poland
Croyland Chronicle — England
Dawn-Breakers (Nabil's Narrative) — Bahá'í Faith and Middle East
Dipavamsa — Sri Lanka
Divan of the Abkhazian Kings — Georgia
Eric Chronicles — Sweden
Eusebius Chronicle — Mediterranean and Middle East
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland – Ireland
Froissart's Chronicles — France and Western Europe
Galician-Volhynian Chronicle — Ukraine
Georgian Chronicles — Georgia
Gesta Normannorum Ducum — Normandy
Gesta principum Polonorum
Grandes Chroniques de France — France
Henry of Livona Chronicle — Eastern Europe
Historia Ecclesiastica — Norman England
The Historie and Chronicles of Scotland, Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie
History of the Prophets and Kings — Middle East and Mediterranean
Hustyn Chronicle – Eastern Europe
Jans der Enikel — Europe and Mediterranean
Jinakalamali – Northern Thailand
Joannis de Czarnkow chronicon Polonorum – Poland
Jerome's Chronicle — Mediterranean and Middle East
Kaiserchronik -Central and southern Europe, Germany
Kano Chronicle — Nigeria
Lethrense Chronicle — Denmark
Libre dels Feyts - Book of the Deeds by James I of Aragon, first of the Grand Catalan Chronicles
Madala Panji – Chronicle of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, India, related to the History of Odisha
Mahavamsa — Sri Lanka
Manx Chronicle – Isle of Man
Nabonidus Chronicle — Mesopotamia
Nuova Cronica — Florence
Paschale Chronicle — Mediterranean
Primary Chronicle — Eastern Europe
Puranas — India
Rajatarangini — Kashmir
Roit and Quheil of Tyme -Scotland, Adam Abell
Roskildense Chronicle — Denmark
Royal Frankish Annals — Frankish Empire
Scotichronicon – by the Scottish historian Walter Bower
Skibby Chronicle – Danish Latin chronicle from the 1530s
Swiss illustrated chronicles — Switzerland
Zizhi Tongjian — China