Cover not available

In:Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A millennium heritage
Edited by Francesco Stella
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIV] 2024
► pp. 235–250

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload Book EPUB
authorization required

Chapter 14
Baltic countries

 | SISMELFirenze
Published online: 2 July 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/chlel.34.14bug
Abstract
Latin literature from the Baltic countries is inextricably tied up with the German crusaders and the religious orders that accompanied them. Their interests are reflected in their writings, which are predominantly either historical and ethnographic or devotional. The chronicles and histories often display the biases and agendas of their authors, serving as ammunition in a rivalry between the various crusading orders and the newly established episcopates, all vying for authority.
Article outline
  • The Latin languages on the Baltic
  • Before the arrival of the Germans
  • The arrival of the Westerners
  • Henry of Livonia: His origin and his Chronicon
    • Drafting, origins, and themes
    • A writer from the high middle ages
  • The monastic military orders
  • Peter of Dusburg and his Chronica terrae Prussiae
    • Content, value, and ideology of the “Chronica”
  • Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
  • Hermann of Wartberge
  • Wigand of Marburg
  • Other accounts
  • Dominicans and Cistercians
  • Notes
  • References
References (34)
References
Primary sources
Adalbéron de Laon. Poème au roi Robert (Carmen ad Rotbertum regem). Claude Carozzi (ed.). Paris: Les Belles Lettres. 1979.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Adam of Bremen. Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae Pontificium. In Quellen des 9. und 11. Jahrhunderts zur Geschichte der Hamburgischen Kirche und des Reiches. Rudolf Buchner (ed. and trans.), 135–499. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. 2000.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. History of Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. Francis J. Tschan (trans.), intr. and bibliography by Timothy Reuter. New York: Colombia University Press. 2002.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hartmann von Heldrungen. Bericht über die Vereinigung des livländischen Schwertbrüderordens mit dem Deutschen Orden. In Scriptores rerum Prussicarum 5. Th. Hirsch (ed.). Leipzig: Hirzel. 1874.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henry of Livonia. Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae. In Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores rerum Germanicacrum 31. Leonid Arbusow, Albert Bauer (eds.). Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung. 1955.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia. 2nd ed., James A. Brundage (trans.). Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. 1961.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hermann of Wartberge. Hermanni de Wartberge Chronicon Livoniae, Ēvalds Mugurēvičs (ed.). Rīga: Latvijas Vēstures Institūta Apgāds. 2005.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liv-, Est- und Curländisches Urkundenbuch nebst Regesten, vol. 1. 3 (1368–1393), Georg Friedrich von Bunge (ed.). Reval: Kluge und Ströhm. 1857.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Livländische Reimchronik, Leo Meyer (ed.). Paderborn: Ferdinand Schönigh. 1876.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nicolaus von Jeroschin. Kronike von Prûzinlant. Theodor Hirsch Max Töppen, Erst Strehlke (eds.), SRP 1: 291–624. Lepzig: Hirzel. 1861.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. The Chronicle of Prussia: A History of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, 1190–1331. Mary Fischer (trans.). Furnham: Ashgate. 2010.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Petrus of Dusburg. Chronica terrae Prussiae. Jarosław Wenta, Sławomir Wyszomirski (eds.). Kraków: Academia Scientiarum et Litterarum Polona. 2007.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. Chronik des Preussenlandes, Klaus Scholz, Dieter Wojtecki (trans.). Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft. 1984.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
The Livonian Rhymed Chronicle, 2nd ed., Jerry C. Smith, William L. Urban (trans.). Chicago: Lithuanian Research and Studies Center. 2001.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wigand of Marburg. Die Chronik Wigands von Marburg (Cronica nova Prutenica). Theodor Hirsch (ed.) In Scriptores Rerum Prussicarum vol. 2: 429–662 Leipzig: Hirzel. 1863.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Secondary literature
Arbusow, Leonid. 1939. “Die mittelalterliche Schriftüberlieferung als Quelle für die Frühgeschichte der ostbaltischen Völker.” In Ostbaltische Frühzeit, Albert Brackmann, Carl Engel (eds.), 167–203. Leipzig: Hirzel.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bugiani, Piero. 2013. “Sguardi sul Nord: In margine a recenti pubblicazioni sul Baltico orientale.” Res Balticae 13: 151–163.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dini, Pietro U. 2014. Foundations of Baltic Languages. Vilnius: Vilnius University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dunphy, Graeme. 2010. Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dygo, Marian. 2008. “Die Kultur des Deutschordenslandes Preussen. Das Probem der Eigentümlichkeit der Region.” In Mittelalterliche Kultur und Literatur im Deutschordensstaat in Preussen: Leben und Nachleben, Jarosław Wenta, Sieglinde Hartmann, Gisela Vollmann-Profe (eds.), 57–79. Toruń: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Mikołaja Kopernica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ehlers, Alex. 2001. “The Crusade of the Teutonic Knights against Lithuania Reconsidered.” In Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier 1150–1500, Alan V. Murray (ed.), 21–44. Aldershot:Ashgate.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fonnesberg–Schmidt, Iben. 2007. The Popes and the Baltic Crusades (1147–1254). Leiden:Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gimbutas, Marija. 1963. The Balts. London: Thames and Hudson.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gøgsig Jakobsen, Johnny Grandjean. 2018. “Dominican Mission in the Baltic Sea Region: With Comparative Looks to Mendicant Mission on the Entire East-European Frontier.” The Journal of Medieval Monastic Studies 7: 201–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Huygens, Robert B. C. 2000. Ars edendi. A Practical Introduction to Editing Medieval Latin Texts. Turnhout: Brepols.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kivimäe, Juri. 2011. “Henricus, the Ethnographer:” In Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier. A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, Marek Tamm, L. Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen (eds.), 77–106. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Krollmann, Christian. 1928. “Wer war der Verfasser der Epitome gestorum Prussiae .” Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte von Ost- und Westpreußen 2: 51–53.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Merisalo, Outi. 2007. “Piero Bugiani ed. Enrico di Lettonia, Chronicon Livoniae. La crociata del nord (1184–1227), 2005.” Archivum Lithuanicum 9: 371–374.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Murray, Alan V. 2011. “Henry the Interpreter: Language, Orality and Communication in the Thirteenth-century Livonian Mission.” In Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier. A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen (eds.), 107–134. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schmalstieg, William R. 2006. Review of “Bugiani, Piero. Enrico di Lettonia. Chronicon Livoniae La crociata del nord”. In Lithuanus 52/4, pp. 70–77.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Selart, Anti. 2011a. “The Use and Uselessness of the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia in the Middle Ages.” In Crusading and Chronicle Writing on the Medieval Baltic Frontier. A Companion to the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, Marek Tamm, Linda Kaljundi, Carsten Selch Jensen (eds.), 345–361. Farnham: Ashgate.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011b. “Die livländische Chronik des Hermann von Wartberge.” In Geschichtsschreibung im mittelalterlichen Livland, Matthias Thumser (ed.), 59–86. Berlin: LIT.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Švābe, Arveds. 1938. “Kas bija Latviešu Indriķis.” Senatne un Māksla 4: 11–38.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Töppen, Max. 1853. Geschichte der Preussischen Historiographie von P. v. Dusburg bis auf K. Schütz. Berlin: Hertz.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue