Thietmar of Merseburg (975-1018)
A leaf from Chronicon (Corvey recension), in Latin, manuscript on vellum [?Germany, 12th century]
The oldest surviving witness to the Corvey recension of Thietmar of Merseburg’s invaluable chronicle of Ottonian history, the text here describing the ‘immensely cruel fornicator’, Vladimir of Russia.

c.280 × 230mm. 2 columns of 30 (of 34) lines, ruled in plummet with pricking preserved on the fore edge, the text from ‘noster homo erat zelo dei feruens’ to ‘de Gallia cum uenerabili uiro Adelhardo’, Chronicon VII 71-75 (some text on recto lost due to use as binding in the 17th century, first four lines of text lost due to trimming, repair to horizontal split in leaf, small holes).

Provenance:
(1) Used as the binding for a copy of Martin Ruland (1532-1602), De ortu animae in the 17th century: two 17th-century inscriptions along centre of the recto name Ruland De ortu, with the upper inscription including the classing I Centuriae 8.2.10, while the lower inscription seems to report the classing I Centuriae 4.3.6.
(2) Erik von Scherling, Rotulus VII (1954), pp.17-18, no 2491, with plate on p.17 (he states, ‘The present leaf represents the earliest witness to the revised [Corvey] text’).
(3) Colker MS 66; acquired in 1964 by Maggs (gift of Hazel Colker).

The leaf is comprehensively described and its readings recorded by Colker in Scriptorium 25 (1971) pp.62-67, with plate 9a. Thietmar, Prince-Bishop of Merseburg from 1009 until his death in 1018, was one of the most important chroniclers recording the reigns of German kings and Holy Roman Emperors of the Ottonian dynasty. His Chronicon was composed during the final six years of his life, and the original manuscript, executed by eight scribes and by Thietmar himself, survives in Dresden Landesbibliothek Msc. R. 147. Evidently Thietmar did not survive to complete his corrections, as the final four pages contain several mistakes and even a lacuna. In the 12th century, at the monastery of Corvey, a revised edition was produced, with extensive and important changes in style and content - important too because this revision provided an idea of what the lacunae in the Dresden manuscript must have contained. This revision is preserved in only one codex, Brussels, KBR, ms.7503-7518, dated to the late 14th century. The present fragment is consequently the earliest survival of this important recension.

The leaf treats fascinating material from 989 to 1017, discussing King Vladimir of Russia, that ‘fornicator, immensus et crudelis’, an anecdote on how Frankfurt got its name, and an account of the earliest history of Corvey.

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