Anastasius the Librarian: Interpretatio Chronologiae Sancti Nicephori

This is Anastasius the Librarian’s Latin version of the short chronography of Nicephorus, patriarch of Constantinople, who died in 828. A note to the reader by the later editor, Antonius Contius, observes that the patriarchs listed after Nicephorus must have been added by Anastasius himself. The text is a set of chronological lists: it begins with the generations from Adam to the Flood and beyond, giving the age at which each patriarch begat his son, then continues with kings, high priests and other rulers, as in the list of Jewish high priests under Hyrcanus, Herod and their successors, and later lists of emperors and bishops.

Such compact chronological tables were widely used as reference works in Byzantium and, through Anastasius’ translation, became available in the West. The version formed part of his Chronographia Tripartita, a compilation from Greek chronicles intended to supply Latin readers with Byzantine historical learning. It is of interest for medieval chronology and for the history of translation from Greek in ninth-century Rome. It also shows how biblical and post-biblical history were combined in one continuous framework.