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Thietmar, bishop of Merseburg from 1009 to his death in 1018 and a member of the Saxon nobility, wrote this chronicle in eight books. It opens with a verse prologue to his brother Siegfried, asking him to read the work kindly, adding what pleases and removing what is superfluous; it is not adorned with style but runs on a plain field, telling the life and manners of the pious kings of Saxony, under whom the realm shone like a lofty cedar, and the building, losses and restoration of the church of Merseburg and its bishops. The books cover the reigns of Henry I and the three Ottos, and then in detail the reign of Henry II, in which Thietmar took part.
Thietmar’s chronicle is the principal source for the Ottonian empire in his lifetime and for its eastern frontier, with much information on the Slavs, Poles, Bohemians and Hungarians, the wars with Bolesław Chrobry and the history of the suppressed and restored see of Merseburg. In the middle passage a captive sings the whole psalter with 150 prostrations in one day while King Henry prepares to avenge an injury in Italy. His personal, candid style makes the work exceptionally revealing.
About this edition. The Latin text comes from Corpus Corporum, the Latin text repository of the University of Zurich (edition: Jacques-Paul Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 139, Parisiis 1853), reused with attribution for non-commercial purposes (CC BY-NC-SA). Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.