Despite the heavy, if not massive, loss of medieval manuscripts at large, chronicles did not suffer quite the same destiny as did countless religious texts in Latin or vernacular poetry. Chronicles were often produced on commission, for an abbot, a prince, or the king, and later also for a city council, providing a narrative that critically served for the establishment of self-identity, the historical grounding of one’s own culture, and for the comprehension of society’s origin, presence, and future.

One of the most influential medieval manuscripts was the Kaiserchronik (Chronicle of Emperors; 17,283 verses, Middle High German, certainly in a Bavarian variant) which tells the history of the Roman Empire from the time of Julius Cesar until Emperor Zeno, who ruled in Constantinople from

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Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Kaiserchronik". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 22 November 2024 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=41695, accessed 23 November 2024.]