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| Jerome's Chronicle | |
|---|---|
| Name | Jerome's Chronicle |
| Caption | Facsimile page (hypothetical) |
| Author | Traditionally attributed to Eusebius of Caesarea? / Jerome |
| Language | Latin language |
| Date | circa 5th–8th century (disputed) |
| Place | Rome, Bethlehem, Constantinople |
| Genre | Chronicle, annals |
| Subject | Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages |
Jerome's Chronicle Jerome's Chronicle is a contested Latin chronicle traditionally associated with Jerome and linked to continuations of Eusebius of Caesarea's chronicle. The work is invoked in discussions of Late Antiquity, Christianity, Byzantine Empire, and Western Roman Empire transitions, and it is often cited alongside texts like the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine, the Chronicon Paschale, and the Liber Pontificalis. Scholars debate its authorship, composition date, and relationship to Latin historiography and ecclesiastical history.
Attribution to Jerome has been proposed in relation to Eusebius of Caesarea's chronicle and the tradition of chronography practised in Rome and Bethlehem. Competing attributions include anonymous clerics in Gaul, scribes in Ravenna, or compilers associated with Pope Gregory I's circle. Proposed dates range from late 4th century through the 8th century, with specific suggestions placing redaction in the era of Theodosius II, Justinian I, or the reign of Leo III. Paleographic evidence from manuscripts links copying activity to scriptoria in Lorsch Abbey, Monte Cassino, and St. Gall between the 6th and 9th centuries.
The chronicle presents annalistic entries arranging regnal and consular lists, ecclesiastical events, and imperial deeds from the Roman Republic's end through post-Barbarian settlements. Typical entries combine references to Roman emperors such as Augustus, Nero, Constantine the Great, Theodosius I, and Heraclius with notices of church affairs involving Pope Damasus I, Pope Gregory I, Athanasius of Alexandria, and Augustine of Hippo. The text intersects with accounts of the Vandal and Ostrogoth kingdoms, mentioning figures like Theodoric the Great and Genseric, and events including the Sack of Rome (410), the Vandalic War, and the Reconquest of Italy under Belisarius. Structural features mirror those in the Chronicon Paschale and the Chronica Gallica of 452: tabular chronologies, regnal synchronisms, and short narrative interpolations reporting councils such as the Council of Nicaea, the Council of Chalcedon, and the Third Council of Constantinople.
The compiler appears to have drawn on a broad array of written authorities: Eusebius of Caesarea's Chronicle (Eusebius), the Chronicon Adamnani? tradition, the Historia Ecclesiastica of Socrates of Constantinople, the works of Orosius, and the epitomes of Jerome himself. Additional reliance on imperial lists from the Notitia Dignitatum, consular fasti preserved in Fasti Consulares, and hagiographical notices resembling the Passio Sancti corpus is evident. Methodologically, the text displays synchronistic techniques, chronological recalibration, and the integration of oral reports from episcopal networks including Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Rome. Textual parallels with the Liber Pontificalis and the annals of Marcellinus Comes indicate shared documentary traditions and exemplar manuscripts circulating in Constantinople and Ravenna.
Composed amid the transformations of the late antique Mediterranean, the chronicle is significant for reconstructing the interplay of imperial, ecclesiastical, and barbarian actors across regions like Italia, Africa Proconsularis, Hispania, and Gallia. It illuminates relations among powers such as the Eastern Roman Empire, the Visigothic Kingdom, the Frankish Kingdom, and the Lombards. Notices of pandemics, sieges, and diplomatic missions reference phenomena connected to the Justinianic Plague, the Siege of Rome (537–538), and negotiations with rulers like Clovis I and Chlothar I. The chronicle also bears on debates about chronology reform, the computation of Easter, and the movement of ecclesiastical relics during periods of migration and conquest.
Medieval compilers and chroniclers such as Bede, Isidore of Seville, Paul the Deacon, Marcellinus Comes, and later Renaissance humanists engaged with material found in this chronicle or its exemplars. Its data informed later works like the Universal Chronicle traditions and national histories in France, Italy, and England. In modern scholarship, figures including Theodor Mommsen, Eduard Schwartz, Theodor Wilhelm, and Richard Allen have debated its critical edition and fragments. Editions and commentaries have appeared in collections of patristic and medieval Latin sources produced by presses and projects linked to Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and national academies in France, Germany, and Italy.
Surviving witnesses survive as excerpts, palimpsest leaves, and marginalia in codices housed in libraries such as the Vatican Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Bodleian Library, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Key manuscript groups trace to monastic centres: Monte Cassino, Bobbio Abbey, Lorsch Abbey, and Saint Gall Abbey. Transmission history includes citation chains through Isidore of Seville and Cassiodorus, incorporation into chronicles at Reims and Tours, and adaptation in Byzantine manuscript traditions preserved at Mount Athos and Florence. Text-critical problems include interpolations, chronology shifts, and conflation with works of Sulpicius Severus and Hydatius, requiring diplomatic editions and stemmatic analysis to reconstruct archetypes.
Category:Late Antiquity chronicles Category:Medieval Latin texts