Diebold Schilling the Elder

Diebold Schilling the Elder ( * 1445, † by 1486 ) was historian and author of the Chronicle of Bern in the tradition of Swiss Illustrated Chronicle.

He was the second son of Niklaus Schilling of Solothurn and the uncle of the chroniclers of Diebold Schilling the Younger. He was trained in the workshop of Diebold Lauber and the chancellery Lucerne. In 1460 he entered the service of the office of the city of Bern, became a citizen of the city and in 1468 a member of the Great Council. 1485 he joined apparently for health reasons from his office as a clerk. Since the 1460s - years he dealt with representations of the Bernese and Swiss history. He participated in the Burgundian Wars.

From Diebold Schilling three works have survived: the Great Burgundian Chronicle or the " Zürcher Schilling ," the three -volume Official Bernese Chronicle, covering the period from 1152 to 1480 and last as Schilling's work the Spiez Chronicle, a commissioned work for the Bernese old-school Theissen Rudolf von Erlach, considered the artistic culmination of Schilling's work.