George Kedrenos

Georgios Kedrenos ( Latinized Georgius Cedrenus, medium Γεώργιος Κεδρηνός Greek ) was a Byzantine historian of the 11th and 12th century.

Over the life of the Kedrenos nothing is known. However, it is believed that he was a monk. Kedrenos wrote to the turn of the century a world chronicle, which ranged from the Biblical creation of the world by the year 1057, the accession of the emperor Isaac I Komnenos. He used as sources of many former historian whose works, however, he often took literally. For his performance up to the year 811 is its major source of so-called pseudo - Symeon, an anonymous compilation, which is obtained via the Codex Pari Sinus graecus 1712 and is classified in the context of the tradition of the Logothetenchronik. Furthermore, he used sources such as the Chronicon Paschale, Theophanes and the Logothetenchronik ( " Symeon Logothetes " ), for the period up to late antiquity also about Sozomen, Prokopios of Caesarea, John of Antioch and Theophylaktos Simokates. For the period after 811 he was - largely verbatim - the historian John Skylitzes again. As used by Kedrenos and hardly modified sources are preserved in the majority anyway, its representation as a historical source is usually no independent value, but remains still interesting for studies of conditions in the Byzantine historiography. His work, in turn, served as a template later historians, notably Michael Glykas, John Zonaras and Theodore Skutariotes.

Expenditure

• Immanuel Bekker (ed.): Georgius Cedrenus. 2 volumes, Bonn 1838-1839 ( reprinted in Jacques Paul Mignes Patrologia Graecae, Volume 121-122, Paris 1884-1889 ).