Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum
The Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Latin history of the Archdiocese of Hamburg) represent one of the most important medieval history and geography works of northern Europe dar. It is also the oldest written source for the discovery of America. The term Gesta points to the claim as a factual report.
The manuscript was written between about 1070 and about 1076 of the Bremen Domscholaster Adam of Bremen and provided to about 1081/1085 with additions ( scholia ). The work came in the Middle Ages into oblivion. End of the 16th century a copy in the monastery Soro (Denmark) has been discovered. A content workup was carried out only in the 19th century.
Components
The work consists of five parts:
- Liber I - History of the Archdiocese of Hamburg -Bremen
- Liber II - History of the Archdiocese of Hamburg -Bremen
- Liber III - Biography of Archbishop Adalbert of Bremen
- Descriptio insularum aquilonis - Geography of Northern Europe
- M. Adami Epilogus ad Liemarum episcopum - authored a poem in hexameters dedication to Bishop Liemar of Bremen
It is written in Medieval Latin.
Importance
Thus, the fourth part ( Descriptio insularum aquilonis ) especially the coasts and islands of Scandinavia and Greenland and America ( Vinland ) dar.
Tradition and history preserved fragments
Manuscripts and Text History
The original manuscript of Adam of Bremen is not obtained. There are - as in most medieval manuscripts - some transcripts, many of which were made by previous transcripts and therefore differ.
The reconstructions used today are based on the editions of Georg Waitz and especially Bernhard Schmeidler, whose classification of the source manuscripts into classes A, B and C still valid today.
After Schmeidler, there were three versions that come from Adam of Bremen: its working version (A), the work that he gave Archbishop Liemar (a) and a copy of (X ), which he kept, and in which he supplements ( scholia ) earned. None of the original versions is obtained.
The most important manuscript - Class A - is ÖNB Vienna, cod. 521 ( A1), which dates from the first half of the 13th century and in the Austrian National Library is kept (formerly Vienna Court Library ). The Codex Latinus Vossianus, VLQ 123 - preserved in the Leiden University Library - dating back to 1100 includes seven chapters of the second book, and the fourth book, including the Scholia. Important Class A manuscripts are the Codex Copenhagen as well as two copies in the Hamburg State Archives.
The manuscripts of the class B and C come from for text analysis of the X version. Class B includes the Codex z, the 1161/1162 at the Cistercian monastery Sorö ( Sealand, Denmark ) was established and in 1728 the University Library in Copenhagen fell victim to a fire. Some copies of this code are preserved.
The Class C- manuscripts are descended from another copy of version X. The Royal Library in Copenhagen has the manuscripts C1 and C3. The latter, the fragment NKS 1463 2, dates from the 14th century. It consists of a single, 28.5 × 21.3 cm sheet of parchment. It contains parts of the first book. This fragment was found in 1628 as a cover sheet for calculations of Nyborg Prefecture for the year 1628. An image of the original is in the online offer of the Royal Library be studied ( see below).
Printed versions
The oldest printed version of the text - after the now lost manuscript C2 - was printed in 1595 by Erpold Lindenberg. Reprints were made in his Scriptores rerum Septentrionalium in the years 1609 and 1630th Joachim Jonnes Mader ( Helmstedt ) announced in 1670 a revised version out, this was reprinted in 1706 by JA Fabricus in Hamburg. The fourth book was published by John Messinus in Stockholm 1615 and of Stephanus Johannes Stephanius in Leiden in 1629.
The oldest critical edition is by Johann Martin Lappenberg from the year 1846. It is based on the manuscript A1 and was published in the MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum series. 1876 was Georg Waitz a revision of Lappenberg edition out. The current edition still comes from Bernhard Schmiedler and was first published in 1917 also in the MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum series. Reprints were made in 1977 and 1993.
The oldest translation of a part of text was written by Johan Fredrich Peringskiöld, who translated the fourth part of the 18th century in the Swedish. Carsten Miesegaes published the first German translation in 1825 in Bremen.