La Chronique Anonyme Universelle: Reading and Writing History in Fifteenth-Century France

This volume presents the first comprehensive study of the Chronique Anonyme Universelle, a lavishly illustrated scroll history of the world from Creation to the fifteenth century. Working in a French noble library around the year 1410, the anonymous compiler of the Chronique told the story of humanity - nearly six thousand years by his reckoning - by editing historical texts at his disposal, arranging them in parallel columns on a vertical scroll, and filling the inter-columnar space with complex genealogical diagrams. The Chronique reflects a particular and particularly French self-image and worldview that become increasingly apparent as the reader traverses its direct and unbroken line from the Bible, Egypt, Greece and Troy to the histories of the Papacy, the Roman and Holy Roman Empires, the Crusades, and the royal houses of France and England. The present volume includes an extensive study of the sources, origin, transmission and illustration of the Chronique along with a critical edition, facing translation, and the entireminiature cycle of manuscript W (ca. 1465, now in private hands). Using an innovative image-annotation platform, the DVD insert provides access to a complete digital facsimile of the manuscript, giving the user wide-ranging search and browsing functionality along with complete access to the manuscript, transcription, translation and genealogical diagrams.