CELE MAI VECHI CRONICI SĂSEŞTI DIN TRANSILVANIA. CRONICARII SAŞI DIN BRAŞOV ŞI SCRIERILE LOR ÎN SECOLUL AL XVI-LEA
The Oldest Saxon Chronicles of Transylvania. Thne Saxon Chronicles of Braşov and their Writings in the 16th Century

Summary/Abstract: The first historical writings of the Transylvanian Saxons were incidental notes on the margins of different manuscripts or prints (since the second half of the fifteenth century) which recorded extraordinary events, such as wars (especially Ottoman invasions), natural disasters and celestial phenomena. Since the first half of the sixteenth century, due to the spreading of writing and reading in the Reformation that the Transylvanian Saxon society began recording historical facts and events, which seemed to be out of the daily life, in chronicles. The oldest extant Saxon chronicles of Transylvania had been written in the city of Braşov (Kronstadt), in the period1528-1590. We identified five chronicles from this period containing important information on the history of Transylvania, Moldavia and Walachia in the fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries. The authors of this chronicles are Lucas Grüngrass (city notary of Braşov), Hieronymus Ostermayer (organist in the main church of Braşov), Laurentius Kertius (member of the city counsel of Braşov), Christian Thobiae (preacher and priest in Braşov and in the surrounding Saxon settlements) and an unknwon author of a painted chronicle on the walls of the main church (today the so called Black Church) in Braşov. All of the authors lived in the sixteenth century, contemporary with the historical events mentioned in their chronicles. Unfortunately, the original manuscripts did not survived and we have to reconstitute their texts from late copies, dating from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century, far from being complete, some nothing but scraps of the original chronicles. Nonetheless, based on these copies, we attempt to reconstruct the original sixteenth century chronicle texts and to prepare a critical edition, with a Romanian translation.

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