Online Encyclopedia
Adam of Bremen
Adam of Bremen (also: Adam Bremensis) was one of the most important German chroniclers of the 11th century.
He is believed to have come from Meissen (Latin Misnia) in Saxony. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain, but he was probably born before 1050 and died on October 12 of on unknown year (Possibly 1081, latest 1085).
Gathering from his chronicles, he was well familiar with a number of authors. The honorary name of Magister Adam shows that he has passed through all the stages of a higher education. It is probable that he was taught at the Magdeburger Domschule.
In 1068, he was invited by archbishop Adalbert of Bremen to come and write the history of Bremen/Hamburg and of the northern lands. Upon his arrival, he was accepted among the capitular s of Bremen and appears as director of the cathedral's school in 1069.
Adam of Bremen benefitted from his position and the missionary activity of the church of Bremen to gather all kind of information on the history and the geography of northern Germany. He benefitted from a stay at the court of Svend Estridson to find informations about the history and geography of Denmark, and the scandinavian countries.
Bremen was a major trading town, and ships, traders and missionaries went from there to many different locations. The earlier archbishopric seat in Hamburg had been attacked and destroyed several times, and thereafter the sees of Hamburg and Bremen were combined for protection. For three hundred years Hamburg, beginning with bishop Ansgar, the Hamburg-Bremen archbishopric had been designated as the "Mission of the North" and had jurisdiction over all missions in Scandinavia, North-Western Russia, Iceland and Greenland. Then the archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen had a falling-out with the pope and in 1105 a separate archbishopric for the North was established in Lund.
Adam of Bremen's most well known work is the Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum (Deeds of Bishops of the Hamburg Church), which he begun only after the death of the arch-bishop Adalbert. It consists of four volumes about the history of the archbishopry of Hamburg-Bremen, and the isles of the north. The first three mainly consist of history and the last one is mainly on geography. Adam based his works in part on Einhard, Cassiodorus and other earlier historians' accounts, as he had the whole library of the church of Bremen at his hands.
The first book gives a history from 788 onwards of the Church in Hamburg-Bremen, and the Christian mission in the North. This is the chief source of knowledge of the north until the 13th century. The second book continues the history, and further deals with German history between 940 and 1045. The third book is about the deeds of archbishop Adalbert.
The fourth book, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis, completed approximately in 1075, is mainly about geography and discusses the northern lands and islands, many of which had been explored only recently. This book is the first known European record that mentions Vinland, a land centuries later known as North America.
See also
External link
Sources
- Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie - online version