Historia de Expeditione Friderici Imperatoris was intended to become a kind of official chronicle of Emperor Frederick’s expedition to the Holy Land. The text is undoubtedly original and was written no later than the year 1200, most likely earlier. Its authorship, however, remains problematic. The work is associated with the name of the cleric Ansbert, which appears in the manuscript in a later hand. It is therefore unclear whether this attribution refers to the author himself or rather to a later editor of the text.
The author—judging solely from the internal evidence of the chronicle—personally participated in the expedition and returned from it shortly after the emperor’s death. Upon his return, he began to rework his notes into a chronicle, which subsequently underwent several further redactions and was supplemented with information concerning later events in the Holy Land. It is assumed that the author had close ties to the Bohemian milieu. Given the high level of detail and information contained in the text, he most likely belonged to the emperor’s immediate circle and may have served as a member of the imperial chancery.
The official character of the chronicle is evident both in its inclusion of numerous important letters exchanged between Frederick and leading figures of the time and in its consistently and emphatically favourable portrayal of the emperor.
Author(s):
Pavel Soukup
Publisher: Knihovna Jana Drdy
Language: Czech
Place: Příbram
Year: 2003
Pages: 152
ISBN: 80-86240-67-3