The Book of Emperors: A Translation of the Middle High German Kaiserchronik ed. and trans. by Henry A. Myers (review)

The Kaiserchronik (ca. 1152–1165), a popular history written for a lay audience in Middle High German verse, remains a rich resource for philologists and scholars of intellectual history. It contains lively accounts of imperial deeds, from Julius Caesar’s exploits in Germany to Conrad III’s decision to embark on the Second Crusade. The longest work in Middle High German before 1200, it exists today in thirty-three surviving manuscripts and fragments, attesting to its wide circulation and long influence over many centuries. Two continuations were composed in the thirteenth century, in addition to versions in prose and an attempted translation into Latin. The Book of Emperors is the first translation of the full work into English, a nearly fifty-year project undertaken by Henry A. Myers. It is a prose translation based on Edward Schröder’s critical edition, which gave precedence to the oldest extant version of the work, the Vorau Manuscript (ca. 1185–1190). (See Edward Schröder, ed., Die Kaiserchronik eines Regensburger Geistlichen [Hanover 1892; repr. Darmstadt 1964 and 1969]; the Vorau Manuscript [Vorau, Stiftsbibliothek, Codex 276] is housed in the Augustinian monastery of Vorau in Austria). Although the text’s prologue names as its source an unidentified German vernacular chronicle, Myers is doubtful that such existed. Rather, he cites prior scholarship showing the unknown author’s reliance on saintly legends, sermons, and didactic tracts. Additional sources include the Annolied, the chronicle of Ekkehard of Aura, and the Chronicon Wirzeburgense. A brief introduction indicating the probable sources precedes each vignette.

Myers presents his translation with an extended introduction to the narrative as a literary production and a work of political theory. He makes a case for its role in promoting the imperial ideology of the Holy Roman Emperors to the rising mercantile class, placing it in the context of the struggles between the papacy and imperial court, which threatened to undermine the mutually beneficial status of each. Although the Concordat of Worms (1122) put the Investiture Controversy to rest, the issues of lay versus ecclesiastical authority which arose from that conflict continued to be a defining feature of the political and intellectual landscape of the high medieval period. The prologue of The Book of Emperors states that it will tell the stories of “the kings—both good and bad—who lived before us and guided the Roman Empire down to this very day” (65). Thus, it portrays the German emperors of the twelfth century as successors to the Roman emperors. The work is considered to be that of a single author, most likely a cleric from Regensburg writing under the sponsorship of either the Bishop of Regensburg, or the Wittelsbach counts. Otto V of Wittelsbach (d. 1155) had been singled out for attack in a world history by Otto of Freising, perhaps giving him reason to support an alternative world history written in Regensburg. His son, Otto VI, served Frederick Barbarossa and was made duke of Bavaria in 1180 as a result, establishing the Wittelsbach dynasty. He therefore might have been interested in sponsoring a work that put the ideology of imperial authority before an audience of laymen with growing influence.

As Myers emphasizes, the value of The Book of Emperors lies in its role in the history of ideas, as a work which made the ideology of the Holy Roman Empire accessible to a lay audience unversed in Latin. He argues that the work also served as a mirror for princes, relying heavily for its source material on sermons which clarified the role of a good ruler. Whether a given emperor was described as good depended on whether he carried out judgments according to imperial law; poor rulers are portrayed as neglecting justice and avoiding their responsibility for governance, as well as holding the nobility in contempt. The term “emperor” is reserved for good pagan rulers and those Christian...