ADAM OF BREMEN. - Chronicler of the 11th century, called the "first German historiographer", b. in eastern Franconia or in Thuringia, it is not known when, d. at Bremen before 1085. We find him already in 1066 at Bremen, where he became a canon and, around 1069, rector of the cathedral school.

After a journey in Denmark, he wrote between 1072 and 1076 the history of the archdiocese of Bremen (Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum). This work, composed with the use of many sources, today partly lost, is inspired by classical writers and deserves great praise for its practical sense and for the geographical descriptions of the northern countries, of which the author speaks. In this way it is of the very first importance for our knowledge of the ancient history and the geography of northern Germany, of Denmark and of the other northern countries.

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, in MGH. Scriptores, VII, pp. 267-389; reprinted in PL 146, 433-662; and by B. Schmidler, ibid., ed. minor, 3rd ed., Hannover 1917. - A. Bernard, Die A. Bremensi geografiche, Paris 1895; A. Hauck, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands, III, 3rd ed., Leipzig 1906, pp. 946-48; Ph. Kohlmann, A. v. B. Ein Beitrag zur mittelalter. Textkritik und Kosmographie (Leipziger Historische Abhandlungen, fasc. 10), Leipzig 1908; id., Untersuchungen zur hamburgischen Kirchengeschichte A. v. B., Leipzig 1908; id., Kleine Forschungen in literarischen Quellen des Mittelalters, in Historische Vierteljahrschrift, 20 (1920-21), pp. 129-49; L. Brill, Les premiers temps du Christianisme en Suède, in Rev. d'Hist. eccl., 12 (1911), pp. 17-37, 231-41 and partic. 652-69; M. Manitius, Gesch. der lat. Literat. des Mittelalters, II, 11, Munich 1923, pp. 398-413; W. Wattenbach-R. Holtzmann, Deutschlands Geschichtquellen im Mittelalter, Deutsche Kaiserzeit, I, III, Berlin 1943, pp. 566-72.

Cesario van Hulst

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Adam of Bremen

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