MARTINO di TROPPAU (Oppaviensis). – Dominican chronicler, also improperly called M. Polono, perhaps because he belonged to the Polish religious province; he died in Bologna in 1278.
He entered the Dominican Order in Prague, where he was also ordained a priest. Master of theology and inquisitor. He was quite probably also in France. It is not known when he entered the papal Curia, but certainly under Clement IV (1260) he had held the offices of penitentiary and chaplain, offices that he also held under the subsequent pontiffs up to Niccolò III, who in 1278 appointed him archbishop of Gniezno in Poland. He nevertheless did not reach the see, since he died while travelling and was buried in Bologna.
He wrote various works: Tabula decreti, a brief juridical summa known as the martiniana; Sermones de tempore et de sanctis; De diversis miraculis; but his name is linked above all to the Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum, already very widely circulated during his lifetime, and of which he himself prepared various editions, perhaps written at the order of Clement IV. Its value is quite limited, since it often lacks critical sense in evaluating sources and readily accepts fables and legends.