Thietmar of Merseburg (TIETMARO DI MERSEBURGO) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, p. 82

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

TIETMARO of MERSEBURGO. - Born 25 July 975 to Sigfrido, count of Walbeck; died at Merseburgo on 1 Dec. 1018.

He entered the monastery of Quedlinburgo at a very young age and began his studies there; he then passed to that of Magdeburgo. In 1002 he received the title of prior of the monastery founded by his grandfather at Walbeck; in 1004 he was ordained a priest. His family’s relations with the royal Court facilitated his election as bishop of Merseburgo (1009), where he resided until his death.

From 1012 to 1015 he wrote a Chronicon in 9 books, which from 1016 to 1018 he revised and enlarged. His work follows the Annales of Hildesheim and Quedlinburgo as sources; but it owes its importance to T.’s personal contribution, because he composed it as a kind of diary of what took place at the royal Court, which he frequented; moreover, he was able to obtain information also from noble families related and allied to his own. His chronicle therefore constitutes one of the important sources for the history of Germany.

BIBL.: ed.: the autograph of the Chronicon, in the library of Dresda, was reproduced in phototype, with a preface edited by L. Schmidt (2 vols., Berlino 1905); for the printed ed., that of F. Kurze, in MGH, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum, LIV, Berlino 1889, is preferable to that of PL 139. Studies: W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter, I, Berlino 1893, pp. 355-60 (with important bibliography). Guglielmo Mollat