ANNALS 533 ANNALS (loubtcdly official character. A species of Reichs- aimaleii is found in the "Annales Mettenses". In I'ruicc also we have continuations of the "Reichs- iuiiKilcii". The "Annalos Hertiniani" begin to ex- liihit .S30-S35 a universal character. These an- nals are almost the only source of the "Chronicon de gestis Nonnannorum in Francia", and after S35 were supplemented by the pen of I'nidentius of Troycs {(! S(il). They were continued by Ilincmar of Hcims tu SS2. Later, these annals with the "An- nales ('(lastini" passed into the "Chronicon Vedas- tinum", an attempt at a general history extending as far as 899. This class of annals Wiis continued in the tenth century by I'lodoard of Reims (d. 9f)(>), who reviewed the chief events from 919 to 9G6. The KcichsaMiialcn were in vogue only in those countries that had (]n<-e l)een part of the Carlovingian empire. l(ir I.otharingia we must mention the "Chronicle " of Regino, Abbot of Priim (d. 91.")), which covers the period between the birth of Christ and 906. The work is arranged according to the chronological list of the reigns of emperors, and the form resembles that of the Reichsannalcn. Nevertheless, there is this difference, that Regino reviews the events of the past while the royal annals were contemporary with the events they recorded. In coimtries which were at some distance from the centre of the Carlo- vingian enii)ire, or which had never been under the sway of Charlemagne and his successors, annals took either the form of chronicles, with pretentions to a universid character, or were merely local narratives, as those which appeared in Carlovingian provinces after the tenth and ele'enth centuries. Annals in It.ly. — Thus Italy is very poor in annals, a barrenness which is attributed to the lack of speculative and theological interests in the coim- try. It is diflictilt to give any praise to such ex- amples as the "Chronica Sancti Benedicti Casinen- sis", written at Monte Cassino, under the Abbot John (914-9:54); the "Constructio Farfensis", a his- tory of the foundation of the abbey, written at Farfa in the middle of the ninth century; an extract from Paul the Deacon with continuation, the "An- drea- presbyteri Hergomatis chronicon", written at Bergamo in 877; and the chronicle of Henedict of St. . drew, at Mount Soracte in 908, which, unfor- tunately, is filled with legends. All these produc- tions, conceived in the annalistic style, are extremely barbarous. The one noteworthy e.xception is the "Chronicon Salernitanuin" of 974, which has some claims to literary merit. The matter is good despite the lack of critical ability which disfigures the work. In Sp.mn. — In Spain we find only universal annals or chronicles. Mention may be made of the "Chron- icon" of Idatius, Bishop of Cialicia (870), who con- tinued the Chronicle of St. Jerome; and the Chronicle of Isidore of Seville, " De sex aetatibus mundi", one of the earliest types of annals, dated according to the Spanish era, which began thirty-eight yeiirs be- fore the Christian era. In 1'",N(;i,ani). — England, where annals based on the paschal cycle had their origin, furni.shed but few examples of this class, as compared with France and (Jermany. Worthy of notice are the "Annales Cantuarienses" (018-690); the "Historia Eliensis l"ccle-ia'" (700); the paschal tables and chronicle of Mcdc; the ".Vnnalcs Nordhumbrani" (7IM-80J); the " . nales I.indisfarnenses" (."):i'J-99.3) ; the "Annales Caml>ria>" (444-1066). etc. In this country histori- ography proper begins only with the Norman Con- rpicst (1066). At that time the authors of English chronicles begin to be vastly superior to others in their adherence to fact , and they evince a remarkable zeal for accuracy of information, and the employ- ment and investigation of diplomatic documents. In Ireland. — In medieval Irelaml there was "a special class of [lersons who made it their business to record, with the utmost accuracy, all remarkable events, simply and briefly, without any ornament of language, without exaggeration, and without fictitious embellishment" (Joyce). .s a rule they noted down only what occurred during their own lives; earlier hapjienrngs were regularly taken from pre- vious compilations constructed on the same plan. The general accuracy of these records has ucen tested and verified in various ways, e. g. by their references to physical phenomena of known date (eclip.ses, comets), the concurrent testimony of foreign writers, their own consistency among them- .selves, and the evidence of ancient niomunents. Many of the ancient Irish annals have disappeared and are known ordy by name; not a few, however, are still extant. To a great extent they were coin- posed in the native Irish tongue, and they remain yet important philological monuments. Among these ". nals" written entirely or mostly in Iri.sh are the following: The "Synchronisms of Flann", principal of the school of ionasterboice (d. 1056), known as "the . nalist" and the most learned scholar of his age in Ireland. This work exhibits in parallel columns the succession and regnal years of several pre-Christian, foreign ilynasties, and a carefully constructed series of the Kings of Ireland. It con- tains, also, parallel lists of the same monarehs, and the provincial Kings of Ireland and the Kings of Scotland, from the time of St. Patrick to 1119. This work, composed in ehdjorate Irish metres, includes nearly 4,000 lines, and is really annals or history versified, a kind of class-book or manual of general history for the use of his pupils (Hyde). Imperfect copies of it are preserved at Dul)lin in the " Hook of Lecan" and the "Book of Ballymote". The ". nals of Tigcrnach" (Teerna), written in Irish with an ad- mixture of Latin, deal chiefly with the history of Irelaiul. lie was Abbot of Clonmacnoi.se and Ros- common and died in 1088; it is conjectured by M. d'.Vrbois de Jubainville that his annals (valuable but meagre) were ba.sed on some ancient records kept uninterruptedly at Cloiimacnoise from 544, the year of its foundation. Tlie.se annals were edited by Whitley Stokes in the sixteenth and seven- teenth volumes of the "Revue Celtique" (Paris, 1895-96). The "Annals of Innisfallen", compiled in the abbey of that name on an island in the Lakes of Killarney, where its ruins are still visible, written in Irisli and Latin, are generally ascribed to the year 1215, though "there is good reason to believe that they were commenced two centuries earlier" (Joyce). They were later on continuetl to 1318 (O'Conor, SS. Rer" Ilib.. 1825). The "Annals of Ulster" were written on the Httle Lsland of Senait MacManus or Belle Isle in Upper Lough Enie. They deal almost exclu.sively with Ireland from 444 and were originally compiled by Cathal (Calial) Maguire, who died in 1498, continuetl to 1541 by Rory O'Cassidy, and by an anonymous writer to 1604. They have been edited and translated in four volumes (vol. I, by W. M. Hennessy, vols. II-IV by B. MacCarthy, Rolls Series. London, 1887-1901). The ".■ nals of Loch Ce" (Key), from an islaiul in Lough Key. Ros- common, are written in Irish, and treat chiefly of Ireland (1014 to 1636), though English, Scotch, and continental happenings are noticed. They were edi- ted for the Rolls .Series by W. .M. Hennessy (London, 1871). The "Annals of" Connaught" from 1224 to l.'J62 are written in Iri.sh, and are extant in m.anuscript copies in Trinity College, and in the Royal Irish Academy, DubUn. The " . nals of Boyle ". a famous abbey in Roscommon, are written in Irish and Latin, and though very meagre, come down from the re- motest period to 12.53 (O'Conor. SS. Rer. Ilib. 1829). There is a vellum copy in the British Museum. The "Chronicon Scotorum" (Chronicle of the Scots.
