Fragment of the Lorsch Annales Facsimile Edition

Although nowadays it contains no more than 8 fols. of maximum 23.5 cm heighth and 16.8 cm width, the Codex Vindobonensis 515 is still of uncommon value because of its early date and of the texts contained in it. Interest in this manuscript has been very large. The most important text in it is the large fragment of the Annales Laureshamenses, beginning with the year 794 and ending in 803: it is the original manuscript of this capital source of the history of Charlemagne; the important facts of the reign are filled in year by year. Its author probably was Richbod, bishop of Treves, who was abbot in Lorsch from 784 till 791/2; he died in 804, which fits in with the annals ending in 803; however the bad latinity makes it impossible the manuscript being written or dictated directly by him. It was not written in Lorsch, but in a scriptorium of south-west Germany, perhaps Treves. Later the manuscript went to Reichenau, where the Old High German poem was written on a blank space and where the first apograph of the annals was made. The last text in the manuscript has recently been recognized as an important fragment of the Instructio ad competentes of Niceta Remesiana, a contemporary of Ambrosius, whose works are nearly completely lost.