Chronicle of the Holy City of Cologne

Chronicle of the Holy City of Cologne

In the 13th century, Cologne was the largest German city with 20,000–25,000 inhabitants as well as being an important center of trade and a popular pilgrimage destination after the relics of the Magi were brought there in 1164. At the time of the publication of this work in 1499, Cologne had reached the pinnacle of its greatness before losing its economic supremacy during the 16th century. This chronicle of the city, which was the brainchild of Johann Koelhoff the Younger (d. 1502) but written by an unknown author, probably Johann Stump, a schoolmaster from Rheinbach, is one of the most compact works of universal history from the Late Middle Ages.
Most of the text up to the year 1445 is a compilation of sources copied verbatim, which patriotically glorify Cologne in the old Kölsch dialect and include plenty of clerical criticism, especially with regard to the archbishop, a powerful prince of the church who also held secular authority over the city. The information it contains about the city of Cologne from the middle of the 15th century is considered reasonably reliable. It represents the most comprehensive history of Cologne from the Middle Ages and work exerted a strong influence on the historical literature of the 16th century, which often copies it verbatim.

Creation of the Chronicle

Johann Koelhoff the Younger took over the printshop of his father in 1493 and began preparatory work for the chronicle the next year. It was compiled from various text sources including the rhyming chronicle of the city of Cologne by Gottfried Hagen (1230–1299) from 1270 and Agrippina, the first universal historical city chronicle by Heinrich van Beeck, published in 1472, in which he described the archbishop's duties.
The 368 colored woodcuts illustrating the text, including 12 full-page images and one double-page image, are modelled on Schedel's World Chronicle, which was also a source for the text. Their shared stylistic features and the numerous authentic views of the city indicate that they were all illustrated by artists from Cologne. Aside from depictions of the city and its people, there are also numerous woodcuts of the coats of arms of prominent families and the crests of guilds.
However, the chronicle was a financial disaster for Koelhoff, who appears to have overextended himself while working on the years-long project. After selling off some property to bankroll the final publication of the work, Koelhoff was forced to shut down the printshop he had inherited from his father 6 years later.

Episodes from the History of Cologne

The chronicle begins with the creation of Eve and begins with a general history of the world in which the history of Cologne is first integrated on sheet 30. Its chronology spanning biblical, ancient, and medieval history is divided into the reigns of emperors, kings, bishops, and popes.
One woodcut on sheet 58 shows the Roman Emperor Trajan (53–117) dressed as a medieval monarch under a canopy next to Cologne’s coat of arms. It consists of three crowns for the Three Kings whose bones are preserved in the cathedral as holy relics as well as eleven flames for the 11,000 virginal handmaidens who, according to legend, were returning from a pilgrimage to Rome when they were martyred alongside St. Ursula by Huns besieging Cologne in the year 383. The fifteen figures before him and holding up a banderole on either side of him represent the origins of the old patrician families of Cologne, which trace their origins to the Roman nobility.
Other key historical events include a siege of the city in 1265 or an status report on the construction of the cathedral stating that the towers had reached a height of 59 meters in 1437. An extensive account of the Weavers’ Uprising of 1369–71, a series of bloody clashes between members of the weavers’ guild and the political leadership of Cologne in the wake of a scandal in which city funds had been embezzled, examines the events from various perspectives to give a sophisticated and layered interpretation of events.

A Banned Work

The criticism levelled by the author at both the religious and secular authorities of the city of Cologne was so severe that the work was banned and confiscated three months after publication. Some pages were replaced at the instigation of the church, but most of the originally codices survived. Of the approximately 150 extant copies that have been preserved, no more than 20 are privately owned and when they come up for auction are selling for prices of up to €38,000. The codex at hand is the copy stored in the Archbishop's Diocesan and Cathedral Library Cologne under the shelf mark Inc.d. 77.