The Great Burgundian Chronicle of Diebold Schilling of Bern

The Great Burgundian Chronicle is the three-volume source for the Burgundian Wars and depicts a comprehensive and original city chronicle of Bern. The work portrays the history of the city of Bern, initiated with the founding until what was then the present. In doing so, the focus is on the events of war such as sieges, plundering, skirmishes, and the everyday life of the soldier. The bloody events of the text are vividly depicted in magnificently colored and highly detailed illustrations.

Diebold Schilling, a Practitioner

In the year 1474, the city council of Bern assembled in order to commission an extensive chronicle. That commission was given to Diebold Schilling the Elder, who was active in the city chambers since 1460. The writer thus learned the conventions of the city’s administration and judiciary and gained insight into the prevailing circumstances of foreign policy. In 1486 he would himself be a member of the Great Council and personally fought on the side of the Bernese army in the Burgundian War.

Political Dynamite and Amusement Together

The official chronicle that Schilling was bid to complete came into being between 1474 and 1483 and was comprised of three volumes. From the third part of the chronicle, the Great Burgundy Chronicle, an edited and revised version was published. What is more, Schiller allowed his own anecdotes some influence, which had no basis in fact but nevertheless should contribute to the amusement of the reader. An example of this is the tale of the parish priest of Bern, who supposedly threatened to send a plague of insects to the court of the bishop of Lausanne.

Magnificently Rich Imagery

An unknown illuminator completed the 199 pen drawings in watercolors, in order to illustrate Schilling’s elegant gothic script. Sometimes fantastical illustrations are depicted from a bird’s eye view revealing citizens, cities, and villages in beautiful rolling landscapes. Such idealistic landscape paintings nevertheless are kept within the bounds of supporting Schilling’s bellicose text. The military campaigns, plunder, murder, and other violence were unsparingly embellished in the finest detail. Blood flows in rivers in the scenes, in which soldiers and knights lose their lives in battle. This early realism and apparent hero worship make the allure of the miniatures partly responsible for the fame of the work.