Annals of Metz
9th-century chronicle of Frankish history
The Annals of Metz (Latin: Annales Mettenses) are a set of Latin Carolingian annals covering the period of Frankish history from the victory of Pepin II in the Battle of Tertry (687) to the time of writing (c. 806). Sections covering events after 806 are not original writings but were borrowed from other texts and appended to the original annals in the 9th and 12th centuries.
The annals are strongly pro-Carolingian in tone, tracing the rise of the Carolingian dynasty from Pepin of Herstal through to Charlemagne and beyond; they are considered a family history of the Carolingian dynasty.
Manuscripts
There are two main manuscripts, aside from fragmentary evidence, that contain the Annals of Metz. Both manuscripts feature text from additional sources.
Annales Mettenses posteriores
The title Annals of Metz is a modern addition and derives from the title given by André Duchesne for the manuscript he published in 1626: Annales Francorum Mettenses ("Metz annals of the Franks"), with the larger collection of manuscripts titled the Historia Francorum Scriptores coaetanei. Duchesne believed that the text was written at the Abbey of Saint-Arnould in Metz, where the manuscript he used was found. The version published by Duchesne is today known as the Annales Mettenses posteriores, or the Later Annals of Metz. The original collection that Duchesne published, in which the Earlier Annals of Metz was found, was compiled in the 12th century and includes material from many sources, which allows its narrative to extend from legendary Trojan origins into Frankish history up until 904.
The public source identifies “Annals of Metz” as 9th-century chronicle of Frankish history. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Annals, Metz and 9th-century.
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This entry incorporates text from “Annals of Metz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.