Johannes Trithemius. Annales hirsaugiensis...complectens historiam Franciae et Germaniae, gesta imperatorum, regum, principium, episcoporum, abbatum, et illustrium virorum (The Annals of Hirsau...Including the History of France and Germany, the Achievements of the Emperors, Kings, Princes, Bishops, Abbots, and Famous People).  
Monastery of Saint Gall, 1690.

Folio.  2 vols. in 1.  Vol. 1: [40] + 616 + [24] pages; vol. 2: 694 + [26] pages. 307 x 108 mm. Parchment binding.

The Annales of Hirsau, finished in 1514 and shown here in the first complete printed edition, was Trithemius’ greatest achievement as an historian. The work was commissioned in 1495 by Abbot Blasius of the monastery at Hirsau but proved to be a slow and complex undertaking. In his prefaces to the two volumes of the Annales, Trithemius expands upon his arguments in the earlier Chronicon to elucidate a theory of history deeply rooted in classical attitudes and embraced by the Christian humanists among whom Trithemius was a major figure. History has its justification in being an incitement to virtue, through its preservation of the deeds of the good and its records of the failings of the wicked. Trithemius, like all historians, has his own agenda, in this case two-fold: patriotic and monastic. He hoped that the glorious history he relates, and the scholarly works he relied upon, would stir the monks of his time to imitate the accomplishments of their forebears.