ersonal recollections
the veracity of which remains to be determined. Some of them are written
with so little intelligence and spirit that one is led to regard the
work of composition as a piece of drudgery imposed on the clergy and
monks by their superiors. To distinguish what is original from what is
borrowed, to separate fact from falsehood, and to establish the value of
each piece of evidence, are in such circumstances a difficult
undertaking, and one which has exercised the sagacity of scholars,
especially since the 17th century. The work, moreover, is immense, by
reason of the enormous number of medieval chronicles, both Christian and
Mahommedan.

The Christian chronicles were first written in the two learned
languages, Greek and Latin. At an early stage we have proof of the
employment of national languages, the most famous instances being found
at the two extremities of Europe, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (q.v.), the
most ancient form of which goes back to the 10th century, and the
so-called Chronicle of Nestor, in Palaeo-Slavonic, written in the 11th
and 12th centuries. In the 13th and 14th centuries the number of
chronicles written in the vulgar tongue continued to increase, at least
in continental Europe, which far outpaced England in this respect. From
the 15th century, with the revived study of Greek and Roman literature,
the traditional form of chronicles, as well as of annals, tended to
disappear and to be replaced by another and more scientific form, based
on the models of antiquity--that of the historical composition combining
skilful arrangement with elegance of literary style. The transition,
however, was very gradual, and it was not until the 17th century that
the traditional form became practically extinct.

See E. Bernheim, _Lehrbuch der historischcn Methode_ (4th ed., 1903);
H. Bloch, "Geschichte der deutschen Geschichtsschreibung im
Mittelalter" in the _Handbuch_ of G. von Below and F. Meinecke
(Munich, 1903 seq.); Max Jansen, "Historiographie und Quellen der
deutschen Geschichte bis 1500," in Alois Meister's _Grundris_
(Leipzig, 1906); and the Introduction (1904) to A. Molinier's _Les
Sources de l'histoire de France_. (C.B.*)

CHRONICLES, BOOKS OF, two Old Testament books of the Bible.

Position and date.

The name is derived from _Chronicon_, first suggested by Jerome as a
rendering of the title which they bear in the Hebrew Canon, viz. _Events
of the Times_. The full H