Bibliotheca Germanica - Volume 4

Johannes Trithemius

Annales de Origine Gentis Francorum

Bilingual Edition (Latin/English) by Martin Kuelbs+ and Robert P. Sonkowsky

1987, 335 p. 47,- €
ISBN 978-3-922441-52-6

Trithemius De Origine Gentis Francorum Compendium (1514 A.D.) is a fascinating account of the early history of the Franks, studded with the names and deeds of kings, leavened with myth (of more than one kind!) and with prophecy, and written by the scholar, magician, monk, and abbot Johannes Trithemius (1462-1516).
Trithemius knew the historical Dr. Faustus and contemned him as a charlatan in his magical practises. In his own narrative of the Frankish peoples, however, he cites fictional sources and makes unfounded claims that would be condemned if offered as "history" in the modern sense.

The English translation, presented on facing pages with the reproduction of an early printed edition of the original Latin text, preserves the sweep and style of what the modern reader may seem to resemble a combination of historical novel and chronicle. The introduction places Trithemius in his times and orients the reader to the context of the translated work.

About the translators:

The late Dr. Martin Kuelbs studied at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota and at the University of Minnesota, where he received his Ph.D. in Germanic Philology in 1978. Since 1975 he taught in Germany as professor of Latin, English and Theology, first at the Gymnasium Schloß Eringerfeld in Geseke, and after 1979 at the Mariengymnasium in Papenburg. He died in 1986 in Berlin, Germany.

Professor Robert Paul Sonkowsky studied at Lawrence College in Appleton, Wisconsin, and at the University of North Carolina. He taught at the Universities of North Carolina, Texas, and Missouri, was Johnson Fellow in the Institute for Research in the Humanities at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and now teaches Classics at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Bestellen / Order via Paypal: