Chronique Anonyme Universelle

This volume presents the first comprehensive study of the Chronique Anonyme Universelle, a lavishly illustrated scroll history of the world from Creation to the fifteenth century. Working in a French noble library around the year 1410, the anonymous compiler of the Chronique told the story of humanity - nearly six thousand years by his reckoning - by editing historical texts at his disposal, arranging them in parallel columns on a vertical scroll, and filling the inter-columnar space with complex genealogical diagrams. The Chronique reflects a particular and particularly French self-image and worldview that become increasingly apparent as the reader traverses its direct and unbroken line from the Bible, Egypt, Greece and Troy to the histories of the Papacy, the Roman and Holy Roman Empires, the Crusades, and the royal houses of France and England. The accompanying CD contains an application that provides an interactive way of examining the Chronique Anonyme Universelle scroll.