Noun

Singular chronicle

Plural chronicles

chronicle (plural chronicles)

1. A written account of events and when they happened, ordered by time.

Generally a chronicle (Latin: chronica, from Greek χρονικά, from χρόνος, chronos, "time") is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the chronicler. This is in contrast to a narrative or history, which sets selected events in a meaningful interpretive context and excludes those the author does not see as important. Scholars categorize the genre of chronicle into two subgroups: live chronicles, and dead chronicles. A dead chronicle is one where the author gathers his list of events up to the time of his writing, but does not record further events as they occur. A live chronicle is where one or more authors add to a chronicle in a regular fashion, recording contemporary events shortly after they occur. Because of the immediacy of the information, historians tend to value live chronicles, such as annals, over dead ones.

"The chronicle is one of the quintessentially Christian forms of historical writing," Michael Kulikowsky has remarked. "The ultimate goal of this exercise is usually to place the events of human history in the framework of Christian time, to record the annual stages by which human history marches towards the Second Coming" This makes the Christian chroniclers particularly awake to wars, plagues and disasters.

The term often refers to a book written by a chronicler in the Middle Ages describing historical events in a country, or the lives of a nobleman or a clergyman, although it is also applied to a record of public events. Various contemporary newspapers or other periodicals have adopted "chronicle" as part of their name. Various fictional stories have also adopted "chronicle" as part of their title, to give an impression of epic proportion to their stories. A chronicle which traces world history is called a Universal chronicle.

Chronicles are the predecessors of modern "time lines" rather than analytical histories. They represent accounts, in prose or verse, of national or worldwide events over a considerable period of time, the lifetime of the individual chronicler and often several subsequent continuators. If the chronicles deal with events year by year, they are often called annals. Unlike the modern historian, most chroniclers tended to take their information as they found it, and made little attempt to separate fact from legend. The point-of-view of most chroniclers is highly localised, to the extent that many anonymous chroniclers can be sited in individual abbeys.

The most important English chronicles are the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, started under the patronage of King Alfred in the ninth century and continued until the twelfth century, and the Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577-87) by Raphael Holinshed and other writers; the latter documents were important sources of materials for Elizabethan drama.

It is impossible to say how many chronicles exist, as the many ambiguities in the definition of the genre make it impossible to draw clear distinctions of what should or should not be included. However, the Encyclopedia of the Medieval Chronicle, scheduled for publication in 2009, lists some 2600 items written between 300 and 1500 AD.