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Latin Literatures of Medieval and Early Modern Times in Europe and Beyond: A millennium heritage
Edited by Francesco Stella
[Comparative History of Literatures in European Languages XXXIV] 2024
► pp. 299–319

Chapter 14
Baltic countries

| SISMEL

Latin literature from the Baltic countries is inextricably tied up with the German crusaders and the religious orders that accompanied them. Their interests are reflected in their writings, which are predominantly either historical and ethnographic or devotional. The chronicles and histories often display the biases and agendas of their authors, serving as ammunition in a rivalry between the various crusading orders and the newly established episcopates, all vying for authority.

Keywords: Baltics, historiography, chronicles, ethnography, colonization, crusades, Henry of Livonia, Peter of Dusburg, Hermann of Wartberge
Article outline
  • The Latin languages on the Baltic
  • Before the arrival of the Germans
  • The arrival of the Westerners
  • Henry of Livonia: His origin and his Chronicon
    • Drafting, origins, and themes
    • A writer from the high middle ages
  • The monastic military orders
  • Peter of Dusburg and his Chronica terrae Prussiae
    • Content, value, and ideology of the “Chronica”
  • Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
  • Hermann of Wartberge
  • Wigand of Marburg
  • Other accounts
  • Dominicans and Cistercians
  • Notes
  • References
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References

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