The Wendish Research Exchange - Malinkec, Madlena. “Annales Budissinenses” – a New Source for Sorbian History of the Early Modern Period.

Lětopis Abstract 2016 2: Malinkec, Madlena. “Annales Budissinenses” – a New Source for Sorbian History of the Early Modern Period.

The “Annales Budissinenses” represent an as yet unevaluated source for Sorbian historiography. The chronicle, which is preserved today in the diocesan archive of the Dresden-Meißen bishopric in Bautzen, was recorded in the 16th Century by three scribes connected to the collegiate chapter of St Petri in Bautzen. The Sorbian cleric, Jurij Hawštyn Swětlik, made a partial copy in the 18th Century. The following thematic fields of the “Annales” are relevant for Sorbian history: 1. The “Annales” contain the oldest reliably dated sentence in the Upper Sorbian language, possibly the oldest documented Sorbian sentence ever. This is contained in an entry from the year 1534, in which building works for the tower of the Petri church are described. The Sorbian civil oath of Bautzen, which up until now has been thought to originate from before the Reformation or in 1532, is now regarded as a text which originated after the Reformation, in all probability some considerable time after 1532. 2. The “Annales” contain the names of four clerics who conducted pastoral care for Sorbs in Bautzen in the 16th Century.