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Album: Germany 2008
Image: 188 / 466
Date: 2008-05-20 15:00:10
Tags: Germany, Kalkriese

The Annals are copied

In the early Middle Ages the works of Tacitus were stored in the Benedictine cloister in Fulda - and were probably also copied there.
The cloister with its extensive library was considered the center of the medieval intellectual life. Copies of ancient texts reached other cloisters from here.
One copy of the Annals found its way into the Benedictine cloister Corvey.
But the text didn't survive the centuries without loss. Originally the Annals contained 16 volumes. Either through transport or copying - a part of the work was past recovery: Only fragments remain of some of the passages, four books and the end are missing altogether. But the first six books of the Annals kept in Corvey were still precious enough nonetheless. So precious that an unknown thief stole them in 1507 and took them out of the country quickly.