Winterthur

(Vitoduranus, or Ortus de Oppido Wintertur, "Fratrum Minorum Minimums," as he describes himself), JOHANNES VON, was a Minorite monk of the 14th century, and the author of a chronicle which is preserved in the town library of Zurich, and is a source for the history of South Germany and Switzerland. He was born in the period 1292-1300, at Winterthur, in the present canton of Zurich, and became a Minorite about 1320. He probably died at Zurich after 1348. The original manuscript of the chronicle was doubtless that owned by Antistes Bullinger of Zurich, a historiographer of the 16th century, and now in the Zurich library. All other manuscripts and editions are derived from that, though an additional codex is mentioned by Montfaucon (Biblioth. Bibl. Manuscript. Nova, 1:21, Paris, 1739) as having been transferred from the library of queen Christina of Sweden to that of the Vatican. The period covered by the chronicle extends from the death of the emperor Frederic II to 1348. It is based in part upon more ancient chronicles, in part upon the oral and written statements of contemporary witnesses, and to some extent on personal observations made by the author. The writer was acquainted with the ecclesiastical and profane literature of his time, with the Scriptures, with the works of the masters in his order, Lyra, Occam, etc., and the decretals of the popes. He mentions Aristotle, AEsop, Horace, Isidore, etc. The contents of the book are, however, made up of disconnected notices and illustrations, strung together in chronological order. It is important as a portrayal of the conflicts of the emperor Louis, the Bavarian, with the papacy, and of the consequent disturbances in the life of the Church. It is the earliest report, for Swiss history, of the battle of Morgarten, of the vengeance visited by the dukes of Austria upon the assassin of king Albert, of the history of Zurich, etc. It is also of special importance to the study of the life and conditions of the time in which it originated. See Herzog, Real- Encyklop. s.v.