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Adam of Bremen (also: Adam Bremensis) was invited by archbishop Adalbert of Bremen to come
and write the history of Bremen/Hamburg and
of the northern lands. Adam came to Bremen in 1068. He is believed to have come from Meissen (Latin Misnia) in Saxony. Dates of birth and death are
uncertain, but probably born before 1050 and death 1081, latest 1085.
Bremen was a major trading town, and ships, traders and missionaries went from there to many different locations. The earlier
archbishopric seat in Hamburg had been attacked and destroyed several times, and thereafter the sees of Hamburg and Bremen were
combined for protection. For three hundred years Hamburg, beginning with bishop Ansgar,
the Hamburg-Bremen archbishopric had been designated as the "Mission of the North" and had jurisdiction over all missions in
Scandinavia, Northern Russia,
Iceland and Greenland. Then the
archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen had a falling-out with the pope and in
1105 a separate archbishopric for the North was established in Lund.
Adam of Bremen most well known work is the Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum, four books about the history of
the archbishopry of Hamburg-Bremen, and the isles of the north. The first three mainly consist of history and the last one is mainly on geography. Adam based his
works in part on Einhard, Cassiodorus and other earlier historians' accounts.
The first book gives a history from 788 onwards of the Church in Hamburg-Bremen, and the
Christian mission in the North. This is the chief source of knowledge of the north until the 13th century. The second book
continues the history, and further deals with German history between 940 and 1045. The third book is about the deeds of
archbishop Adalbert.
The fourth book, Descriptio insularum Aquilonis, completed approximately in 1075, is mainly about geography and discusses the northern lands and islands, many of which had been explored only
recently. Adam of Bremen personally visited king Svend Estridson, who
had knowledge of history and geography of these regions. This book is the first known European record that mentions Vinland, a land centuries later known as North America.
See also: Vinland
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