The Bergh chronicle manuscript: history of a codex, a codex full of histories

In 2017 the fifteenth-century Bergh chronicle manuscript was returned to its supposed original home, castle Huis Bergh in the Netherlands. The codex contains the oldest extant chronicle of the duchy of Guelders, and various other chronicles on territories in or near the Rhine-Meuse region. Especially striking are its extensive illustration program and a coat of arms of the Lords of Bergh, its bipartite compositional structure and intriguing production history. To mark the manuscript’s return home, a research team undertook a thorough study of the manuscript’s material, literary and historiographic features. Their results have been published in two books: one for a wide readership, and one scholarly edited volume, both in Dutch. This review article summarizes and discusses both publications in order to present them to an international readership. In doing so, it simultaneously provides an introduction to the Bergh chronicle manuscript itself, indicating the most important new findings and flagging up issues that invite further study.