Fragmentum chesnii

The Fragmentum (annalium) chesnii or chesnianum, sometimes called the Annales Laureshamenses antiquiores, is a brief set of Reichsannalen describing the history of Francia during the years 768 to 790.

It is named after André Duchesne (Andreas Chesneus), who first edited and published it in his book Historiae Francorum scriptores (1:21–23) in 1636.

It has been re-edited by Georg Heinrich Pertz for the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores I, 30–34 (Hanover: 1826).

The Fragmentum is found between the Chronicle of Fredegar and a section of the Annales regni francorum (years 791–806) in a late ninth- or tenth-century manuscript from Reims, now in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana (MS Reg.

It has been hypothesised that the multiplication of distinct annalistic traditions in the 780s was sponsored by Charlemagne as part of a wider programme of cultural/educational renewal.