[1] This entry covers a matriculation period from 29 September 1525 to 1 April 1526 and reads "Thomas Cantzouw [de] Szundensis".
[5] In the spring[3] of 1538, Kantzow was matriculated at the University of Wittenberg,[1][5][6] probably as a member of Pomeranian count Ludwig von Everstein's entourage.
[1] In 1542, he left Wittenberg due to an illness and on 25 September died on his way home in Stettin,[1][3][5] where he was buried in St. Mary's church.
[1] In contrast to Johannes Bugenhagen, who in 1518 based his Latin Pomerania on a limited amount of sources from abbeys and printed sources, Kantzow also had access to the extensive ducal archives, where he gathered most of the information for his chronicles, and further derived historiographic information from archeological remnants, inscriptions, coins, folklore, eyewitness accounts and own experiences.
[7] The table below provides an overview of the major chronicles written by Kantzow: The first chronicle written by Kantzow was Fragmenta der pamerischen geschichte, full title: Fragmenta der pamerischen geschichte, vth welcker (so man de tide recht ordent, vnd dat jennige wat vnrecht ist recht maket) men wol einen guden wech tho einer Croniken hebben konde[9] (English translation: "Fragments of the Pomeranian History, from which (if one orders the time properly, and makes right what is not right) one may well gain a good access to a chronicle").
Wilhelm Böhmer, teacher in Stettin and member of the Society for Pomeranian History and Antiquity Studies,[10] rediscovered the handwritten chronicle in landlord von Löper's library in Stramehl (now Strzmiele) in 1832.
[17][19] It is not simply a translation of its Low German counterpart, but is more comprehensive, while lacking information about the period after the death of Bogislaw X in 1523.
[22] Kantzow's manuscript was discovered in 1729 by Albert Schwartz, professor at the University of Greifswald, in Zudar, where it was in the possession of the children of deceased pastor Joachim Wildahn.
[23] Schwartz made a copy which was stored in the library of the university,[23] In 1816, Hans Gottfried Ludwig Kosegarten published a printed edition of Schwartz's copy titled Pomerania oder Ursprunck, Altheit und Geschicht der Völcker und Lande Pomern, Caßuben, Wenden, Stettin, Rhügen.
[5] A transcription of this chronicle was published as print edition in 1908, before the discovery of the Copenhagen manuscript, by Georg Gaebel, titled Pomerania.