Dictionary:
an·nals (ăn'əlz)  |
[Latin (librī) annālēs, yearly (books), annals, pl. of annālis, yearly, from annus, year.]
| Thesaurus: annals |
| Classical Literature Companion: annals |
annals, annalists.From the beginning of Roman history to 400 BC scarcely any records were kept, but from c.300 BC regular records of magistrates and ‘the most important records’, the so-called annales maximi, were inscribed by the pontifex maximus on the tabulae pontificum, ‘tables of the priests’, displayed outside his official residence. These tables constituted the first annals, from which Ennius took the title of his historical epic, but for a long time the information they contained was minimal and mainly sacral (names of the magistrates for the year, and records of wars and eclipses, for instance). The first historians of Rome, the so-called senatorial historians, Fabius Pictor, Cincius Alimentus, Postumius Albinus, and C. Acilius, writing in Greek in the first half of the second century BC, owed very little to the annals and were really continuing the tradition of Hellenistic Greek historical writing (see HISTORIOGRAPHY, GREEK). Cato the Censor, writing his history of Rome, the Origines, at this time, was also continuing the Greek tradition but writing in Latin. Under his influence the first systematic reconstruction of Roman history based on Roman evidence was made by the ‘old’ annalists Cassius Hemina and Calpurnius Piso, writing in the second half of the second century BC. Then P. Mucius Scaevola (d. c.115 BC), pontifex maximus in 130, ended the annual display of the annals and authorized their publication, in eighty books, from the earliest times up to his own day, involving for the regal period legendary speculation and for the early republic a reconstruction of events in the light of tradition. The arrangement of this historical work determined the form adopted by all later Roman historians, including those who, like Valerius Antias and Claudius Quadrigarius, expanded the records in rhetorical style. A few historians, like Licinius Macer and Aelius Tubero, appear to have checked their material, but most annalistic historians like Livy accepted both the narrative form and the content of their sources. See HISTORIOGRAPHY, ROMAN.
| Word Tutor: annals |
The newspaper's annals were in perfect order.
Tutor's tip: The "annals" (chronicles) of gardening history may be filled with "annuals" (plants living one season) that are gone forever, but nothing "annuls" (obliterates) their one-time beauty.
| Wikipedia: Annals |
Annals (Latin Annales, from annus, a year) are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year.
Contents |
In Middle Ages, when the order of the liturgical feasts was partly determined by the date of Easter, the custom was early established in the Western Church of drawing up tables to indicate that date for a certain number of years or even centuries. These Paschal tables were thin books in which each annual date was separated from the next by a more or less considerable blank space. In these spaces certain monks briefly noted the important events of the year. It was at the end of the 7th century and among the Irish that the compiling of these Annals was first begun – see the Annals of the Four Masters, the Annals of Ulster, the Annals of Innisfallen and the Annales Cambriae or Annals of Wales, one of the earliest sources for King Arthur. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is also in annalistic, year-by-year form.
Introduced by missionaries on the continent, they were re-copied, augmented and continued, especially in the kingdom of Austrasia. In the 9th century, during the great movement termed the Carolingian Renaissance, these Annals became the usual form of contemporary history; it suffices to mention the Royal Frankish Annals, the Annales Fuldenses, the Annales Bertiniani, the Annales Laureshamenses (or "of Lorsch"), officially compiled in order to preserve the memory of the more interesting acts of Charlemagne, his ancestors and his successors. Arrived at this stage of development, the Annals now began to lose their primitive character, and henceforward became more and more indistinguishable from the Chronicles, though the term was still used for many documents, such as the Annals of Waverley.
In modern literature the title annals has been given to a large number of standard works which adhere more or less strictly to the order of years. The best known are the Annales Ecclesiastici, written by Cardinal Baronius as a rejoinder to and refutation of the Historia ecclesiastica or "Centuries" of the Protestant theologians of Magdeburg (12 volumes, published in Rome from 1788 to 1793; Baronius's work stops at the year 1197). In the 19th century the annalistic form was once more employed, either to preserve year by year the memory of passing events (Annual Register, Annuaire de la Revue des deux mondes, &c.) or in writing the history of obscure medieval periods (Jahrbücher der deutschen Geschichte, Jahrbücher des deutschen Reiches, Richter's Reichsannalen, etc.). Today, the most cited law journal in the Balkans is called the Annals of the Faculty of Law in Belgrade
Other historical works known by the title Annals include:
Magazines and journals include:
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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| Translations: Annals |
Dansk (Danish)
n. pl. - annaler, årbog, krønike
Français (French)
n. pl. - annales
Deutsch (German)
n. pl. - Annalen
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. pl. - χρονικά
Português (Portuguese)
n. pl. - anais (m pl), anotações (f pl) históricas
Русский (Russian)
анналы, летописи, хроники
Español (Spanish)
n. pl. - anales, crónicas
Svenska (Swedish)
n. pl. - årsbok, krönika
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
编年史, 历史, 历史记载, 年报
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. pl. - 編年史, 歷史, 歷史記載, 年報
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 年代記, 記録, 年報, 紀要, 年譜
العربيه (Arabic)
(الجمع) الحوليات : تاريخ للأحداث يسردها عاما عاما, سجلات التاريخ, سجل بنشاطات منظمه ما
עברית (Hebrew)
n. pl. - תולדות, היסטוריה, רשימות היסטוריות, סיפור ההיסטוריה שנה אחר שנה
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Classical Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Copyright © 1993, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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