in political affairs. He died on 1 December 1018 and was buried in Merseburg cathedral. Thietmar's Chronicle Between 1012 and 1018 Thietmar, while Bishop of Merseburg, composed his chronicle Chronicon Thietmari, which comprises eight books, that cover the period between 908 and 1018, the Saxon Emperors Henry the Fowler, the three Ottos, and Henry II the Saint. As counsellor of the Emperor and participant in many important political transactions he was well equipped for writing a history of his times. The first three books, covering the reigns of Henry I and the first two Ottos (Otto I and Otto II) are largely based on previous chronicles most of which are still extant (e.g. Widukind of Corvey's Res gestae Saxonicae, the Annales Quedlinburgenses and others); the fourth book, comprising the reign of Otto III contains much original matter; while the remaining four books, which describe the reign of Henry II to the year 1018, are the independent narrative of Thietmar and, besides being the principal source for Saxon history during the reign of Henry II, contain valuable information, not to be found elsewhere regarding the contemporary history and civilization of the Slavic tribes east of the river Elbe, as well as Poles, Hungarians and Bulgarians. The Latin style and the composition are not of a high standard, largely because, as the original manuscript reveals, Thietmar continued to make amendments and insertions to the text after it was completed. Nor does he always discriminate between important and unimportant events. The chronicle is nevertheless an excellent source for the history of Saxony during the reigns of the emperors Otto III and Henry II. No information is excluded by Thietmar, but the fullest details refer to the Bishopric of Merseburg, and to the wars against the Wends (Polabian Slavs) and the Poles. The original manuscript was moved in 1570 to Dresden. When the city was destroyed by bombing during World War II the manuscript was severely damaged, and only a few folios remain intact. Fortunately a complete facsimile edition had been published by L. Schmidt (Dresden, 1905). Thietmar's statement that the Gero Cross in Cologne cathedral was commissioned by Archbishop Gero, who died in 976, was dismissed by art historians, who thought he meant another cross, until the 1920s, and finally confirmed as correct in 1976 by dendrochronology. Editions and translations of Thietmar's Chronicle Thietmari Merseburgensis episcopi Chronicon: Holtzman, Robert (ed.) and J.C.M. Laurent,