Heinrich von Herford

Who was Heinrich von Herford?

Heinrich von Herford, anglicized Henry of Herford was a Dominican friar, chronicler, historian, and theologian.

Born around 1300 in Herford, Westphalia in the Holy Roman Empire, he probably attended the Latin school of the Imperial Abbey. He was then professed in the Dominican friary at Minden. There he wrote his chronicle Liber de rebus memorabilioribus, in which he summarizes the work of older historians from Eusebius down to the writers of his own age. The work, which is continued down to the coronation of the Emperor Charles IV in 1355, was one of the chief sources of historical information in fourteenth-century literature. It was reprinted under the editorship of August Potthast in Göttingen in 1859. He also composed the Catena aurea in decem partes distincta, a summary of theology, and a treatise, De Conceptione Virginis gloriosae.

Heinrich von Herford died on 9 October 1370 in the Dominican monastery of St. Pauli in Minden, where he had spent most of his life. Shortly after his death, Heinrich's writings must have earned him a relative fame as Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor, prompted Heinrich's reburial to a more honorable tomb and hosted a large funeral attended by a number of people of secular and spiritual significance.