Lucas David facts for kids

Lucas (or Lukas) David (born 1503, died April 1583) was an important German historian. From about 1550, he worked on writing many books about the history of Prussia.

Lucas David's Life Story

Lucas David was born in Allenstein, which is now called Olsztyn in Poland. He went to the University of Leipzig to study. There, he earned a special degree called a Magister.

Even though Lucas David became a Protestant (a different branch of Christianity), he worked for Bishop Tiedemann Giese. Bishop Giese was a Catholic leader. David was his chancellor, which is like a chief assistant, from 1540 to 1549.

After Bishop Giese moved to lead the Diocese of Warmia, David joined the court of Albert, Duke of Prussia. This was in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) in 1549. He officially started his new job on March 26, 1550.

Duke Albert asked Lucas David to write a history of Prussia. The Duke felt that the existing Polish and Catholic history books were unfair. They didn't tell the full story from Prussia's side. Lucas David first wrote about recent Prussian history. After Duke Albert died, his son, Albert Frederick, asked David to keep working on the history. Many people in Prussia also wanted this history. They felt that Polish stories made Prussian achievements seem less important.

So, Lucas David looked at many old documents about Prussian history. He started writing his big book, the Prussian Chronicles ("Preußische Chronik"), around 1575. He used a lot of information from another historian named Simon Grunau. But David also carefully checked and corrected mistakes that Grunau had made.

Lucas David married a rich widow in Leipzig. He also set up special funds to help poor students from his hometown study at the University of Leipzig.

Lucas David died in Königsberg in 1583. He was 80 years old. He passed away before he could finish his chronicles. The book stops just before the Battle of Grunwald in 1410. Some sources say his work goes up to 1475.

His books were not well known when he was alive. They were found again around 1720. It took another 100 years for them to be printed for the first time. This happened between 1812 and 1817, in eight large books. Since then, Lucas David has become famous for his Prussian Chronicles. He is seen as a "modern" historian. This is because he based his studies on real historical documents and sources.

A collection of works called the Prussica-Sammlung Trunz has some of Lucas David's writings. This collection was started by Dr. August Trunz, who was also from Allenstein. It is kept in the library of the University of Münster.

Lucas David's Writings

• Hennig, Ernst (editor): Preussische Chronik. - Königsberg : Haberland, 1.1812 - 6. 1814