Humanity Hits 2: The Wittewierum chronicle

This manuscript dates from the thirteenth century. It was written by the oldest Groninger we know personally: Emo of Huizinge.

At Oxford, Emo was the first student from continental Europe. Back in Frisia he founded a men's monastery in Wierum in 1213. As abbot he affiliated the monastery with the order of the Premonstratensians, so that it enjoyed protection from the church and pope. The monks wore white habits. Therefore the place was called Wittewierum.

The monastery existed for about 350 years. In 1561 it was dissolved. Abbot Emo called it Bloemhof and he kept an annual record of the events in and around the monastery in a chronicle. His second successor Menko continued this. Thanks to Emo and Menko we know the history of this monastery in the first century of its existence.