(1) Overview
Repository location
Context
The data presented here was collected as part of the GENCHRON project,1 ‘Time for Women? Gender, Chronology and Historiography before AD 900’, funded by Research Ireland from 2022 to 2026. The primary aim of GENCHRON is to integrate gender into a re-evaluation of time and chronology in medieval sources. One strand of the project focuses on the Latin world chronicle tradition, which has been widely studied (Burgess & Kulikowski, 2013; MacCarron, 2020; Wood, 2015), but scholars have shown little interest in gender as a category of analysis.
The GENCHRON Chronicles Dataset addresses this gap by providing systematic structured data on characters in 14 late antique and early medieval Latin world chronicles, from the Chronicon of Eusebius-Jerome to Bede’s longer chronicle in De temporum ratione.2 Through the creation of structured datasets recording all individuals and groups in each of the 14 chronicles, the GENCHRON methodology enables, for the first time, advanced quantitative analysis of the Latin world chronicle tradition from the fourth to eighth centuries, including precise calculation of the number and proportion of women in the selected chronicles.
Analyses conducted within the GENCHRON project have found that the world chronicles were heavily male dominated, with women consistently accounting for less than ten per cent of characters, compared to more traditional narratives sources, such as saints’ lives and histories, where women tend to be somewhat better represented (MacCarron & Quigley, 2025). Nevertheless, certain women appeared repeatedly and played significant roles in the unfolding of universal history within these chronicles, including Galla Placidia (AD c. 392–450, daughter of Roman Emperor, Theodosius I), and Semiramis (semi-mythical Queen of Assyria dated to approximately the ninth century BC), both of whom appear in eight of our fourteen chronicles, but not the same eight.3 The dataset also makes it possible to identify variation in the treatment of gender in the chronicle tradition: for example, the anonymous Frankish chronicle of Fredegar (composed AD c. 660) contains an unusually high proportion of women compared to other chronicles (Quigley, 2026). These findings demonstrate how structured data analysis can reveal patterns of inclusion and omission within complex historical sources, such as the chronicle tradition, that are difficult to identify through conventional close reading alone.
(2) Method
Steps
Source Selection
Sources were selected to represent the development of the Latin world chronicle tradition from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The dataset contains chronicles that modern scholarship has identified as central to the genre, including the works of Eusebius-Jerome, Prosper of Aquitaine, Isidore of Seville, and Bede.
The selection reflects both chronological breadth and variation in chronicle form. Some works adhere to traditional chronological frameworks organised by year counts, such as the chronicles of Eusebius-Jerome and Isidore. Others adopt more narrative or descriptive structures and lack consistent chronological organisation, for example the chronicle of Sulpicius Severus. Including this range of texts ensures that the dataset captures the diversity of the chronicle tradition.
Data Collection
Data was collected through close reading of each text in its original language, using the most up-to-date critical editions available, details of which are provided in the repository. A data model was developed within Microsoft Excel by the Principal Investigator, MacCarron, and applied consistently across all sources to ensure comparability between files. The dataset is organised as a series of 16 chronicle-specific files (14 chronicles, with Fredegar’s contribution divided into three parts), each provided in both Excel and CSV formats.4 No generative artificial intelligence tools were used in the creation or analysis of the dataset.
All individuals and groups, subsequently referred to as characters, were recorded systematically as they appeared in the text. Each character was included once for every internal unit in which they appear. Internal units were determined by the structure of each source, meaning chronicles were typically divided by year count. Some sources, however, lack a consistent dating system, such as the chronicles of Prosper and Fredegar. In these cases, chapters within the critical edition were used as internal units for data entry.
For each character, a range of variables were recorded describing their identity and narrative role. These include attributes such as gender, status, ethnicity, naming practices (see Hillner et al., 2022), and life stage, as well as geographical and narrative context. Relationships between characters appearing within the same textual unit were also recorded and categorised according to the type of interaction described in the text. A full description of the data model is provided in the README documentation on Zenodo.
To preserve the integrity of the source material, only information explicitly present in the text was recorded. We did not fill in gaps based on contextual historical knowledge. Entries in the chronicles are often concise so the dataset is sparse in places, but this reflects the laconic nature of the chronicle genre rather than omissions in data collection.
Quality control
Data entry was subject to multiple rounds of manual checking by members of the GENCHRON project team to ensure consistency in the application of the data model and variable categories.
(3) Dataset Description
Repository name
Zenodo
Object name
GENCHRON Chronicles Dataset
Format names and versions
Excel and CSV files. Current version 1.0.
Creation dates
Start: 2023-06-01. End: 2025-04-30.
Dataset creators
Máirín MacCarron, Emily Quigley (Department of Digital Humanities, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland)
Language
Data: Latin and English; Metadata: English.
License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Publication date
2026-04-27
(4) Reuse Potential
The GENCHRON dataset was designed to be comprehensive, recording a high volume of structured information for every character appearing in each source. As the project adopted a maximalist approach in which all individuals and groups were recorded, the dataset supports a wide range of reuse possibilities beyond the project’s original focus on gender.
Within medieval studies, any of the categories in the dataset could be used for further analysis. For example, researchers could use the data to investigate the representation of social categories such as kings, bishops, or monastic communities, or to analyse how ethnicity and lifecycle are represented across different chronicles, when such information is available. Similarly, the dataset could be used for character-focused scholarship. Although the chronicles give important insight into the position of individuals within universal history, the chronicles are not typically foregrounded in biographical studies due to their brevity. The GENCHRON dataset provides a resource that could support new approaches to biographical research.
The dataset also has potential pedagogical uses. The world chronicles are complex sources that can be difficult to engage with due to their complex chronological frameworks. The structured dataset and accompanying Zenodo documentation provide a means of exploring these sources in a more accessible format, so may serve as a useful teaching tool within courses on medieval history.
Finally, the GENCHRON data model may serve as a methodological framework for humanities scholars seeking to integrate digital approaches into their own work. It reflects the principle of “thick contextualisation” (Mandell, 2016), which is necessary to fully represent minoritised groups in our representation of the past. In doing so, the dataset offers an example of best practice in using data-driven approaches to bring non-dominant groups to the fore (D’Ignazio & Klein, 2020). As digital methods become increasingly common within the humanities, the dataset demonstrates how traditional close reading can be combined with structured data analysis.
Some limitations must nevertheless be acknowledged. The dataset, as previously mentioned, only records information explicitly stated in the original sources. As the chronicle genre is characteristically concise, the information provided about characters is often minimal, and both the inclusion and omission of details reflect the narrative priorities and biases of the authors. The dataset therefore cannot be used to ascertain full biographical information on characters, but rather their representation in specific sources. The data gathering was researcher-led and, on occasion, decisions were made based on interpretation and expertise. For example, researcher judgement was required to distinguish between individuals with recurring dynastic names, like the multiple Constantines in the fourth-century Roman world, or the numerous Egyptian queens called Cleopatra. The numerical identifiers familiar today post-date the source material and were incorporated in the datasets based on textual interpretation and knowledge of context. The team discussed such cases and is confident in the integrity of our approach but acknowledge that in matters of interpretation other researchers may come to slightly different conclusions. Such differences are a fundamental element of humanities research, and do not diminish the reuse potential of the GENCHRON Chronicles Dataset, which due to its breadth and depth is a valuable resource for further interdisciplinary research.
Notes
[1] https://www.ucc.ie/en/genchron/ (last accessed: 1st June 2026).
[2] Eusebius’s Greek chronicle, written in the early fourth century, extended from the birth of Abraham to AD 325. It originally consisted of two books: the first survives only in an Armenian translation (Mosshammer, 1979, p. 29–83), the second presented a chronological table with parallel columns showing individuals and events across contemporary kingdoms. In the late fourth century, Jerome translated the second book into Latin and continued it to AD 378. Jerome’s translation is the only surviving witness to Eusebius’s second book. Bede’s longer chronicle is chapter 66 of De temporum ratione and was composed in AD 725.
[3] Galla Placidia is in the Gallic Chronicle of 452, Prosper, Hydatius, Gallic Chronicle of 511, Cassiodorus, Marcellinus, Fredegar book 2, and Bede’s De temporum ratione. Semiramis is in Eusebius-Jerome, Prosper, Hydatius, Cassiodorus, Isidore’s Chronica maiora, Fredegar book 2, Bede’s De temporibus, and Bede’s De temporum ratione.
Author Contributions
Máirín MacCarron: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Project administration; Supervision; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing.
Emily Quigley: Data curation; Formal analysis; Investigation; Writing – original draft; Writing – review & editing.