Lambert is most famous as the author of an extensive historical chronicle known as the
Annales, first published in 1525 by Kaspar Currer in
Tübingen. They were edited in the
Monumenta Germaniae Historica, along with Lampert's other known works, by Oswald Holder-Egger (
MGH Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usu scholarum, volume 38) in 1894. Holder-Egger, in his edition of Lampert's work, also demonstrated that Lampert was the likely author of at least two other significant works: the
Vita Lulli archiepiscopi Mogontiacensis, a
hagiography of the founder of Hersfeld Abbey,
Saint Lullus,
Archbishop of Mainz (c. 710–786), and a shorter, polemic history of the Hersfeld monastery (
Libellus de institutione Herveldensis ecclesiae), which survives only fragmentarily in excerpts made by later medieval German writers. Lambert's history of the Germans,
De rebus gestis Germanorum was printed in the compilation of chronicles edited by
Johann Pistorius (
Frankfurt, 1613). The
Annals begin with a
universal history from the creation of the world until about 1040. This portion of the work is drawn largely from other, earlier annalistic works, particularly those of
Saint Bede,
Isidore of Seville, and from German traditions like the
Annals of Quedlinburg and
Weissenburg. From about the date of 1042 onwards, however, the account is Lampert's own and he carries the history from there up to the year 1077, when the
Swabian duke
Rudolf of Rheinfelden was crowned
anti-king by the dissident
princes. Lambert's
Annales are among the most important sources available for the reign of King Henry IV, the
Investiture Controversy, and the
Saxon revolt of 1073–1075. Among the significant events detailed in Lampert's history are the infamous
Coup of Kaiserswerth in 1062, Henry's famous
Walk to Canossa where he submitted (albeit temporarily) to Pope Gregory VII, and the 1075
Battle of Langensalza where Henry's forces defeated the Saxon and Thuringian rebels. Lambert ended his work with the election of anti-king Rudolf of Swabia, stating that his own account had reached an appropriate conclusion and that another writer would be able to pick up from where he left off in chronicling this new era for the German kingdom (Rudolf was mortally wounded in the
Battle on the Elster against Henry's forces in 1080). Lampert was superbly educated for his day and wrote in a fine, classicizing
Latin peppered with references and allusions to Roman authors, particularly
Livy,
Sallust, and the playwright
Terence. Like many of the classical authors he admired, Lampert fancied himself a cynical observer of elite society, casting a critical eye on the political melodramas and scandals of his day and chronicling the way in which power and pride corrupted rulers and perverted society, raising up the unworthy and punishing the good and decent. Lampert's chronicle was translated into English by I.S. Robsinson in 2015 as
The Annals of Lampert of Hersfeld. ==Reputation as a historian==