Annales Historiae Conciliorum

The II. Council of Constantinopel (553) – Salone Sistino der Biblioteca Apsotolica Vaticana, Cesare Nebbia and his workshop (1589-1590)

The review Annales Historiae Conciliorum was initiated in 1968 by a group of academics led by Walter Brandmüller (*1929), under the title Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum.

The first edition of the journal, edited by Brandmüller and Remigius Bäumer (1918-1998), was published in 1969. The journal, well received by the scientific research world, is published semi-annually each edition being about 500 pages long. The Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum has been printed in the German publishing house Ferdinand Schöningh Verlag/Paderborn (Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, an imprint of the Brill Group - Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Niederlande; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA, USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore; Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Deutschland) up to issue 49 (2018/2019); starting from issue 50 (2020) is published under the title Annales Historiae Conciliorum by Aschendorff-Verlag/Münster. The review AHC is published by the Gesellschaft für Konziliengeschichte e.V., the editorial board is rapresented by Johannes Grohe , holding a chair in History of the Early and Medieval Church at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce/Rom und Thomas Prügl, holding a chair of Chruch History at the University of Vienna. In addition to articles and contributions, AHC publishes book reviews and a bibliography compiled by Ansgar Frenken/Ulm (Germany).

Instructions for Authors

Order single issue as a printed edition:

- up to issue 49 (2018/2019): Brill Customer Services, Turpin Distribution Services Ltd

- from issue 50 (2020): Verlag Aschendorff

Since the beginning, the Annales Historiae Conciliorum – subtitled “International Journal for Research of Church Councils” and originally published under the title Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum – had the intention to create a forum open to contributions by researches from all over the world. This is exactly what has happened, as results over 45 years have shown. Within this period over 700 articles have been published in AHC, among them – and besides contributions in German, which make up the large bulk – 125 have been published in English, 80 in Italian, 48 in Spanish and 39 in French. Additionally there are articles that have been translated from the Slavic languages and from Greek.

The universality of the circle of authors reflects the universality of the object of research, especially if one considers how provincial councils have been held on all five inhabitable continents over the course of history. The group of researches had an ecumenical aim from the start, as is evident from their collaboration with authors from an Orthodox background and from Protestantism.

From the beginning of Catholic research on the Council History, the journal could count on support for the mission and the personal collaboration of Hubert Jedin. Jedin had served as ordinary professor for Church History at and retired from the University in Bonn and continued to finalize his life’s work: the history of the Council of Trent and a comprehensive handbook of Church history. Jedin belonged to the scientific council of the journal until his death in 1980. Stephan Kuttner was added as councilor, and remained a member until his death in 1997. Both participants underlined the extraordinary importance of research on the Council History for the history of Canon Law, a topic reflected in countless contributions in the AHC.

The current members of the scientific council of AHC are: Peter Bruns/Bamberg, Philippe Chenaux/Rom, Evangelos Chrysos/Athen, Thomas Graumann/Cambridge, Johannes Helmrath/Berlin, Nelson H. Minnich/Washington D.C., Heinz Ohme/Berlin, Klaus Schatz/Frankfurt-St.Georgen, Boris Ulianich/Neapel, Petar Vrankić/Augsburg und Peter Wirth/München.

The review AHC is predominantly a Church historical journal, but contributions are generally of universal historical interest. Walter Brandmüller became, following his retirement from professor of Church History in Augusburg, president of the Pontificio Comitato di Scienze Storiche, but stepped back due to age from his role as head of the research project on Church Councils: he was created Cardinal in 2010 under Pope Benedict XVI. Then Johannes Grohe, Professor of Medieval Church History at the Pontificia Università della Santa Croce/Rome and Thomas Prügl, Professor of Church History at the University of Vienna stepped in to run the projects. The journal is edited by the Gesellschaft für Konziliengeschichtsforschung e.V. and the ediding board is rapresentend by Thomas Prügl und Johannes Grohe.

Contributions of AHC aim, in addition to their individual objectives, to accompany the greater research project focused on Council History by Walter Brandmüller, which is published in the two series “Presentations” (that is, contributions regarding individual ecumenical and provincial synods) as well as “Investigations” (that is, research contributions in the form of monographies dealing with topics related to the Council History) (up to 2021: 24 volumes as Darstellungen and 17 volumes as Untersuchungen). Since 2008 the editors for the project have been Peter Bruns/Bamberg and Thomas Prügl/Vienna.

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