Cronica Cronicarum (...), blad 5 recto Possibly 1521 - 1529

This page, from the *Cronica Cronicarum*, presents a sprawling visual map of lineage. This organizational system attempts to capture the passage of time. This structure has roots in the Tree of Jesse, tracing Christ's ancestry, and appears across cultures, connecting past and present through lines of descent. Notice the circular portraits—visual anchors representing key figures. This recalls similar motifs across time from ancient Roman portraiture to Renaissance family trees; a collective desire to locate ourselves within the grand narrative of history. The act of chronicling, of visually organizing one’s kin, stirs deep within the human psyche. Such attempts to contain time through diagrams recur throughout history, each iteration marked by the anxieties and aspirations of its age. We see it evolve from religious iconography to secular displays of power. The linear, yet cyclical, nature of this motif reminds us that history is not just a sequence of events but a continuous process of remembering and reimagining.