The study presents urban historiography as a discipline pursued in medieval and Early Modern towns on private and group initiative and as modern work on the subject of urban history. At the forefront is the role of the history of a capital or major city and its conceptualisation influencing the identity and formation of the state and national historical narrative.
The article defines the subject of interest of the "urban chronicle" as a historically oriented work, the scope of which embraces a community larger than a family or dynasty and is linked to the fate of the city.