After the turmoil of the Migration Period and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, diocesan and monastic chronicles were among the earliest historical sources in Europe, with the oldest writings dating back to the early 6th to 9th century. In them, monks recorded what they considered worth knowing, memorable, significant or curious. In addition to political events, military campaigns, divorces of emperors, trips to Rome by their abbots, rancor, weather phenomena, earthquakes, and burials, they documented the appearance of comets and also wrote down when nothing had happened in a year. In these uncertain times, this was also something extraordinary.