before david was able to complete his chronicles, he died at königsberg in 1583 at the age of 80. the chronicle ends with the events preceding the battle of grunwald (or tannenberg) in 1410; other sources state that his works extend till 1475. his works were largely unknown to his contemporaries, and were re-discovered only around 1720, with another 100 years before its first publication in the years between 1812–17 in eight volumes. since then he has become well known past the borders of his homeland for these "prussian chronicles". he is ranked as a 'modern' historian, as he based his studies on historic sources.