albert commissioned a work on the history of prussia, mainly to counter the - in his view - biased polish and catholic works. however, he was only able to produce a recent history of prussia before he died. his son, albert frederick, however, continued the efforts, and instructed david to compile a history of prussia. this was also supported by various social classes, which believed that the polish histories belittled prussian achievements. hence david researched documents of prussian history, and started to write his "prussian chronicles" ("preußische chronik") from ca. 1575. while david utilized large parts of the work of simon grunau, he also frequently corrected errors by grunau.