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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2019
Passionate pursuit of humanistic scholarship, religious controversy, and princely ambition conspired to create impressive book collections at numerous sixteenth-century German courts. Whether conceived as utilitarian repositories for scholars or polemicists, or as treasure to enhance the splendor of a prince's court in competition with his peers, most of these late Renaissance collections were to form the great territorial and national, public and university libraries of modern Germany. The present-day Bavarian State Library, in many respects a typical example, owes its origin to the magnificent book collection amassed by Duke Albrecht v during his reign (1550-1579). Outnumbered only by the imperial library in Vienna, Albrecht's collection of about 11,000 volumes was considered at the time of his death the second largest library in Germany.
1 Schottenloher, Karl, Bücher bewegten die Welt, I (Stuttgart, 1951), 177–234 Google Scholar; Kramm, Heinrich, ‘Deutsche Bibliotheken unter dem Einfluss von Humanismus und Reformation’, Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen, Supplement 70 (Leipzig, 1938), pp. 131–156 Google Scholar; Mehl, Ernst, ‘Deutsche Bibliotheksgeschichte’, Deutsche Philologie im Aufriss (Berlin, 1951), pp. 331–335 Google Scholar.
2 Schottenloher, I, 233-234; Mehl, p. 335.
3 Hartig, Otto, Die Gründung der Münchener Hofbibliothek durch Albrecht V. und Johann Jakob Fugger (Munich, 1917, Abhandlungen der K. Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-philologische und historische Klasse, vol. XXVIII, no. 3), p. 97 Google Scholar; Paul Ruf, ‘Bayerische Staatsbibliothek’, in Bayerische Kulturpflege (presentation volume for Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria), ed. Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Unterricht und Kultus (Munich, 1949), pp. 40-47 (the section of Ruf's essay relevant to this paper is based on Hartig); Kramm, pp. 208-209; Schottenloher, I, 225-226.
4 Hartig, pp. 9-24, 29-31, 31-46, and passim. On Schedel: Stauber, Richard, Die Schedelsche Bibliothek [published by Otto Hartig] (Freiburg, 1908)Google Scholar; Thompson, James Westfall, The Medieval Library (Chicago, 1939), pp. 469–470 Google Scholar; Wattenbach, , ‘Hartmann Schedel’ in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (hereafter ADB), xxx (Leipzig, 1890), 661–662 Google Scholar.
5 Hartig, pp. 9-24,70-74, and passim; Ruf, 42-44. On Widmanstetter: Sigmund Riezlerin ADB XLII (1897), 357-361; Max Müller, Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter, 1506-1557; Sein Leben und Wirken [(Diss.), Munich, 1907]; Hans Striedl, ‘Der Humanist Johann Albrecht “Widmanstetter (1506-1557) als Klassischer Philologe’, in Festgabe der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek: Emit Gratzlzum 75. Geburtstag (Wiesbaden, 1953), pp. 96-120.
6 Hartig, p. 35 andn. 5. On Johann Jacob Fugger: Hartig, pp. 31-46, 174-218, and passim; Ruf, pp. 44-46; Wilhelm Maasen, Hans Jakob Fugger (1516-1575) [published by Paul Ruf] (Munich, 1922).
7 Hartig, pp. 29-31, 163-164; Ruf, p. 42; Kramm, p. 209.
8 Hartig, p. 165.
9 Strauss, Felix F., ‘The Effect of the Council of Trent on the Episcopal Tenure of Duke Ernst of Bavaria, Archbishop-Confirmed of Salzburg, in 1554’, Jour, of Modern History XXXII (1960), pp. 119–128 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
10 Hartig, p. 31.
11 Bayerisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich (hereafter BHA), Abteilung Geheimes Staatsarchiv: Kasten schwarz Nr. 79/11, Erbfolgestreit mit Württemberg, Bd. 2, Nr. 96 (Hertzog Ernsten etc. verlassne Schuld-vnd gültbrief, auch andere schrifften vnd acta etc.) 30 fol., and Nr. 97 (Inventarium Hertzog Ernsten in Bayern verlassenschafft im schloss zu Glatz vnd im Muntzhaus vndfruchten, Armatur, leinwatt, bettgwand etc.) 24 fol. (Hereafter Inventory I and Inventory II, respectively; the folio designations are mine.)
12 Inventory II, fol. 5v-9v
13 The least controversial item in the breakdown refers to the bound tomes. It includes the 1,101 books housed in the library and armory, thirty-two itemized books listed in Inventory I (including a Bavarian chronicle and a velvet-bound, gold-edged missal), and an estimated 25 volumes derived from such vague recordings as ‘mining ordinances’, ‘several books’, and simply ‘books’ ﹛Inventory I, fol. 8-11, 16, 16v). The next item—unbound printed books—is more difficult to assess and is entirely based on conjecture. Discussions with librarians, perusal of numerous early book catalogues, and experimentation with books and barrels with regard to volume, weights, and sizes, have led me to the conclusion that an estimate of seventy-five books per barrel is amply conservative. The term ‘alte Schriften’ was haphazardly employed to include such items as letters, documents, contracts, mandates, journals, privileges, and so on (although the terms proper were also used occasionally). However, it seems highly likely that so early a library as Ernst's would contain handwritten copies of religious tracts, medical remedies, mining-, police-, guild-, fire-, and sanitation ordinances and the like. The seven barrels in the armory and the pottery room, therefore, may be assumed to have contained manuscripts suitable for binding, which one would expect to find in a library of the day. Because paper used for writing was frequently bulkier than that for printing, I arbitrarily estimate fifty manuscript ‘volumes’ per barrel. An additional fifty manuscripts are drawn from Inventory I on the basis of such entries as ‘Latin manuscripts concerning metal', ‘sundry old manuscripts', and several mere ‘manuscripts’ (fol. 9,10). Among the effects were also a number of drawings, prints, and maps ﹛Inventory I, fol. 9, 12, 16). However, any references to ‘alte Schriften’ relating specifically to Salzburg have been disregarded in the calculation. I assume them to belong to Ernst's voluminous private and business correspondence and accounts, as well as to a scattering of official documents which he had mistakenly taken along with him.
14 Hartig, p. 55. On p. 56 he offers a table of expenditures for book purchases and bookbinding expenses for the years 1561-1570.
15 Ibid., p. 31.
16 See Max Georg Zimmermann, Die bildenden Künste am Hofe Herzog Albrechts V. von Bayern (Strassburg, 1895) and the following contributions to Bayerische Kulturpfiege (cited in n. 3): Hans Diepolder, ‘Die Antikensammlungen’, pp. 12-15; Karl Busch, ‘Das Haus Wittelsbach und der Gemaldeschatz Bayerns’, p. 55; Hans Thoma, ‘Die Wittelsbachischen Herrschersitze und ihre Kunstsammlungen’, pp. 86-88; Peter Halm, ‘Zur Geschichte der Graphischen Sammlung', pp. 110-112; Otto Ursprung, ‘Kulturpolitik und Tradition in der Musikpflege der Wittelsbacher’, pp. 134-135; and Hans Gebhart, ‘Die Staatliche Münzsammlung’, pp. 150-151.
17 ‘Protestant history became the handmaiden of Protestant theology and Protestant politics’ (James Westfall Thompson, A History of Historical Writing, N. Y., 1942, I, 527). See Karl Schottenloher, Ottheinrich und das Buch (Münster in Westf., 1927, Reformations geschichtliche Studien und Texte, Heft 50-51); Barbara Kurze, Kurfürst Ott Heinrich: Politik und Religion in der Pfalz 1556-1559 (Gütersloh, 1956, Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, Nr. 174), pp. 75-76; the following contributions to Ottheinrich (Gedenkschrift zur vierhundertjührigen Wiederkehr seiner Kurfürstenzeit in der Pfalz, 1556-1559), ed. Georg Poensgen (Heidelberg, 1956): Renate Klauser, ‘Der Freund und Sammler von Büchern’, pp. 119-122, 127-128, 132; Georg Poensgen, ‘Gestalt und Werdegang’, pp. 47-48, 54; Fritz Hauss, ‘Die Durchfiihrung der Reformation’, p. 102; and Liselotte Mugdan, ‘Die Reformierung der Universität’, p. 221; Reitzenstein, Alexander von, Ottheinrich von der Pfalz (Bremen, 1939), pp. 212–214 Google Scholar, 216-217; Kramm, pp. 94. 146.
18 Hartig, pp. 97-98; Kramm, p. 146.
19 ‘An estimate of the total number of [Ottheinrich's] books assessed at roughly 1,000 volumes is probably not too high’ (Klauser, p. 136).
20 Felix F. Strauss, ‘Pfalzgraf Ottheinrich als Gast des Erzbischof-Administrators Herzog Ernst von Bayern in Gastein im Jahre 1542’, Badgasteiner Badeblatt (hereafter BGB), XVIII (1958), 101-103; ‘Pfalzgraf Ottheinrich als Salzburger Gewerke und das Bergwerks-Croquis vom Jahre 1542’, ibid, XIX (1959), 75-78; ‘Zur Badegerechtigkeit des Pfalzgrafen Ottheinrichs in Bad Gastein’, ibid, XIX (1959), 423; and ‘A Sixteenth-Century Sketch of Gold Mining Installations in Salzburg’, Historian XXII (1960), 119-128.
21 See the various essays in Ottheinrich; Reitzenstein, passim; Hans Rott, ‘Ottheinrich und die Kunst’, Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses, v, nos. 1 and 2 (1905), and ‘Zu den Kunstbestrebungen Ottheinrichs’, ibid, VI (1912), 192-240.
22 Kurt Rossmann, ‘Der Ottheinrichbau’, in Ottheinrich, p. 261. Ottheinrich was engaged in erecting ‘a magnificent and sumptuous building, for which he assembled from all parts the most renowned artists, builders, sculptors and painters’ (Christoph Mundt to Sir William Cecil, 28 June 1559; quoted by Reitzenstein, p. 242).
23 Hauss, in Ottheinrkh, pp. 196-205; Mugdan, ibid., pp. 210-222.
24 BHA, Abteilung Geheimes Hausarchiv, Act 583: ‘Hertzog Ernstn in Bayrn etc. Einryt 1540’; Hans Lutz, ‘Einritt des Erzbischofes Herzog Ernst von Bayern’, ed. Blasius Huemer, Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Salzburger Landeskunde (hereafter SLK), LV (1915), pp. 48-61.
25 Reitzenstein, pp. 193-196, 254; Poensgen, in Ottheinrkh, pp. 26, 37, 46.
26 Ibid., pp. 30-32, 56-57; Reitzenstein, pp. 33-34, 39.
27 Hartig, pp. 164-165. On Aventinus: Franz X. von Wegele, Aventin (Bamberg, 1890), and ‘Aventinus’, ADB I (1875), 700-704; Vogt, Wilhelm, ‘Aventins Leben’, Johannes Turmair'sgenannt Aventinus sämtliche Werke, 1 (Munich, 1880), i-lixGoogle Scholar. Gerald Strauss is preparing a much-needed modern interpretation of Aventinus for early publication.
28 Wegele, Aventin, p. 19. Strauss, Gerald, ‘The Religious Policies of Dukes Wilhelm and Ludwig of Bavaria in the First Decade of the Protestant Era’, Church History XXVIII (1959), 2–3 Google Scholar.
29 Spitz, Lewis W., Conrad Celtis (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), PP. 59, 70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
30 Hartig, pp. 164-165.
31 Geisl Aventini to Ernst, Nuremberg, 7 June 1555; Ernst to Geisl, Hallein, 15 June 1555, BHA, Salzburg-Literalien (hereafter ‘Lit’, followed by the vol. no.), 171.
32 Ernst's testament, Salzburg, 25 Sept. 1550, BHA, Fürstensachen 319.
33 Strauss, Felix F., ‘Der Anteil Herzogs Ernst von Bayern am Edelmetallbergbau in den Tälern der Gastein und Rauris’, BGB XX (1960), 478–482 Google Scholar.
34 Strauss, Felix F., ‘Herzog Ernst von Bayern und Hofbuchdrucker Hans Baumann’, Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, Jahresschrift 5, 1959 (Salzburg, 1960), pp. 193–203 Google Scholar.
35 See Fritz Redlich, ‘Der deutsche fürstliche Unternehmer, eine typische Erscheinung des 16. Jahrhunderts’, Tradition III (1958), pp. 17-32, 98-112; also F. Redlich, ‘European Aristocracy and Economic Development’, Explorations in Entrepreneurial History, VI (1953), 78-91.
36 Hartig, pp. 167-169; Karl Schottenloher, ‘Die Widmungsvorrede im Buch des 16. Jahrhunderts’, Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte, Heft 76-77 (1953), pp. 17-18 and n. 18, 23 and n. 34. Books dedicated to Ottheinrich span a wider period. Moreover, authors frequently commented on him favorably in dedications to other princes (Schottenloher, pp. 57, 61-62, 63, 67, and passim). On Brottbeyhel: Mar. Corinna Trdán, ‘Beiträge zur Kenntnis der salzburgischen Chronistic des 16. Jahrhunderts’, SLK LIV (1914), 140-142; Roth, Friedrich, ‘Zur Lebensgeschichte des Matthias Brotbeihel’, Bayerisches Archiu LIV (1909), 286–289 Google Scholar.
37 Entry for 16 Sept. 1551,fol. 31 in Handschrift 1 of Hans Goldeisen (hereafter Accountbook I), Salzburger Landesarchiv (hereafter SLA), Goldeisenarchiv (hereafter GA).
38 Entries for 1 Feb, 12 Apr., 15 and 27 June 1554, fol. 285v, 288, 289, 290, in Handschrift 2 of Hans Goldeisen (hereafter Accountbook II), SLA, GA.
39 Entry for 12 Sept. 1549, Salzburger Kapitel-Protokolle, SLA.
40 Widmanstetter remained in Salzburg three years as Ernst's chancellor (Josef Karl Mayr, ‘Geschichte der salzburgischen Zentralbehörden von der Mitte des 13. bis ans Ende des 16. Jahrhunderts', SLK LXVI [1926], 39; Sigmund Riezler, ‘Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter', ADB XLII [1897], 357-361). This is to correct Hartig (p. 10), following Miiller (pp. 57-58), who allows Widmanstetter only a one-year stay in Salzburg.
41 Dr. Lucretius [Widmanstetter] to Ernst, n.d. [end of 1545]; Ernst to Wilhelm, Salzburg, 2 Jan. 1546, BHA, Lit. 479. Müller reprints these letters in full (pp. 88-91) including a letter of Ernst to the ducal councilors of Landshut, Salzburg, 1 Dec. 1545.
42 Hartig, pp. 15-16.
43 Hans Rostock to Ernst, Vienna, 10 June 1553, Act 16, SLA, GA.
44 Lib. VI, pp. 638-639, excerpted by Hartig, pp. 164-165. On Münster: Ludwig Geiger, ‘Sebastian Miinster’, ADB XXIII (1886), 30-33; Gerald Strauss, ‘Topographical-Historical Method in Sixteenth-century German Scholarship’, Studies in the Renaissance v (1958), 92 n. 19, 96, 100-107.
45 Hartig, pp. 167-170. This count does not include the Salzburger Chronic, a compilation by Christoph Jordan (sign.: Gotha A 181) which Hartig lists as a manuscript that may possibly have belonged to Ernst (p. 167). He seems to have misconstrued Trdán, who explicitly states that Jordan ‘wrote his chronicle after the year 1560’ (SLK LIV, 156). Presumably the error arose from the fact that all of the ten known copies written by Jordan between 1561 and 1600 (p. 157) display the coat of arms of Ernst painted on the center of the first page (p. 140).
46 ‘Index Indultorum personalium …’ (Bavarian State Library, Munich, sign. Clm 478). A careful examination of the manuscript on microfilm reveals that Hartig (pp. 167-168) is in error, since it was written in nine sections by at least five, possibly more, different hands. Not one of them resembles the scrawlingly angular, almost illegible handwriting of Ernst. I wish to express my gratitude to Dr. Karl Dachs of the Bavarian State Library, who prepared for me several pages of each relevant passage for microfilming.
47 Heinrich Mameranus was a printer, bookdealer, and author. See J. Franck in ABD xx (1884), 158-159.
48 The most luxuriously bound volume of the lot.
49 Hartig, p. 169.
50 Ibid., pp. 316-317.
51 Inventory I, fol. 8.
52 Hartig, p. 170.
53 It is not clear whether Ernst was interested in the cure of syphilis for personal, public, or entrepreneurial reasons. He closely followed experiments with mercury powder on syphilitic patients (Ernst to Anthony Hunger, surgeon-barber of Passau, 10 and 21 Jan. 1545, BHA, Lit. 168). He bought guaiacum wood, considered efficacious in the treatment of syphilis, wholesale: eight logs, weighing 665 lbs. (Ernst's correspondence with Hans Sorg, Nuremberg merchant, Dec. 1552 and Jan. 1553, BHA, Lit. 158). The last room off the green hall in Glatz, which served as a lavatory, contained a guaiacum log (Inventory II, fol. 9v).
54 See note 17, and also Otto Brunner, ‘Oesterreichische Adelsbibliotheken des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts’, Anzeiger der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschqften, philosophisch historische Klasse, 86. Jg. (1949), pp. 109-126.
55 Schottenloher, Bücher, I, 270-271. See Haebler, Konrad, Rollen-und Plattenstempel des XVI. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1928-1929)Google Scholar; Ernst Philip Goldschmidt, Gothic and Renaissance Bookbindings (N. Y., 1928).
56 A striking example in Haebler, II, plate LXXXIV, discussed in 1, 290-291. Two other examples in Ottheinrich, pp. 133, 137.
57 Klauser, in Ottheinrich, p. 135. See Haebler, Konrad, Deutsche Bibliophilen des 16. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1932)Google Scholar, with numerous plates.
58 ‘Wooden boards were used for the sides of books throughout Western Europe until after the middle of the fifteenth century, when pasteboard began to be substituted for wood for this purpose’ (Edith Diehl, Bookbinding, its Background and Technique, N. Y., 1946,1, 63). Observation and perusal of book catalogues indicate, however, that wooden boards continued to be used fairly widely in Germany for another century.
59 I have inspected fifteen of the twenty-two volumes at the Bavarian State Library in Munich. Of these, eleven were in half-bound wooden covers, two were between wooden boards covered with leather, and two were in pliable leather bindings. I wish to express my sincere thanks to Oberbibliotheksrat Dr. Ferdinand Gelder of the Bavarian State Library for having made it possible for me to view these books in 1954, as well as for the more recent information he so kindly supplied me with by mail.
60 See note 38.
61 Entries for 5 Jan., 25 Feb., and II Oct. 1554, Accountbook II, fol. 265, SLA, GA.
62 Inventory I, fol. 14, 16v; Inventory II, fol. 9.
63 Inventory I, fol. 13v. See Diehl, 1, 66.
64 Ernst-Sorg correspondence, 23 May, 14 and 23 June 1553, BHA, Lit. 158.
65 Inventory I, fol. 10v, 13.
66 Ernst to Duke George of Silesia, Glatz, 2 Dec. 1558, Archivum Panstwowe, Wroclaw [Breslau], Rep. 23, Grafsch. Glatz 1, 1 bb.
67 Joseph Kogler, ‘Historische Nachrichten von der Grafschaft Glatz’, fol. 90 (manuscript in Archivum Panstwowe, sign, [new] 70). Imperial permit to spend 2,000 florins for building purposes, Inventory I, fol. 3.
68 Hartig, p. 169.
69 Ibid., 12.
