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Topographical-Historical Method in Sixteenth-century German Scholarship

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Gerald Strauss
Gerald Strauss*
Affiliation:
University of Alabama
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Extract

One of the most pressing tasks facing German humanist scholars at the beginning of the sixteenth century was the exploration and description of their country. The national awakening of which they liked to speak and write, the quickening of energies under Maximilian and Charles which they thought they perceived, could have little political meaning until the German territories became known to the Germans themselves. The courses of rivers, the dimensions of forests, roads and passes and waterways, the size and location of towns and villages were familiar to local residents, but virtually unknown to Germans at large. The mental image which the German humanist had before his mind's eye, a vision of a spacious and flourishing country, well endowed with resources and populous enough to exploit them, no longer the land of vast swamps and impenetrable forests of which the ancients had written—this vision needed to be fixed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 5 , 1958 , pp. 87 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1958

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References

1 On the Germania illustrata see Joachimsen, Paul, Geschichtsauffassung und Geschichtsschreibung in Deutschland unter dem Einfluss des Humanismus (Leipzig and Berlin, 1910), pp. 155–167 Google Scholar.

2 Celtis’ intended scheme for the Germania illustrata may be learned or inferred from the following: His Oratio in Gymnasio in Ingolstadio publice recitata of 1492, text in Rupprich, Hans, ed., Humanismus und Renaissance in den deutschen Städten und an den Universitätcn (Leipzig, 1935), pp. 226–238 Google Scholar; his Germania generalis, published in 1502 as a foretaste of the Germania illustrata, critical edition by Pindter, F., Quattuor Libri Amorum (Leipzig, 1934)Google Scholar; his correspondence with Peutinger over the incorporation of the latter's history of the Roman emperors, Briefwechsel, ed. Hans Rupprich (Munich, 1934), No. 329. Celtis’ Norimberga shows that he was by no means bound to antiquarianism when the subject moved him. See the critical edition by Werminghoff, Albert, Conrad Celtis und sein Buch über Nürnberg (Freiburg, i.B., 1921)Google Scholar. The direction of Celtis’ influence is best perceived in the Germania illustrata of his close disciple, Turmair, Johann, or Aventinus. See its fragments in johann Turmairs genannt Aventinus Sämmtliche Werke, VI (Munich, 1908), 60–164 Google Scholar.

3 See Sebastian Münster's … Ein vermanung Sebastiani Münster an alle liebhaber der künstenn, im hilff zu thun zu warer und reenter beschreybung Teutscher Nation. This is the second part of a pamphlet entitled Erklerung des newen Instruments der Sunnen (Oppenheim, 1528). See the preface to Münster's Cosmographia of 1544, folio a v verso, for his report on the response to this plea. See also Münster's Germaniae atque aliarum regionum … descriptio, printed in Basel in 1530 to elucidate an edition of the so-called Cusanus map of Germany. It may be found in Schardius redivivus, 1, 23 8 ff.

4 Brant, Sebastian, Narrenschiff, ‘Of experience in all lands’, tr. Zeydel, Edwin H. (New-York, 1944, Columbia Univ. Records of Civilization), pp. 220–225 Google Scholar.

5 Ibid.; Brant is quoting Pliny, Natural History, II, 1.

6 Ibid.

7 On Ptolemy editions cf. Schnabel, Paul, Text und Karten des Ptolemäus (Leipzig, 1938)Google Scholar, and on Ptolemy and his influence, the introduction to the edition of the Vatican Codex Urbinas Graecus 82 by Fischer, Joseph, S.J., ‘De CI. Ptolemaei Vita Operibus Geographia Praesertim Eiusque Fatis’, Claudii Ptolemaei Geographiae Codex Urbinas Graecus 82 phototypice depictus, Tomus prodromus (Leipzig, 1932)Google Scholar. Münster's edition is described and its sources discussed by Winsor, Justin, ‘A Bibliography of Ptolemy's Geography’ (Cambridge, Mass., 1884, Library of Harvard University: Bibliographical Contributions No. 18), pp. 18–23 Google Scholar. Winsor lists Ptolemy editions from 1462 to 1867.

8 Ptolemy, Geography, I, I. I use The Geography of Claudius Ptolemy, tr. and ed. Edward Luther Stevenson (New York, 1932).

9 Geography, 1, 2.

10 Strabo, Geography, II, 5, 1. I use the Loeb edition, ed. and tr. Horace Leonard Jones (London, etc., 1927-1949).

11 Ibid., II, 5, 1.

12 Ibid., II, 5, 1.

13 Cochlaeus, Johann, Cosmographia Pomponii Melae…: parvo quodam Compendio joannis Coclei Norici adaucta, quo geographiae principia getteraliter comprehenduntur… (Nuremberg, 1512), Fir-Givr Google Scholar.

14 Rauw, Johann, Cosmographia… (Frankfurt, 1597)Google Scholar, Part 1.

15 Based entirely on Ptolemy's first book (Cosmographia, 1544, a vr).

16 Epitome trium terrae partium, Asiae, Africae et Europae compendiariam locorum descriptionem continent… (Zurich, 1534).

17 Herodotus was the first to assume that exact geographical knowledge of a country is vital to an understanding of its history. But though he had been translated by Valla in 1475, Herodotus exercised little or no influence on the opinions of German humanists. He is rarely quoted.

18 The 1472 Venice edition sees him ‘non minus historicus quam Geographus atque philosophus’ (Strabonis Geographia, latine ex interpretatione Guarini Veronensis et Gregorii Typhernatis…, Venice, 1472, preface).

19 On his influence generally cf. Voigt, Georg, Wiederbelebung, 3rd ed. (Berlin, 1893), 11, 190 Google Scholar ff. Münster relies on him throughout: see the preface to the Cosmographia (1544), a iiv, and countless references to the ‘hoch erfaren man Strabo’ (ibid., 65r) in the text. For a sweeping statement of faith in Strabo see the prefatory letter by Wolfgang Wissenburg of Basel to a volume of geographical treatises put out by Petri, Heinrich, Dominici Marii Nigri… Geographiae commentariorum libri XI (Basel, 1557), iir Google Scholar.

20 Berger, Hugo, Die geographischen Fragmente des Hipparch (Leipzig, 1869), p. 20 Google Scholar.

21 Geography, I, I, 1.

22 Letter to Beatus RJienanus, December 1525 (Sämmtliche Werke I, Munich, 1881, 644-645): ‘Proprium historiae est maximarum rerum cognitio, liimirum agnoscere atque scire regionum gentiumque mores, situm, qualitatem telluris, religiones, instituta, leges, novos veteresque colonos, imperia, regna. Haec autem absque cosmographiae mathematicaeque diligenti studio ac peregrinatione usque ad fastidium, etiam sine ope principum ac sumptibus nee disci nee inquiri possunt….

23 Cf. Gotthelf, Friedrich, Das deutsche Altertum in den Anschauungen des sechzehnten und siebzehnten Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 1900)Google Scholar.

24 Vadian to Bullinger, May 1545, Vadianische Briefsammlung, ed. Emil Arbenz, VI, No. 1395.

25 ‘Rudimentaria in Gaeographiam Catechesis’, Pomponii Melae Hispani, Libri dc situ orbis trcs … (Vienna, 1518), c 3V.

26 Ptolemy, Geography, 1, 2.

27 Libri odarum quatuor… (Strassburg, 1513), III, 5; Konrad Celtis: Fünf Bücher Epigramme, ed. Karl Hartfelder (Berlin, 1881), IV, 12.

28 Civitates orbis terrarum… (Cologne, 1572-1618), III, Av.

29 Dürer, Albrecht, Tagebuch der Reise in die Niederlande, ed. Bergemann, Fritz (Leipzig, 1933)Google Scholar; Aventinus, ‘Hauskalender’, Sammtliche Werkei, 655-689; Stumpf, Johann, ‘Reisebericht’, ed. Escher, Hermann, Quellen zur schweizer Geschichte VI (1884)Google Scholar.

30 Eydgnoschaft, 1586 edition, 605v. Sebastian Münster also crossed the Valais in order to expand the section on the canton for the third edition of his Cosmographia (1550), p. 330.

31 Brant, Sebastian, Beschreybung etlicher gelegenheyt Teutsches lands, an wasser, berg, stetten und grentzen mit anzeygung der meilen und strassen von statt zu statt, in Kaspar Hedio's Ein auserlessne Chronik… (Strassburg, 1549)Google Scholar.

32 ‘Ehren Gedechtnus des… von Watt, Herrn Joachim’, 16-17; appended to Beschreibung der eidgenössischen Stadt St. Gallen (St. Gall, 1683)Google Scholar. The climb is a reference to the scaling of Mons Fractis.

33 Bacon, Francis, Works, ed. Spedding et al. (Boston, n.d.), XII, 137–140 Google Scholar.

34 Cosmographia (1544), a vr.

35 Weltbuch; Spiegel und bildtniss des gantzen Erdtbodens… (Tübingen, 1534), 143v.

36 This was never published. Cf. König, Erich, Peutingerstudien (Freiburg i.B., 1914), pp. 43–60 Google Scholar, for a description of the manuscript.

37 Originum ac Germanicarum antiquitatum libri, Leges videlicet, Salicae, Allemannorum, Saxonum, Angliorum, Thuringorum, Burgundionum, Francorum, Ripuaria [sic], Boioariorum, Vuestphalorum, Vuerinorum, Frisionum, Langobardorum, Theutonum (Basel, 1557).

38 Described in Wegele, Franz X. von, Geschkhte der deutschen Historiographie (Munich and Leipzig, 1885), pp. 216–217 Google Scholar.

39 Prosopographiae heroum atque illustrium virorum totius Germaniae libri III (Basel, 1565-1566). A German translation was published in 1567-1570, also in Basel.

40 Cosmographia (1544), pp. 72-74.

41 Ibid., pp. 225-226.

42 Ibid., p. 226.

43 Many of these are published by Oefele, Andreas Felix in his Rerum Boicarum scriptores (Augsburg, 1763), II, 557–664 Google Scholar.

44 Geography, 1, 1; Stevenson translation

45 Petri Apiani Cosmographia… (first ed. 1524; I use ed. Antwerp, 1540), pp. iii-iv.

46 Frisius, Gemma (Rainer Gemma), De principiis astronomiae et cosmographiae … (Antwerp, 1530)Google Scholar.

47 Joachim Rheticus, Chorographia, tewsch, durch Georgium Joachimum Rheticum… zusamengebracht und an den Tag geben, MDXLI. See the edition of the manuscript by Hipler, Franz, ‘Die Chorographie des Joachim Rheticus’, Zeitschr. f. Math. u. Phys., Hist.-lit. Abt., XXI (1876), 125–150 Google Scholar.

48 ‘Ioachimi Vadiani Helvetii Rudimentaria in Gaeographiam Catechesis…', Pomponii Melae Hispani, Libri de situ orbis tres, adiectis Ioachimi Vadiani Helvetii in eosdem scholiis: Addita quoque in Gaeographiam Catechesi…. (Vienna, 1518), a 3v ff.

49 Gallois, Lucien, Les géographes allemands de la Renaissance (Paris, 1890), p. 160 Google Scholar.

50 Bonaventura Vulcanius writes to Abraham Ortelius, the Belgian cartographer, in 1598, taking issue with the title ‘Cosmographia’ of a truly geographical work by Paulus Merula. He continues: ‘κóμoυ enim appellatione et caelum et terra comprehenditur. Et video doctos viros nonnullos etiam in huius vocis usurpatione labi; qui te Cosmographum Regium vocant; cum sis meo quidem judicio Geographus.’ (Abrahami Ortelius … Epistulac, ed. Jan Hendrik Hessels, Cambridge, 1887, p. 743.)

51 Cosmographia (1544), preface, a iiir.

52 ‘… gelegenheit und form des gantzen Erdtreichs und seiner Stück, dass ist, besonderer Landtschafften … ‘ (Cosmographia, 1598, a vr).

53 Ibid. There was nothing exclusively German about this cosmographical form as described by Miinster. Cf. Thevet, André, La Cosmographie universelle (Paris, 1575) 1Google Scholar, a vr: ‘Vous trouverez qu'en ce mien oeuvre ie me suis essaié de faire comme Solin en son livre nommé Polyhistor, ou non seulement il fait mention des pais et villes: mais aussi des animaux, maniere de vivre des habitans, et plusieurs autres choses singulieres; a fin que l'oeuvre composé de diverses matieres, puisse mieux recreer l'entendement humain, qui est semblable aux terres, qui demandent diversite, et mutation de semences.’

54 Preface to the reader by Rudolph, Johann Stumpf in the second edition of the Eydgnoschaft (Zurich, 1586), iiiiv Google Scholar.

55 Cosmographia… (Frankfurt, 1597), iiiir.

56 Civitates III, Av-Br. Bodin, Jean, in the Methodus ad facilem historiarium cognitionem (Paris, 1572), chap. 2, pp. 26–30 Google Scholar, arrives at the same definition, but goes on to distinguish between chorographia, topographia, andgromatica (land surveying).

56 Sebastian Franck, Weltbuch…, 3r.

58 Johann Rauw, Cosmographia…, iiiiv.

59 Johann Stumpf, Eydgnoschaft (1586), iiiiv