Aegidius Tschudi

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Aegidius Tschudi.
Excerpt from Tschudi's Swiss map
Swiss map 1538 (north is below)
Title page of the first printed historical and regional presentation of the ancient, true Alpic rhetoric

Aegidius Tschudi (born February 5, 1505 in Glarus ; † February 28, 1572 at his castle Gräpplang near Flums ) was the first Swiss historian and also a politician. A bust of the historian, also known as Gilg Tschudi , is placed in the Walhalla built by King Ludwig I of Bavaria .

Life

Tschudi came from a long-established Landammann family and grew up during the eventful times of the Reformation . The uncle of Abbot Dominikus Tschudi attended the Latin school established by Ulrich Zwingli in Glarus . In Basel (1516) Glarean was its preceptor .

Tschudi knew how to combine his later respective offices with the inspection of old certificates and documents on site and to use the findings for scholarly work. He stood up as a lawyer for the Catholic side.

Real estate, wages for the French and pensions allowed him to live a life without material worries. Tschudi, also known as the Herodotus of Switzerland , spent the last seven years of his life in his native Glarus: There he wrote the Gallia comata and the Chronicon Helveticum on paper.

Political activity

The Landsgemeinde transferred Tschudi the Landvogtei in Sargans (1530 to 1532) and after an intermezzo as Obervogt in Rorschach appointed by the Abbey of St. Gallen , the common rule of Baden (1533 to 1535 and 1549 to 1551) in the Landvogteischloss Baden . Between the two terms of office in Baden, he worked scientifically. He collected coins and copied Roman inscriptions wherever he found them. From 1527 he set up a private library and, supported by his colleague Franciscus Cervinus , repeatedly went on archive and library trips through the Confederation, most recently in central Switzerland again in 1569. He also used his official activities for the systematic search for historical source material (documents, chronicles, necrologists, land records, inscriptions, coins). He maintained the scientific exchange in correspondence with Niklaus Briefer and Beatus Rhenanus on the Upper Rhine, later with Zacharias Bletz in Lucerne and Johannes Stumpf , Heinrich Bullinger and Josias Simler in Zurich. In doing so, he explicitly ignored the denominational contrast.

In the second half of the century, the scientist who had previously understood questions of faith developed into a fanatical counter-reformer. As an arbitrator in the Locarn trade , he decided in favor of the Catholics. His persistent efforts to motivate the old-believing Central Swiss to military occupation of the mostly Reformed Glarnerland prompted his compatriots to call the religious dispute over Glarus "Tschudikrieg" (1560–1564). From 1558 Tschudi was Landammann, Tschudi was leader of the Catholic Glarus, but was replaced in 1560 by the more moderate Catholic Gabriel Hässi .

Tschudi's next stop was Rapperswil , from where he followed the conclusion of the Council of Trento .

Works

His main work is the Swiss chronicle " Chronicon Helveticum ", which was written between 1534 and 1536 and covers the history of the country from 1001 to 1470. It exists in a first existing original for the historical period from 1200 to 1470 and the later fair copy after the year 1000. When Tschudi's death, the year 1370 was reached in this final version. From the “Chronicon Helveticum” (two volumes, only published 1734–1736 by Johann Rudolf Iselin in Basel), the legend of Wilhelm Tell , which Tschudi had adopted along with other texts from the White Book of Sarnen , gained further circulation . Friedrich von Schiller later used this collection of sources, among other things, for his drama of the same name. Tschudi's historical work is comparable to the “Bavarian Chronicle” by Johannes Aventinus .

His work "Gallia comata", a description of early Helvetic history up to the year 1000, has a similar meaning. Tschudi completed it in 1572, the year of his death; it was published in 1758 by Johann Jacob Gallati .

The Urallt warhrachtig Alpisch Rhetia (1538), the only book published during his lifetime, contains the first exact Swiss map and a German text. This gave cartography impetus and impetus in his country. The historian expressed himself theologically in his large work Vom Fegfür ( Vom Purgatory ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Aegidius Tschudi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Sieber: Aegidius Tschudi. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
personal data
SURNAME Tschudi, Aegidius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tschudi, Gilg; Tschudi, G .; Tschudi, Egidius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss historian and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1505
PLACE OF BIRTH Glarus
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1572
Place of death Glarus