Benedictus Chelidonius

Benedictus Chelidonius OSB (* around 1460 in Nuremberg ; † September 8, 1521 in Vienna ; actually Benedict Schwalbe , nickname Musophilus ) was a German humanist and poet and abbot of the Vienna Schottenstift .

Life

Title page of the Great Passion (1511) with a woodcut by Albrecht Dürer

Chelidonius entered the Egidienkloster in his hometown of Nuremberg in the 1480s . He initially used his family name Schwalbe in Latin as Hirundo , but then exclusively in the Graecized form Chelidonius . In reference to Jakob Locher (called Philomusus ) he called himself Musophilus . He gained importance as a neo-Latin poet through numerous dedicatory poems , accompanying verses and poetic prefaces . Through this his closeness to Conrad Celtis , Willibald Pirckheimer and his sister Caritas , Johannes Cochläus , Johannes Stabius , Joachim Vadian and Johannes Cuspinian becomes tangible. Several letters have survived from Chelidonius to Willibald Pirckheimer, whom he supported, among other things, in his Plutarch translation De his qui tarde a numine corripiuntur , published in 1513 .

His early works include a biography of St. Benedict in 65 individual letters (Elegiacum in vitam S. Benedicti) , which has been handed down in a copy by Hartmann Schedel , as well as verses about the foundation of the Egidienkloster in Nuremberg (Versiculi de fundatione coenobii Aegidiani) and its abbots since 1418 (De abbatibus nonnullis eiusdem coenobii) , which were written for a cycle of stained glass windows in the cloister of the monastery created by Hans von Kulmbach . Chelidonius went public with a Sapphic ode to his teacher Celtis, which was printed in the Melopoiae of Petrus Tritonius in 1507 , and an elegy on the death of Celtis in 1508, with which he recommended himself to Emperor Maximilian I as court poet .

Chelidonius' collaboration with Albrecht Dürer is outstanding . Chelidonius had already published his artistically most ambitious work, the Passio Jesu Christi salvatoris mundi , with 27 woodcuts by Johannes Wechtlin (after 1506, probably 1508), but initiated another publication in 1511 with 37 woodcuts by Dürer (Small Woodcut Passion) . This was followed in the same year by epitomes in Divae Parthenices Mariae historiam with 20 woodcuts (Marienleben) and Passio domini nostri Jesu with 11 woodcuts by Dürer ( Great Passion ) . A few years later he also got the Latin translation of the clavis and tituli written in German by Johannes Stabius for Maximilian I's gate of honor , which was realized by Dürer, among others.

Around 1514, Chelidonius moved, possibly at the instigation of Emperor Maximilian, to the Vienna Schottenstift , from where his literary activity was closely related to the Viennese court. At the Prince's Day in Vienna in 1515, his homage game Voluptatis cum Virtute disceptatio , dedicated to the young Duke Charles of Burgundy , was performed by students of the Schottenstift. This has its roots in the Nuremberg Carnival Game and is also a prototype of the school game . It is a stage adaptation of the Prodikos fable Herakles am Scheideweg and served as a model for Hans Sachs in his own version of the material. Chelidonius wrote an epic report on the Prince's Day itself - complementary to Johannes Cuspinian's official diary - in two books (De conventu Divi Caesaris Maximiliani, Regumque Hungariae Boemiae et Poloniae) , which, however, has only survived in handwriting. Also in 1515 a price poem by Chelidonius on Emperor Maximilian appeared in Cuspinian's edition of Otto von Freising's chronicle . He wrote a poem for the astrological calendar for 1517, written by the Viennese astronomer Georg Tannstetter .

In 1518 Chelidonius became abbot of the Schottenstift by compromise . The following year, his edition of the tract De sacrosancta trinitate by Magister Bandinus, which Johannes Eck had discovered shortly before in a Melker manuscript, appeared under the title Sententiarum theologicarum libri quattuor . In a dedication letter to Maximilian I, Chelidonius summarized the emperor's memoria program immediately before his death. In 1521 Chelidonius died after only three years in office in Vienna.

Works (selection)

Independently printed works

• Passio Jesu Christi salvatoris mundi (after 1506), with woodcuts by Johannes Wechtlin , a second time as Passio Christi with woodcuts by Albrecht Dürer (1511, small woodcut passion ).
• Epitome in Divae Parthenices Mariae historiam (1511), dedicated to Caritas Pirckheimer , with woodcuts by Dürer (Marienleben) .
• Passio domini nostri Jesu (1511), with woodcuts by Dürer ( Great Passion ) .
• Voluptatis cum Virtute disceptatio (1515).
• Bandini viri doctissimi sententiarum theologicarum libri quattuor (1519).

Printed dedicatory poems, accompanying verses and prefaces

• Ode to Conrad Celtis in the Melopoiae of Petrus Tritonius (1507).
• Verses accompanying the Tetrachordum musices by Johannes Cochläus (1511).
• Verses accompanying the Brevis Germaniae descriptio Cochläus' (1512).
• Verses accompanying the Meteorologia Aristotelis Cochläus' (1512).
• Verses accompanying Joachim Vadian's Nuremberg edition of Walahfrid Strabo's Hortulus (1512).
• Collaboration on Willibald Pirckheimer's translation of Plutarchi De his qui tarde a numine corripiuntur (1513).
• In mortem Antonii Cressi Elegia in the Epicedion of Cochläus' (1513).
• Carmen de divo Caesare nostro Maxaemiliano in Johannes Cuspinian's Ottonis Phrisingensis Episcopi, viri clarissimi, Rerum ab origine mundi ad ipsius usque tempora gestarum (1515).
• Latin translation of the title page, the clavis and the tituli of the gate of honor Maximilian I by Johannes Stabius : Porta honoris, Hoc est Descriptio Portae Honoris Quondam Caesareae Maiestati Maximiliano Primo, Anno 1515, Erecta (1517–1518).
• Verses accompanying Georg Tannstetter's Judicium Astronomicum Viennensis anni 1517 (probably 1516).

Handwritten works

• Elegiacum in vitam S. Benedicti ( handed down in a copy by Hartmann Schedel ).
• Versiculi de fundatione coenobii Aegidiani and De abbatibus nonnullis eiusdem coenobii (first printed in Kaspar Brusch's Monasteriorum Germaniae in 1551 ).
• Elegia de fato Conradi Celtis protrucii poete Laureati (1508).
• Elegy about the rumor of the death of Abbot Georg Truchseß (handed down in a copy by Hartmann Schedel).
• Price poem in 18 distiches on Willibald Pirckheimer in a letter to the same (around 1512).
• De conventu Divi Caesaris Maximiliani, Regumque Hungariae Boemiae et Poloniae (1515, epic design of the Wiener Fürstentag in two books).

literature

• Claudia Wiener: Chelidonius (swallow; Hirundo, Musophilus), Benedictus . In: German Humanism 1480–1520. Author Lexicon . Volume 1. Berlin / New York 2008, Col. 427-439.
• Gábor Kiss Farkas: Dramas at the Wiener and Ofener Hof. Benedictus Chelidonius and Bartholomeus Frankfordinus Pannonius (1515–1519) . In: Martina Fuchs u. a. (Ed.): Maria von Ungarn (1505–1558). A renaissance princess . (History in the epoch of Charles V .; 8). Aschendorff, Münster 2007, ISBN 3-402-06577-0 , pp. 293-312
• Manfred Knedlik:  Chelidonius (swallow), Benedictus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 293-296.
• Franz Posset: Benedictus Chelodonius OSB (C. 1460-1521), A Forgotten Monastic Humanist of the Renaissance . In: The American Benedictine Review (ABR). Volume 53, 2002, pp. 426-452.
• Johannes Staub: Chelidonius (swallow), Benedictus . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 2 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1994, Sp. 1032 f .
• Paul's people:  Chelidonius (swallow), Benedictus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 195 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• Entry on Chelidonius, Benedictus in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Chelidonius, Benedictus in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
• Publications by and about Benedictus Chelidonius in VD 16 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CVMA 2013. (PDF)