Dürer's personal testimonies
Between 1502 and 1524 Albrecht Dürer wrote various written testimonials about his life and his family.
context
From 1360 until the Reformation period, there was a strikingly large number of personal testimonies in Nuremberg . Dürer's so-called memorial book was first published in 1931 by Marianne Beyer-Fröhlich in the context of comparable documents.
The children's directory of Albrecht Dürer the Elder , which is contained in the family chronicle as a copy, testifies that such records were not only kept in the Nuremberg upper class. Like the elder Dürer's handwritten family messages, numerous similar documents from the Nuremberg artisans' class are likely to have been lost, since the creation of family archives - the cornerstones of which were mostly family books - only occurs in upper-class families at this time.
The commemorative book fragment
From Albrecht Dürer's manuscript, later referred to as the memorial book , only a single folio sheet has survived as a fragment . The sheet is written on both sides and bears the number 59, which, according to Hans Rupprich, was not made by Dürer himself, but was certainly added in the 16th century. However, the minuscule "g" placed above the text, which up to now could not be interpreted, is probably from Dürer. The original size of Dürer's memorial book cannot be estimated, but Albrecht Dürer calls it “a different book” in his family chronicle. Moreover, it is impossible to tell when Dürer started his notes. Dürer used the front of the sheet to portray the death of his father in 1502, while on the back the experience of a rain of the cross (1503), the sight of a comet (undated), information about possessions and debts (1506/07) and the Death of his mother (1514).
The memorial book contains, as far as this can be determined on the basis of the fragment, significant events and observations from his life, which he has not arranged chronologically, but partially illustrated, as is the case with the rain of the cross. It can be assumed that the memorial book was torn apart by a later hand due to the sketches it contained.
The so-called family chronicle
The original text of Albrecht Dürer's family chronicle has been lost, but has survived in four copies from the 17th century. According to Hans Rupprich, these must all come from an older copy, since all copies share the misreading of the name Jeronimus Holper (Dürer's grandfather) as "Jeronimus Haller". The family chronicle begins with the sentences “A ° 1524. After Christmas in Nürmberg. I, Albrecht Dürer the younger, have borrowed from my father's writings from where he was, how he came and stayed and ended happily. Have mercy on him and us. Amen." He reports the following about the origins of his father: «Albrecht Dürer the parent was born of his gender in the kingdom to starve , not from a small place called Jula, eight miles away below Wardein, from a small village to the north of Darbej the name of Eytas, and his race were fed by the ox and the horse. But my father's father was called Anthoni Dürrer , he knows that little places that are thought of up into a goltschmit and learned the craft from him. "
In his family chronicle, Dürer reports on the ancestors of both parents and in particular on his father's establishment in Nuremberg. He adds the father's list of children, describes the nature of his father to the reader and tells of his education, his marriage and the passing of his parents and in-laws. While he drew his wife Agnes several times, he hardly lost any words about her in the family records that have survived. The brothers Endres and Hans , as well as their cousin Niklas who lives in Cologne, are only mentioned briefly. Albrecht Dürer's information on his training is incomplete. As Dürer says in the introductory words, the life of his father - his parents in the broader sense - should be at the center of the family chronicle: «[...] from where he [father] was, how he came and stayed and ended happily. Have mercy on him and us. Amen." He only writes about his career in connection with his father. This shows that both the fragment of the memorial book and its family chronicle are primarily intended to serve family memoria . In family books and personal testimonies, relatives and close caregivers are mentioned almost exclusively in relation to decisive events such as births, marriages and death (in the case of Dürer in particular) and, if necessary, characterized. The family news gives us information about his religious ideas, which he reflects in both texts to his parents.
literature
- Marianne Beyer-Fröhlich (Hrsg.): German testimonials. Leipzig 1931 ff.
- Diefenbacher, Michael and Endres, Rudolf (Hrsg.): Stadtlexikon Nürnberg. Nuremberg 2000. online
- Dürer Holbein Grünewald. Master drawings of the German Renaissance from Berlin and Basel. Exhibition catalog, ed. by the Basel Public Art Collection and the Prussian Cultural Heritage, Ostfildern-Ruit 1997.
- Rudolf Endres: Albrecht Dürer's Nuremberg environment. In: Michael Mende, with contributions by Rudolf Endres ea: Albrecht Dürer - an artist in his city. Pp. 31-43.
- Gerhard Hirschmann: Albrecht Dürer's descent and family circle. In: Albrecht Dürer's Environment. Festschrift for Albrecht Dürer's 500th birthday on May 21, 1971. Nürnberger Forschungen 15, Nürnberg 1971, pp. 35–55.
- Hanns Hubert Hofmann: Albrecht Dürer's political and social environment. In: Albrecht Dürer's Environment. Festschrift for the 500th birthday of Albrecht Dürer on May 21, 1971. Nürnberger Forschungen 15, Nürnberg 1971, pp. 1–8.
- Hans Rupprich: Dürer's written estate. Vol. 1, ed. by Hans Rupprich, Berlin 1956.
- Heike Sahm: Dürer's smaller texts. Conventions as scope for individuality. Tübingen 2002.