Art book

This article deals with the Swiss collection of writings; for the meaning of a work, e.g. B. illustrated book, with artistic claim, see Kunstbuchverlag ; on the art book first published in 1571 see Gabriele Falloppio

Title page of the art book

The art book is the oldest collection of writings from the radical Reformation Anabaptist movement . The collection was put together around 1560/1561 by the painter Jörg Propst Rothenfelder .

content

The art book consists of about 740 pages and contains a collection of 42 letters and documents from the years 1527 to 1555. Among them are letters to communities as well as community ordinances and confessions. Most of the writings are from the pen of Pilgram Marpeck (with 15 letters and a treatise). Also represented with several writings are Leopold Scharnschlager (with three letters and three tracts), Leonhard Schiemer (with two letters and two tracts), Jörg Propst Rothenfelder himself (with two letters and one tract) and Sigmund Bosch (with two letters). A letter from Hans Hut , Helena von Freyberg , Christian Entfelder and Hans Schlaffer , among others , has been included in the art book. There are also two anonymous letters and a letter from the Anabaptists in Moravia to Marpeck. Many of the letter writers mentioned were leading representatives of the Marpeck circle named after Pilgram Marpeck . The art book thus provides information about the connections between the Marpeck Circle and the development of the Anabaptist movement in southern Germany and Switzerland in the first half of the 16th century as a whole.

history

The art book was probably bound in parchment in the workshop of the Zurich bookbinder Gregor Mangolt . It was not until 1955 that the two church historians JF Gerhard Goeters and Heinold Fast rediscovered it by chance in the Bern Burger Library in Switzerland . Most of the documents included in the art book were previously unknown. The collection has since been published in the series Sources on the History of the Anabaptists with extensive commentaries and a text-critical apparatus.

literature

• Heinold Fast: From the office of the “reader” to the compiler of the so-called art book. In the footsteps of Jörg Malers , in: Outsiders between the Middle Ages and the Modern Era. Festschrift for Hans-Jürgen Goertz on the occasion of his 60th birthday (Eds. Norbert Fischer and Marion Kobelt-Groch ), Volume 61 in the series Studies in Medieval and Reformation Thought , Leiden / New York / Cologne 1997, pp. 187–217
• Heinold Fast / Martin Rothkegel (arrangement): Letters and writings of Upper German Anabaptists 1527–1555. The art book by Jörg Propst Rothenfelder called painter (Burgerbibliothek Bern, Cod. 464) , Volume XVII in the series Sources on the history of the Anabaptists , Gütersloh 2007
• John D. Rempel (Ed.): Jörg Maler's art book. Writings of the Pilgram Marpeck Circle , Volume 12 in the Classics of the Radical Reformation series , Kitchener (Ontario) 2010

Web links

• Harold S. Bender: Art Book, Das . In: Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinold Fast / Martin Rothkegel (arr.): Letters and writings of Upper German Anabaptists 1527–1555. The art book by Jörg Propst Rothenfelder called painter (Burgerbibliothek Bern, Cod. 464) , Volume XVII in the series Sources on the history of the Anabaptists , Gütersloh 2007