Fortunatus

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Title page of the first Augsburg edition from 1509

The Fortunatus is next to " Till Eulenspiegel ", " Reineke Fuchs " and the " Hug Schapler " by Elisabeth von Nassau-Saarbrücken one of the most important prose novels / folk books . It was the first German-language prose novel to be published without a template in Augsburg in 1509 .

Authorship

The author, presumably based in Augsburg, is unknown, the colophon of the Augsburg first edition from 1509 only names one Johann Heybler as the client for the print:

Zů trucking prescribed
by Johannßen Heybler Appotegker
in the imperial town of Augspurg in the large shooting
the lessen jartzal christi in the new jar.

action

The family of Fortunatus

It tells the story of Fortunatus and his family, mentioning three generations. In the first section we get to know Fortunatus in Cyprus, how he talks to his parents, Theodorus and Graciana and how his father tells him that he has brought through the family fortune. For Fortunatus this is the reason to leave Cyprus so as not to be a burden on his parents. Together with the Count of Flanders, he leaves the island and embarks on a world tour. He experiences many adventures and not only gets into trouble once.

Fortunatus act

Fortunatus receives the lucky bag from the junkfraw des Glücks (lucky fairy )

Important in the first part of the book, which is entirely determined by the Fortunatus plot, is the bestowal of the lucky bag by Fortuna, the mistress of happiness, who grants him and the generation of his children constant wealth. The purse has magical power: whenever he reaches into the lucky bag, he finds money in local currency. With this lucky bag he can now financially secure further and bigger adventures and travel the world with his entourage. The wallet is the basis of his social advancement. In Cyprus he builds a palace for his family and can marry Cassandra, the daughter of a count, which means the ascent for the middle-class family. With her he has two sons, the calm and fearful Ampedo and the daring , risk- taking Andolosia .

Andolosia plot

The second part of the book is determined by the Andolosia plot and takes place mainly in Cyprus, Spain and London. This part of the book tells the decline and decline of the family of Fortunatus, the story ends with the physical extinction of the family when Andolosia is killed by robbers and Ampedo dies in grief.

Social context

Through the emergence of cities with traders and merchants, the bourgeoisie gained more and more wealth and thus also power. At the same time, a money economy developed (double-entry bookkeeping, banking, etc.). The story of the rise of the bourgeois figure Fortunatus thus reflects the transition from the stratification (classification into a social class by birth, i.e. clergy, nobility or peasantry) to a functionally differentiated society (elected politics, free economy, modern science, modern legal system, etc. ).

Material history

The Fortunatus material, a story in which the Cyprus-born hero receives a never-ending purse from the goddess of luck and travels to Europe, was taken up by numerous later authors, including Hans Sachs , Thomas Dekker , Ludwig Tieck , Ludwig Uhland , Adelbert by Chamisso and Friedrich Hebbel .

expenditure

Secondary literature

  • Walter Raitz: Fortunatus. Wilhelm Fink, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-7705-2096-3 .
  • Anna Mühlherr: "Melusine" and "Fortunatus". Mysterious and denied meaning. Tubingen 1993.
  • Sebastian Speth: Dimensions of narrative meaning in the early New High German prose novel. Textual historical interpretation of 'Fortunatus' and 'Herzog Ernst'. Berlin 2017.
  • Gudrun Bamberger: Poetology in the prose novel. Fortunatus - Wickram - book of fists . Wuerzburg 2018.

Web links

Wikiversity: Fortunatus (reading course)  - course materials
Commons : Fortunatus  - collection of images, videos and audio files