Franz Birckmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Birckmann , also Birkmann, (* in Hinsbeck near Venlo ; † 1530 in Cologne ) was a German bookseller and - together with his brother Arnold Birckmann  - the founder of a Cologne bookseller family at the time of humanism . He was acquainted with Erasmus from Rotterdam .

life and work

Franz Birckmann learned the book trade in Cologne and is recorded in London in 1504 . In 1511 he married Gertrud, a daughter of Gerhard Amersfoort , a Cologne bookseller. On December 29, 1511 Franz and his younger brother Arnold Birckmann bought the Blankenburg house in Cologne, which was later named after the signet of the bookseller family ( sub pingui gallina = under the fat hen). The street where the family settled is still called Unter Fettenhennen today . The oldest image of the signet has survived for the prayer book Hortulus Animae printed in 1517 by Wolfgang Hopyl in Paris for Franz Birckmann .

Arnold Birckmann was responsible for the regional book trade, while Franz was responsible for international relations. In 1512 the company had trade relations with the Netherlands, France and England.

With their book trade, the Birckmanns opened up sales markets in north-western Europe in particular. Between 1515 and 1526 the family had a permanent branch in Antwerp . Book exports to England were established through this place, where the Birckmann family was one of the dominant booksellers in the time of Renaissance humanism . As early as 1513, Erasmus von Rotterdam named Franz Birckmann the primary book importer for the English market. In 1520 was the first printer of Cambridge , Birckmanns brother Johann Lair , working for the company.

After his return to Cologne, Franz Birckmann founded his own printer's office in 1526 . The last documents on his business relations are recorded for 1530: The Cologne council warned Franz Birckmann on January 4, 1530 not to print or sell any Lutheran books. He will have died soon afterwards, since a trial against his heirs has already been described in June 1530. Franz was inherited by his brother Arnold Birckmann .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oliver Duntze: Publishing book trade and distributing book trade from the invention of the printing press to 1700 . In: Ursula Rautenberg (Ed.): Book Studies in Germany. A manual . De Gruyter Saur, Berlin / New York 2010, pages 201-256. E-book ISBN 978-3-11-021192-4 , print ISBN 978-3-11-020036-2 , doi: 10.1515 / 9783110211924.201
  2. ^ Peter G Bietenholz, Thomas B. Deutscher: Contemporaries of Erasmus: a bibliographical register of the Renaissance and Reformation , Volumes 1–3. University of Toronto Press, Toronto / Buffalo / London 1985, reprint 1995, ISBN 0-8020-2507-2 . GoogleBooks
  3. ^ Friedrich Kapp: History of the German Book Trade Volume 1, Page 299 . Publishers of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Leipzig 1886. Full-text edition on Wikisource in DjVu format
  4. ↑ Representation in a print from 1555 by Arnold Birckmann Erben (source: Center d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance Tours)
  5. ^ Wolfgang Schmitz: The transmission of German texts in Cologne book printing of the 15th and 16th centuries . ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) Philos. Faculty of the University of Cologne, 1990 (habilitation thesis) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / kups.ub.uni-koeln.de
personal data
SURNAME Birckmann, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Birkman; Byrckmannus, Franciscus; Birkmann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookseller and Renaissance humanist
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
PLACE OF BIRTH Hinsbeck
DATE OF DEATH 1530
Place of death Cologne