Hieronymus Münzer

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Hartmann Schedel began copying Münzer's travel report

Hieronymus Münzer (also: Müntzer, Latinized Monetarius ) (* 1437 or 1447 in Feldkirch ; † August 27, 1508 in Nuremberg ) was a humanist , doctor and geographer in Nuremberg. He was probably co-author of the Schedel world chronicle .

Life

His parents were Heinrich and Elisabeth Münzer. Hieronymus Münzer studied at the University of Leipzig from 1464 , where he was awarded a Baccalaureus in 1466 and a Magister artium in 1470 . In addition, he also studied medicine until 1474 ; After brief teaching at the Latin school in Feldkirch in 1476, he continued his studies in Pavia , where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1477. In the same year he moved to Nuremberg, where in 1478 he was given permission to work as a doctor. In 1480 he acquired the citizenship of the imperial city, in which he worked as a non-civil servant city doctor until his death.

In 1480 he took Dorothea Kieffhaber († 1505) from an advisable gender as his wife. The daughter Dorothea, who emerged from this marriage, married Dr. Hieronymus Holzschuher .

Münzer died on August 27, 1508 in Nuremberg and was buried in the church of St. Sebald . He left an enormous fortune, not least of all from his partnership in the trading business of his brother Ludwig, who died in 1518 (owner of Gwiggen Castle in 1507 ). Together with his brother he donated the famous monstrance for the parish church in Feldkirch .

Münzer's map of Germany from Schedel's world chronicle of 1493

Münzer wrote a short autobiographical note in an account book.

Act

Münzer was an important figure in the Nuremberg humanist circle and dealt intensively with cosmography and astronomy . He was friends with Hartmann Schedel (1440–1514) and contributed geographical parts to his famous world chronicle from 1493, including the first printed map of Germany that appeared on both sides of the chronicle.

Close contacts to the Nuremberg merchant Martin Behaim , on whose globe he probably worked, prompted Münzer to request the King of Portugal in a famous letter dated July 14, 1493 to look for a sea ​​route to India across the Atlantic. For the westward voyage to the land of Kathay, it says, the king could have Martin Behaim sent by King Maximilian as his companion.

In 1483 Münzer fled the plague to Italy , bought numerous books in Rome , Naples and Milan and returned in 1484. But he traveled to the Netherlands that same year. In 1494/95 he undertook a long journey that took him around 7,000 kilometers from Nuremberg through Switzerland, France (Marseille, Arles, Perpignan) to Spain. There he was one of the first Christian travelers to visit Granada , which had only been conquered a few years earlier (1492) by the Catholic kings Ferdinand and Isabella . Via Málaga and Seville he moved in his small tour group (himself, two Nuremberg merchants and one Augsburg merchant's son) mostly on horseback to Portugal, where he dined with the king in Évora and learned the latest news of successful voyages of discovery. The famous pilgrimage destination Santiago de Compostela could not be missing. Further stations: The famous Guadalupe Monastery , Madrid, where he met the royal couple, Saragossa, Toulouse, Poitiers, Tours, Paris, to which he devoted several days, Abbeville, Bruges, Ghent, Cologne, Mainz (a detour led him to the Reichstag Worms 1495 ), Frankfurt, Würzburg.

Münzer's exciting report on this trip is written in Latin. It is entitled: Itinerarium siue peregrinatio excellentissimi viri artium ac vtriusque medicine doctoris Hieronimi Monetarii de Feltkirchen ciuis Nurembergensis . The title makes it clear that the educated humanist also - but not only - went on a pilgrimage. Individual parts of the work are available in translations of the national language that is spoken today in the area visited by Münzer. An annotated new edition of the Latin text as well as a German translation of the entire travelogue are to be produced as part of a project at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg .

Works

There is only one copy of the Latin travelogue and the appendix on the discovery of Africa: Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 431, Bl. 96r-274v ( digitized version ), copy by Hartmann Schedel. A second manuscript that existed in the 19th century has been lost.

  • Itinerarium siue peregrinatio excellentissimi viri artium ac vtriusque medicine doctoris Hieronimi Monetarii de Feltkirchen ciuis Nurembergensis (Reise 1494/95).
    • Partial edition by Ludwig Pfandl : Itinerarium hispanicum Hieronymi monetarii (1494–1495) . In: Revue Hispanique 48 (1920), pp. 1-179 ( Internet Archive ).
  • De inventione Africae maritimae et occidentalis videlicet Geneae per Infantem Heinricum Portugalliae .
    • Edited by v. Friedrich Kunstmann: Hieronymus Münzer's report on the discovery of the Guinea. With introductory explanations. In: Treatises of the historical class of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Vol. 7, Munich 1855, pp. 291-362 ( UB Eichstätt ).

In the manuscript of the Staatliche Bibliothek Ansbach Ms. lat. 39, p. 234r, a short text by Münzer is preserved, which in it dealt with superstitious magical practices ( Quaestio de incantationibus ).

Library

Münzer's ownership note

Münzer donated some of his books to the St. Nikolaus parish library in his hometown of Feldkirch. In 1510, after an entry in the Feldkirch council book, the preacher Hans Winterthur received 76 individually listed titles on loan. After the Jesuit Joseph Fischer found an extensive collection of books from the former Nikolaus library in the remote curate of Marul in the Große Walsertal, it was bought by the city of Feldkirch in 1930. Today there are 25 titles from Münzer's library in the city library. The greater part remained in Nuremberg and is said to have comprised around 500 volumes around 1600. It had passed to Münzer's son-in-law, Hieronymus Holzschuher. The books finally ended up in the Nikolstein Palace Library of the Princes of Dietrichstein (today Mikulov ). Münzer's books were auctioned off in the 1930s. Incunabula from the Münzer library can be found in a number of collections, including the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart and the Moravian State Library .

Münzer often provided his books with ownership notes and handwritten additions. In a Herodotus edition (printed Venice 1474), which is now in the Zwickau Council School Library , he noted that he had bought it in Venice on October 20, 1479 . Anton Koberger gave him a print from 1481 (today in the National Library in Budapest) in 1482 .

The antiquarian Ernst Philip Goldschmidt, who discovered the Nikolsburg holdings and evaluated them in a scientific monograph , apparently traded in Münzer volumes even before the Nikolsburg library was closed in 1933.

Münzer was not only interested in his own books, but also in the libraries in the places he visited on his travels.

literature

  • Karl Heinz Burmeister: The brothers Hieronymus and Ludwig Münzer . In: Montfort , 53rd year 2011, issue 1, pp. 11–28 ( ANNO )
  • Albrecht Classen: The Iberian Peninsula from the perspective of a humanistic Nuremberg scholar. Hieronymus Münzer, Itinerarium Hispanicum (1494–1495) . In: Mitteilungen des Institut für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 111 (2003), pp. 317–340.
  • Joseph Fischer: Dr. Hieronymus Münzer and the Feldkirch St. Nikolaus Library . In: Archive for History and Regional Studies of Vorarlbergs 12 (1916), pp. 25–38 ( digishelf ).
  • Joseph Fischer: The Nuremberg doctor Dr. Hieronymus Münzer († 1508) from Feldkirch as a person and scholar . In: Voices of the Time 96 (1919), pp. 148-168 ( Internet Archive ).
  • Ernst Philip Goldschmidt: Hieronymus Münzer and his library . London 1938.
  • The same: Hieronymus Muenzer and Other Fifteenth Century Bibliophiles . In: Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine 14 (1938), pp. 491-508 ( Europe PMC ).
  • Richard Hennig : Terrae Incognitae . Vol. 4, Leiden, 2nd ed. 1956, pp. 238-239 (Münzer's letter of July 14, 1493 to King John II of Portugal).
  • Klaus Herbers : The "whole" Hispania. Hieronymus Münzer from Nuremberg, his goals and perception on the Iberian Peninsula (1494–1495) . In: Rainer Babel, Werner Paravicini (Ed.): Grand Tour. Noble travel and European culture from the 14th to the 18th century . Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2005, ISBN 3-7995-7454-9 , pp. 293-308 ( perspectivia.net )
  • Klaus Herbers, Robert Plötz: They moved to Santiago. Reports of pilgrimages to the "end of the world" . Dtv, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-423-04718-6
  • Klaus Herbers, Robert Plötz (ed.): The rhinestones to Sankt Jakob. The oldest pilgrim guide to Compostela by Hermann Künig von Vach . Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-0132-0
  • René Hurtienne: A scholar and his text. On the complete edition of Hieronymus Münzer's travelogue, 1494/95 (Clm 431) . In: Helmut Neuhaus: Erlanger Editions. Basic research through source editions: reports and studies . Palm & Enke, Erlangen and Jena 2009, pp. 255–272. (= Erlangen studies on history 8).
  • Gundolf Keil , Marianne Wlodarczyk: Münzer, Hieronymus. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Vol. 6 (1987), Col. 800-804.
  • Ulrich Knefelkamp:  Münzer, Hieronymus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , pp. 557 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Otto Lamprecht: Dr. Münzer and his library . In: Montfort 2 (1947), pp. 161-166 ( ANNO ).
  • Richard Stauber: The Schedelsche Library . Freiburg i. Br. 1908 ( Internet Archive ). See register p. 276.
  • Wolfgang Wegner: Münzer, Hieronymus. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1015.

Web links

Commons : Hieronymus Münzer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Biographical from Burmeister 2001.
  2. ↑ images: https://pid.volare.vorarlberg.at/o:63519 .
  3. ↑ Manuscript 20805 of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, digitized . The family history notes are printed in the Anzeiger für Kunde der Deutschen Vorzeit 1879 doi : 10.11588 / avgnm.1879.0.24285 .
  4. ^ Klaus Arnold: Images and Texts. City description and city praise from Hartmann Schedel. In: Acta Conventus Neo-Latini Hafniensis. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Neo-Latin Studies . Binghamton, New York 1994 (Medieval Texts and Studies, Vol. 120), pp. 121-132, here p. 130 ( MGH ).
  5. ↑ Whether there was an incunabulum print is doubtful: https : // Gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/docs/M25579.htm with reference to Konrad Haebler No. 450 ( BC ) and Jorge Peixoto in the Gutenberg yearbook 1962, p. 170. Fragment of Latin version in Stauber 1908, p. 251. A Portuguese translation appeared at the end of a print, of which in 1914, accompanied by a foreword by Joaquim Bensaúde, a facsimile edition based on the copy in the Munich State Library was published ( Internet Archive ). The USTC states : Place of printing: Lisbon , printer: Hermão de Campos, dating: 1516–1518. Edition: Vignaud 1911 . See http://www.geschichtsquellen.de/repOpus_03468.html . German translation of Reinhardstöttner by Hermann Grauert in the Historisches Jahrbuch 1908 ( Internet Archive ). Last English translation in the Sacroboscoblog . A non-identical Portuguese print from around the same time - in the Revista da Universidade de Coimbra 1916/17, p. 128 ( Uni Coimbra ) is mentioned as a date of 1519 - in the Evora city ​​library there is the print by Henry Harrisse: The Discovery of North America . London 1892, pp. 393-395 ( Internet Archive ). An earlier print based on this model in the Archivo dos Açores 1878 .
  6. ↑ Manuscript catalog by Karl Heinz Keller 1994.
  7. ↑ References to the Münzer library from Renate Jürgensen: Bibliotheca Norica . Part 1, Wiesbaden 2002, p. 35f. Note 54.
  8. ↑ Reprint: http://www.digishelf.de/objekt/bsz407654178_1916_001/35/ . Image of the first page: Commons .
  9. ↑ http://fabian.sub.uni-goettingen.de/fabian?Stadtbibliothek_(Feldkirch) .
  10. ↑ Jürgensen (as above).
  11. ↑ http://fabian.sub.uni-goettingen.de/fabian?Mikulov . See also the article by Josef Matzura 1924 .
  12. ↑ Digitized catalog: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5580 .
  13. ^ Paul Needham: IPI ; Owners of Incunabula .
  14. ^ Armin Renner et al .: The incunabula of the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart . Wiesbaden 2018 lists five volumes: 1396 + 6786, 1853 + 1906, 2159, 2469 + 5861, 2604. See also INKA .
  15. ↑ http://fabian.sub.uni-goettingen.de/fabian?Maehrische_Landesbibliothek-Unibibliothek(Bruenn) . See also this query . The digitized version of Dokoupil's 1970 incunabula catalog on Academia.edu is incomplete, but some volumes can be found by searching for Monetar.
  16. ↑ Holger Nickel: The incunabula of the Zwickau council school library. Wiesbaden 2017, p. 101 No. H-13.
  17. ↑ http://www.oszk.hu/sites/default/files/languages/ritka_%20kotesek.pdf .
  18. ↑ https://library.leeds.ac.uk/special-collections/collection/1672 .
  19. ↑ The Morgan Library acquired such a volume from Goldschmidt as early as 1928 , which bears the stamp of the Federal Monuments Office.
  20. ^ Compilation by Anton Ruland in Serapeum 1860 ( Google Books ).
personal data
SURNAME Münzer, Hieronymus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Monetarius (Latin)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German humanist, doctor and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1447
PLACE OF BIRTH Feldkirch
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1508
Place of death Nuremberg