Johannes Butzbach

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Johannes Butzbach (* 1477 in Miltenberg am Main ; † December 29, 1516 in Laach Monastery, today Maria Laach Abbey ) was prior of Laach Abbey and, as a monastic writer, an important representative of Rhenish monastery humanism in the footsteps of his role model Johannes Trithemius . He is the author of a very early and detailed autobiography, written in Latin.

Life

Johannes Butzbach was born in 1477 as the son of master weaver Conrad Butzbach from Butzbach and his wife Margarethe in Miltenberg. In allusion to his hometown, he also called himself frater Joannes Piemontani , i.e. brother Johannes von Miltenberg . The number of biological siblings is unclear, he had at least one brother named Conrad and a sister. At the age of nine months, his parents placed him in the care of a childless aunt who also lived in Miltenberg. From 1483 until her death in 1487, this aunt also ensured that he attended Latin school regularly. Due to massive school difficulties after his return to his parents' house, he was sent as a traveling student in the early summer of 1488 together with a Beanus on a journey that would lead him across southern Germany and Bohemia until the end of June 1494 and bring him painful experiences. The mother remarried after the death of Butzbach's father. Several children emerged from this marriage, including half-brother Philipp, to whom Butzbach dedicated his autobiography.

After six years of wandering, Butzbach returned to Miltenberg. There his stepfather found him an apprenticeship with a tailor from Aschaffenburg , then he lived until 1498 as a lay brother and monastery tailor in the Johannisberg monastery in the Rheingau . Between 1498 and 1500 he studied in Deventer at the School of the Brothers of Life Together with Alexander Hegius and entered - after a three-month probationary period - on March 21, 1501 as a novice in the Laach Benedictine monastery . In 1502 he was ordained a priest in Trier , in 1503 he was promoted to novice master and in 1507 to prior of the monastery.

In his autobiography Odeporicon , written down in 1505 , he describes (for his stepbrother Philipp Trunk) the story of his life until he entered the Laach monastery. Above all, the vivid description of his school and youth days and his apprenticeship and traveling years give a detailed insight into the world of the beginning of the modern era. Another 30 unprinted writings and letters originate from Butzbach's pen.

Works

  • Odeporicon (1506)
  • Libellus de praeclaris picturae professoribus or Of the famous painters (1505)
  • Philosophilogium (1505)
  • Microstroma […] de laudibus Trithemianis (1508)
  • Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (1508–1515)

Text editions and translations

  • Butzbach, Johannes (1991). Odeporicon: an autobiography from 1506. Introduction, translation and commentary by Andreas Beriger . Bilingual edition. Weinheim: VCH, Acta Humaniora.
  • Andreas Beriger (translator): Johannes Butzbach: Odeporicon. Hiking booklet. Manesse, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-7175-1842-9

literature

  • Andreas Beriger : Butzbach, Johannes . In: Franz Josef Worstbrock (ed.): German Humanism 1480–1520. Author Lexicon . Vol. 1,2 (2006), col. 336-348
  • Richard Newald:  Butzbach, Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 82 ( digitized version ).
  • Ralph Frenken: Johannes Butzbach (1477-1516): In: Childhood and autobiography from the 14th to 17th centuries: Psychohistorical reconstructions. Volume 1, Oetker-Voges, Kiel (1999), pp. 315-357
  • Stephanus Hilpisch : Unknown from the prior Joh. Butzbach's Laacher time , from: Studies and communications of the Benedictine order 56, 1938, p. 151-160
  • Karl Rühl: The Auctarium de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis of Johannes Butzbach . Dissertation, University, Bonn 1937

Individual evidence


Web links

Wikiquote: Johannes Butzbach  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Butzbach, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Piedmontanus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Benedictine and writer, prior of the Laach monastery
DATE OF BIRTH 1477
PLACE OF BIRTH Miltenberg am Main
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1516
Place of death Laach Monastery