Johannes Pauli (Franciscan)

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Johannes Pauli (* around 1455 in Pfeddersheim or Pfettisheim ( Alsace ); † between 1530 and 1533 in Thann ) was a Franciscan , preacher , reading master and German Schwankbuch author.

Life

During Pauli's youth, Hermann Oesterley made some information about a Jewish family in the ADB , but at the same time questions them again. In any case, Pauli received his doctorate in Strasbourg as a master of liberal arts and then joined the Franciscan order, the " barefooted " .

From 1479 he worked in the monastery Thann in Alsace; around 1480 began his activity as a preacher and pastor. In 1490/1494 he was reading master in the Franciscan monastery in Villingen in the Black Forest and in 1498 became head ( custodian ) of the custody of Basel within the Upper German or Strasbourg Franciscan province Provincia Argentina .

In 1499 he was sent as an excellent preacher to Oppenheim to the provincial chapter of his order convened by Franz Sabarra . In 1503/1504 he worked as a guardian (head) in the barefoot monastery in Bern . From 1506 to 1510 he worked in the same position in the barefoot monastery in Strasbourg. There he heard the sermons of Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg, who was well known to him . Today Geiler is considered the most important German preacher and one of the most famous representatives of the fool's literature of the late Middle Ages. In his coarse and humorous sermons he sharply criticized the state of the Church and the secularization of the clergy and called for reforms. Geiler drafted his sermons in Latin and then usually delivered them freely in German. They were written down from memory by listeners, as well as by Johannes Pauli, who processed a large part of them and thus passed them on to posterity.

1514–1517 Pauli was reading master of his order in Schlettstadt (Sélestat), later in Kolmar and from 1518 back in Thann. During this time he published Geiler's recorded sermons under the titles Das Evangelibuch (Schlettstadt, 1515), Emeis, Das Buch von der Omeissen (1516) and Die Brösamlin Geilers (1517), and later (1520) translated these sermons back into German out.

In Thann in 1519 he completed his collection of swans, known for short as an insult .

1498–1499 Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg had given a series of sermons on Sebastian Brant's ship of fools , which were previously only known in Latin translation by Jakob Otter . Johannes Pauli revised it and published it in 1520 under the title “Ship of Fools from Latin into German Bracht” .

In 1522 his main work, already completed in Thann in 1519, appeared in Strasbourg in 1522, the Schwankbuch called “Schimpfexempel” for short. “ Schimpf und Ernst is the name of the book, it runs through the world's action with serious and entertaining examples, parables and histories” . The work secured him a permanent place in German literature. It contained about 700 short stories and had a considerable stimulating effect on the subsequent jumble literature.

Works

Compilation (chronological)

Records and thus traditions of the sermons of Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg:

  • The Gospel Book (1515)
  • Emeis, The Book of Omeissen (1516)
  • The Brösamlin Geilers (1517)

Back translations into German:

  • Geiler's sermons from Kaisersberg (1520)
  • Sebastian Brant's Narrenschiff (by Jacob Other) brought from Latin into German Narrenschiff from Latin into German (1520).

Own works :

  • Schimpf und Ernst is the name of the book, it runs through the world's plot with serious and entertaining examples, parables and histories . Schwankammlung, completed in Thann in 1519, published in Strasbourg in 1522. It contained 693 examples in 90 chapters ( Stuttgart 1866, Hermann Österley (Ed.) Online  - Internet Archive ).

Comedy of examples of abuse and literature

Since ancient times, the subject of laughter and humor has been taken up by numerous thinkers from a wide variety of perspectives, for example by Socrates , Cicero , Henri Bergson , Sigmund Freud and André Jolles . In the linguistic field, however, the problem of the comic has remained largely unexplored.

1522 Franciscan preacher John Paul released his both for entertainment and compiled for the improvement of the human large Exempelbuch " Schimpf und Ernst ," for short "Schimpf-example" (ie "joke-example" called).

The sermons belong to the type of comical, pointed short story, also called facetie (from Latin facetiae = jokes, jokes, mockery). Johannes Pauli is considered to be the main disseminator of this small literary genre, which Poggio Bracciolini introduced into humanistic literature, in early Renaissance Germany (the first German short prose in the tradition of medieval fickle narration). In addition to the Latin tradition, the Franciscan Johannes Pauli was also influenced by the French Fabliaux , who appeared since the 12th century as the poetry of the people in contrast to the courtly poetry on coarse-erotic subjects.

content

The 700 or so stories alternate in a loose sequence between comic punch lines ("Schimpf", ie joke, fun) and serious moralizing ones, to which a practical application or spiritual interpretation is often added ("Ernst"). They come mainly from Latin sermon and example literature (including around 100 texts from Geiler's sermons), collections of legends, but also ancient authors such as Aesop , Disticha Catonis , Valerius Maximus and Frontinus , and to a lesser extent also humanistic swank collections ( Boccaccio , Poggio, Bebel ). A few seem to be based on their own experiences.

effect

John Pauli intended his taunts, fables, anecdotes, parables and example stories especially for the sermons to loosen them up (sermon tales ). After the preface, the book was intended as a collection of examples for preachers, but it was also intended for monks and nuns to read. Pauli wanted to make people laugh, but not without giving them something instructive at the same time. However, Schimpf und Ernst became one of the most popular entertainment books of the 16th century. His great success reached far beyond the spiritual realm and into the Protestant bourgeoisie. The often expanded, reworked and reissued work (1522, 1525, 1538 and other editions) had a significant stimulating effect on the subsequent junk literature. It stands at the beginning of a dense series of Alsatian swan collections, whose authors Jörg Wickram , Jakob Frey and Martin Montanus often used it as a template. Numerous adaptations of Pauli's stories can also be found in the work of Hans Sachs . In addition, there are translations of " Schimpf und Ernst " into Latin, Dutch, French and Danish.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Johannes Pauli  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "Born around 1455 of Jewish parents (" which, however, has recently been disputed "), he converted to Christianity early ..."
  2. ↑ The Jewish Encyclopedia, in turn, renews the statement of Jewish descent, see web link
  3. ↑ On the typical mechanisms of comedy and humor used by Pauli see literature Takahashi, Yumiko
  4. ↑ Today texts of this kind can only be found in jokes or in docu-soaps and pseudo-real reports about people's everyday life
  5. ↑ see examples under web links
  6. ^ Walter Ernst Schäfer, in: NDB 20 (2001), p. 123
  7. ↑ see web link Catholic Encyclopedia
personal data
SURNAME Pauli, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Alsatian Franciscans and German poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1455
PLACE OF BIRTH Pfettisheim
DATE OF DEATH between 1530 and 1533
Place of death Thann