Mathias Baux

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Mathias Baux from Mennekrath (born before 1538; died after 1576) was town clerk , mayor and chronicler in Erkelenz , located in the Duchy of Geldern .

Origin and career

Apart from his works, little has been handed down about Mathias Baux to make him tangible as a historical personality. According to his own statement, he comes from the town of Mennekrath, which belongs to Erkelenz. In the sources he can of course be recorded for the first time with a farm in Bellinghoven (also belonging to Erkelenz) in a fiefdom register of the Aachen Marienstift for the year 1538, in which he is already listed as secretarius . Baux, on the other hand, appears for the first time in 1544 and for the last time in 1558 as a secretarius in the city's documents . In 1562/63 he was mayor according to his own statement in his town chronicle. Otherwise Baux gives only a few and mostly very brief references to his own biography. He reports that he saw the great fire of 1540 with his own eyes, as well as a great earthquake in 1569.

Whether Matthias Buix, who was related to the council in 1576 , is identical with the town clerk and chronicler cannot be said with certainty.

Fonts

In addition to the documents and a copy of the city's pension certificates , which Baux wrote in his work as secretarius , a collection of Erkelenz statuary and customary rights as well as two chronicles recorded in a joint volume have come down to us. These writings are in the Erkelenz city archive. The legal book was privately owned around 1900, after 1945 it was handed over to the archives advice center of the Rhineland Regional Association, was deposited in 1952 at the Aachen city archive and passed on to the city of Erkelenz in January 2017.

Law book

Under the title Liber juris patriae hoc est, continens jura civilia oppidi nostri de declarens , Baux has compiled statuary and probably also customary rights of the city of Erkelenz in Lower Franconian and Latin. So it is a classic law book, a semi-official compilation without any recognizable manorial mandate, which probably served mainly practitioners in law and administration as an aid. While the first editor Joseph Maeckl still took the view that "various files in the city archive" "show that the book has repeatedly served the city as an official source of law until the general Geldrische Landrecht took the place of local custom in 1620 " Janssen de Limpens' assessment of this was more reserved.

In the run-up to the city's anniversary in 1976, a facsimile of the legal code was considered, but was not implemented.

Editions

  • Joseph Maeckl, Das Stadtrecht von Erkelenz , in: Bijdragen en Mededelingen van het Vereeniging tot beoefening van Geldersche geschiedenis, oudheidkunde enrecht 8 (1905), pp. 319–448.
  • Rechtsbronnen van het Gelders Overkwartier van Roermond (Works of the vereeniging tot uitgaaf der bronnen van het oud-vaderlandscherecht, ser. III, 16) , ed. by KJTh. Janssen de Limpens, Utrecht 1965, pp. 3-74 (replaces the insufficient one by Maeckl).

Chronicles

Baux's most important works are his two chronicles: a chronicle of the city of Erkelenz and a country chronicle of Geldrian. Both are unique in a leather-bound quarto manuscript , which is still kept in the Erkelenz City Archives (Best. 1 C, No. 630). It consists partly of parchment , but for the most part of paper, and has a total of 148 sheets (including those left blank).

The chronicle volume was probably created over a longer period of time, but not completed before 1569. The later entries for the years 1577 to 1700 come from several other hands. Both chronicles are partly written in Low German , but also partly in Latin , although these passages probably only partly represent advertisements from older documents (e.g. documents). Furthermore, Baux has the peculiarity of composing entire clauses in Latin for no apparent reason, only to then revert to Low German.

Special emphasis will win the Baux'sche Chronicle handwriting also by their colored pen drawings: On page 2 the Geldrische dragon , on page 293 Erka , the legendary founding figure of the city, and a total of 26 full-page arms drawings which monetary innovative Dynasty show and the city arms.

The chronicle of the country ( oerspronck der voechten, grau end hertochen with oern chronyken des lants van Gelre ) begins with the legendary origins of the country of Geldern in the year 877 when Carolus calvus keyser was (p. 48 = fol. 1r according to the old foliation) and then follows the Sequence of the respective rulers. The city chronicle makes considerable use of administrative documents from the city and in some cases also gives copies of documents and inventories. This also includes “old books” and aldermen's certificates that are no longer available today. This gives the chronicle a special value for the city's history. Whether Baux also used the monastery archive of St. Marien in Aachen, from which he has entered several copies, himself or only indirectly via copies available in Erkelenz, must remain open for the time being.

The literary sources of Baux's chronicles require further research. On pp. 261–263 (= fol. 110v-111v according to old foliation) of the chronicle, Baux wrote the 38-line rhyming poem Topographia siimul et Chronographia terre Geldr [ensis] et oppidi Ercklen [sis] by the Erkelenz aldermen Johannes de Speculo (“von Spiegel ”) from 1473, which is otherwise only preserved in a Paris copy. The knowledge of Johann Koelhoff's Cronica van der hilliger Stat Coellen (1497) can also be made plausible for the land chronicle of Geldrian . He may also have known the chronicles of Wilhelm van Berchen .

Part editions

  • The chronicle of the city of Erkelenz , communicated by Gottfried Eckertz, in: Annalen des Historisches Verein für den Niederrhein 5 (1857), pp. 1–89 (only the city chronicle; with changes and omissions compared to the original).
  • Geldersche kronieken, vol. 1 (works van Gelre 5) , ed. by PN van Doorninck, Arnhem 1904, pp. 147-214 (only the Geldrische Landeschronik).

Edition

Mathias Baux. Chronicle of the city of Erkelenz and the country of Geldern , published by Hiram Kümper in collaboration with Rudolf Bosch and Christoph Walther (translations), Manuel Hagemann ( heraldry ), Willi Wortmann (city history Erkelenz) and a team at the Mannheim Historical Institute and the Erkelenzer Heimatverein Lande eV, 2 volumes, Erkelenz 2016, ISBN 978-3-9815182-9-0

literature

  • Studies on the history of the city of Erkelenz from the Middle Ages to the early modern period , published by the city administration on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of the city of Erkelenz (series of publications of the city of Erkelenz 1), Cologne 1976, ISBN 3792702851
  • Klaus Fink, City development and economic forces in Erkelenz (series of publications of the city of Erkelenz 2), Cologne 1976. ISBN 379270286X
  • The documents of the Erkelenz City Archives ( regesta ; inventories of non-governmental archives 40), edited by Dieter Kastner, Brauweiler 2001.
  • Gerard Arie Noordzij, Gelre. Dynasty, land en identiteit in de late middeleeuwen , Dissertation University of Leiden 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In a primal feud that Baux wrote for Hanß van Kerpen on October 3, 1549, he signed: Per me Mathiam Baux de Mennekeraid, secretarium, scriptum. - see. The documents of the city archive of Erkelenz, edit . by Dieter Kastner, Brauweiler 2001, p. 81 (No. 145).
  2. ↑ Duisburg, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen , Dept. Rhineland, Aachen, St. Marien, files no. 17 1/2, fol. 35v.
  3. ↑ Individual references in: The documents of the city archive of Erkelenz, edit. by Dieter Kastner, Brauweiler 2001, 192f.
  4. ↑ The chronicle of the city of Erkelenz, communicated by Gottfried Eckertz, in: Annalen des Historisches Verein für den Niederrhein 5 (1857), pp. 1–89, here p. 125: Tempore Burgimagistratus mei erant in ista parochia 78 gespan perdt.
  5. ↑ Ibid., P. 125: when I fell .
  6. ↑ Ibid., P. 125
  7. ^ The documents of the Erkelenz City Archives, edit. by Dieter Kastner, Brauweiler 2001, p. 103 (No. 219).
  8. ↑ See the documents of the Erkelenz City Archives, edit. by Dieter Kastner, Brauweiler 2001, p. 192f. with individual evidence.
  9. ↑ Erkelenz, City Archives, Best. 1 C, No. 108.
  10. ↑ http://www.rp-online.de/nrw/staedte/erkelenz/rechtsbuch-von-mathias-baux-kehrt-nach-98-jahren-zurueck-id-1.6461202
  11. ↑ Rechtsbronnen van het Gelders Overkwartier van Roermond (Works of the vereeniging tot uitgaaf der bronnen van het oud-vaderlandsche right, ser. III, 16), ed. by KJTh. Janssen de Limpens, Utrecht 1965, p. XX
  12. ↑ Joseph Maeckl, Das Stadtrecht von Erkelenz, in: Bijdragen en Mededelingen van het Vereeniging tot beoefening van Geldersche geschiedenis, oudheidkunde enrecht 8 (1905), pp. 319–448, here p. 320.
  13. ↑ Rechtsbronnen van het Gelders Overkwartier van Roermond (Works of the vereeniging tot uitgaaf der bronnen van het oud-vaderlandsche right, ser. III, 16), ed. by KJTh. Janssen de Limpens, Utrecht 1965, pp. XX-XXIII.
  14. ^ The documents of the Erkelenz City Archives, edit. by Dieter Kastner, Brauweiler 2001, p. 12 with evidence of the relevant service files in the archive advice center.
  15. ↑ Re-signing 2015. The older literature still has the previous call number 1C / 114.
  16. ↑ Report on an earthquake. In the original (holdings 1 C, no. 114) p. 289 [= olim fol. 124v] and p. 125 in the editions of Eckertz (1857).
  17. ^ The chronicle of the city of Erkelenz, communicated by Gottfried Eckertz, in: Annalen des Historisches Verein für den Niederrhein 5 (1857), pp. 1-89, here p. 83: Memini me legisse In quodam antiquo libello, in quo Lambertus haen Schabinus Ercklensisi pie memonie [!] Scribit et fatetur se semel vidisse copiam scripti tali forma […] or ibid., P. 91: […] quite a few [n] olden cups and registers that the former rentmaster to Ercklens had and still hit […] .
  18. ↑ ibid., P. 110: Dyt hauen Ich alsus vam wort to wort geschrieuen vonden In alden writings that had been in the Schepen Compen [= nhd. Box].
  19. ↑ Paris, Archives Nationales , J 997, inv. No. 30, pt. 1, fol. 1r-9r. At the beginning of the 20th century, this poem could still be read on a large screen in the Old Town Hall. Cf. Edmund Renard, Die Kunstdenkmäler der Kreise Erkelenz and Geilenkirchen, Düsseldorf 1904, p. 304 (unfortunately without dating the canvas).
personal data
SURNAME Baux, Mathias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION City clerk, mayor and chronicler in Erkelenz
DATE OF BIRTH before 1538
PLACE OF BIRTH Mennekrath
DATE OF DEATH after 1576