Niklas von Wyle

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Niklas von Wyle.
Presumed self-portrait from the Missive Book of the years 1460–1466, which he kept as Esslingen town clerk

Niklas von Wyle (* around 1410 in Bremgarten , Aargau ; † April 13, 1479 in Stuttgart ) was an early humanist writer and translator .

Life

Wyle studied together with Heinrich Steinhöwel in Vienna (Magister 1436) and in Italy.

After teaching in Zurich, he worked as a city and council clerk in Radolfzell , in 1447 in Nuremberg and from 1447/9 to 1469 in Esslingen am Neckar . Through his numerous students in the service of influential city and princely chancelleries, copied texts and letters, Wyles developed a lasting influence on the formal development of the German language and the spread of humanistic ideas.

Wyle is one of the earliest correspondents of the Italian humanist Enea Silvio Piccolomini during his time at the imperial chancellery and even sent him his own (lost) painting with St. Christopher in 1453/54.

From 1469 to 1478 Wyle was Chancellor of Count Ulrich von Württemberg , but also worked diplomatically for other princes.

Wyle was the first German-language translator of Italian Renaissance literature. With his "Translatzen" or "Teutschungen" (including works by Enea Silvio Piccolominis , Boccaccio , Petrarcas and Poggios ), which appeared between 1461 and 1478, he made a contribution to the formation of the early New High German language. From schachgeschichtlichem interest is his arisings in 1470 computing and chess book .

In the second half of the 15th century, two positions emerged among German humanists on the meaningful translation of Latin classics and Italian humanists who write in Latin: on the one hand, the analogous ("ad sensum"), which refers to authorities such as Cicero and Horace and also on the practice, and on the other hand the ideal of a literal translation that does not easily intervene in the grammar of the target language (“ad verbum”). Niklas von Wyle had been practicing a grammatical translation based on the Latin original since the early 1460s and also defended this “ad verbum” strategy theoretically. Applied to the German vernacular as the target language, this often led to rather unusual forms. At that time, Albrecht von Eyb and Heinrich Steinhöwel were among the representatives of the other position of a freer translation practice .

Works

  • “Dialogue between peasant and nobleman about the nobility” , 1470
  • “Eulogy for Women” , 1474
  • "Translatzen" , 1478. This compilation of 18 older translations by Wyle includes novellas, letters, speeches and scientific treatises:

(1) Enea Silvio Piccolominis Historiade duobus amantibus (1444) [Euriolus and Lucretia] (1462)
(2) Boccaccio's Decameron (Guiskard and Sigismunda) in: Decameron 4.1
(3) Enea Silvio Piccolominis lesson against love (1461)
(4) Poggio On the changeability of happiness (1461)
(5) Poggio Whether the guest or the landlord has to thank (1462)
(6) Poggio Whether an older man should marry (1463)
(7) Leonardo Bruni's story of Alexander the Great (1465)
(8) Pseudo-Bernhard von Clairvaux's letter about the virtues of the father of the house
(9) Felix Hemmerlin Von den Lallharden und Beghinen (1464)
(10) Enea Silvio Piccolomini's lesson letter about humanistic education
(11) Poggio's letter about the burning of Jerome of Prague (around 1470)
(12) Enea Silvio Piccolomini's letter about the dream of Fortuna (1468)
(13) Lukian's Golden Donkey
(14) Bonac (c) ursius De nobilitate (1470)
(15) Petrarcas De remediis utriusque fortunae (1463- 1469)
(16) Nicolosia Sanuda Praise of Women (1474) This is e.g. Partly an own work Wyles
(17) Poggio's speech on the occasion of the Pope election of Nicholas V (1478)
(18) Wyles stylistics: z. T. a translation from Gasparino Barzizza

literature

  • Rüdiger Zymner: Niklas von Wyle. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Albrecht Greule: The early humanist chancellor Niklas von Wyle and the early modern German language culture . In: Rainer Hünecke and Sandra Aehnelt (eds.): Law firm and language culture. Vienna 2016, pp. 11–21.
  • Vivien Hacker: women praise and scolding women. Investigation of the image of women in humanism using the example of Oratio ad Bessarionem and the 16th Translatze by Niklas von Wyle. With critical text edition, comparison of sources and interpretation . Diss. Frankfurt am Main 2002, pp. 115-122.
  • Schwenk, Rolf: Preparatory work for a biography of Niklas von Wyle and for a critical edition of his first translations . Göppingen 1978 (letters from and to Niklas von Wyle are attached).
  • Heinrich Butz: Nikolaus von Wyle. On the beginnings of humanism in Germany and Switzerland , in: Esslinger Studien 16 (1970), pp. 21-105.
  • Adelbert von Keller (Ed.): Translations by Niclas von Wyle . Stuttgart 1861 (Reprint 1967).
  • Bruno Strauss : The translator Nicolaus von Wyle . Berlin 1912; Reprint: New York 1970 (Palaestra; 118).
  • Richard Forster et al. a .: Chess in late medieval Zurich: Niklas von Wyle's arithmetic and chess book . In: Zürcher Taschenbuch 121/2001, pages 43–118.
  • Vermeer, Hans J .: Translating into Renaissance and Humanism (15th and 16th centuries). Vol. 2: The German-speaking area. Heidelberg 2000, on Wyle pp. 526-549.
  • Hans Herzog:  Wyle, Niclaus von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 55, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1910, pp. 140-145.
  • Ulrike Bodemann:  Niklas von Wyle. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 259 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Wikisource: Niklas von Wyle  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Wyle, Niklas von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wyle, Nicolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION early humanist writer and translator
DATE OF BIRTH around 1410
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremgarten AG
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1479
Place of death Stuttgart