Otto von Diemeringen

Otto von Diemeringen († August 28, 1398 ) was an Alsatian canon and translator.

He introduces himself with the words I Otte von Diemeringen Důmherre zů Metze . The ministerial family of those von Diemeringen is often documented in the 14th and 15th centuries in the Metz and Strasbourg area. The reliable evidence of Otto von Diemeringen begins with his entry into the Metz cathedral chapter at the end of 1367 or at the beginning of 1368. As a canon he appears in the minutes of the chapter, but also in various series of registers of the Roman and Avignon popes.

From these, Otto's participation in ecclesiastical activities of the Metz chapter during the great occidental schism (1378-1417) emerges, which shook ecclesiastical and secular life both in the Metz diocese and in large parts of the occident . Financial transactions can be traced, as well as his efforts to obtain a canonical in Châlons and another at Strasbourg Cathedral . Diemeringen probably studied in Paris , where he acquired the academic degree Magister in artibus . His death on August 28, 1398 is documented by the inscription on a lead cross in a grave in Metz Cathedral .

Diemeringen translated the travelogue of Jean de Mandeville into German. Along with Michel Velser's translation, his translation is the most important in German. His source text was the French-language version of Liège , in which episodes from the Ogier saga were incorporated in addition to the description of a journey from Europe to the Holy Land and from there to India and China . His translation is not literal, the editing intention is more pragmatic and systematic. He divided the work into five books and in the last one summarized the author's reports on Christian and non-Christian beliefs.

literature

• Jean de Mandeville: Travel . Reprint of the first prints of the German translations by Michel Velser and Otto von Diemeringen. Edited and provided with an introduction by Ernst Bremer and Klaus Ridder. Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York 1991. ISBN 3-487-09430-4 .
• Reinhard Berron: Sibotes 'education for women'. The Rome manuscript, Bibl. Apostolica Vaticana, Cod. Pal. lat. 1361. In: ZfdA 143 (2014), pp. 24–56.
• Klaus Ridder: Jean de Mandevilles, Travel. Studies on the transmission history of the German translation of Otto von Diemeringen . Munich / Zurich 1991 (Munich texts and studies on German literature in the Middle Ages, 99).
• Karl Bartsch:  Diemeringen, Otto von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1877, p. 129.

Web links

Directory of the surviving Diemeringen manuscripts in the manuscript census