Raißbüchlin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Raißbüchlin ( travel booklet ) is a route handbook published in Augsburg in 1563, which significantly influenced the relevant travel literature up to the middle of the 17th century. The author is the schoolmaster, notary and scribe Jörg Gail , who was born in the 1520s and died on August 3, 1584 in Augsburg. The unabridged title of the itinerary is: A new and useful Raißbüchlin from the furnemesten Land vnnd Stett, made by me, Jörg Gail, Burger zu Augspurg in truck .

history

Title page of the Raißbüchlin

Extensive travels that took the author Jörg Gail to Scandinavia , the Baltic States and even Russia , as well as demonstrably years of preparatory work preceded the publication of the Raißbüchlin . In the foreword of his little book, Gail mentions other countries that he has traveled to and about which he has written notes: “Because I (perhaps out of God's forgiveness) spend my day and time in Thailand / and especially six years ago in foreign countries / and a / quite a bit of a journey in Teütsch- / Welschland and France / have I kept a memorial for such raises [...] ".

In the spring of 1563, Jörg Gail set off from Augsburg to Innsbruck to present his itinerary project and another planned book at the local imperial court, and at the same time to ask for an imperial printing privilege, also known as an imprint, for their publication. The request was granted. On May 7, 1563, Emperor Ferdinand I granted the requested privilege and the associated copyright and publishing rights protection for a period of ten years. According to this, the Raißbüchlin (the other book is unknown) during this period “could neither be secretly nor publicly reprinted, distributed, carried around or sold”. In the event of a violation, a fine of “10 marks of soldered gold” was threatened, half of which was to be paid to the imperial chamber, the other half to Jörg Gail. Pirated prints and unauthorized editions of his work - according to the privilege - are to be handed over to Jörg Gail, who can then trade with them as he likes. "Every authority" should help him to enforce his rights. Gail later honored the imperial guarantee of copyright protection by inserting a portrait of Ferdinand I on the front page of his Raißbüchlin and also a description of the "ancient weeg so the Roman -] - Kay [serliche] May [estät] Anno" in his actual itinerary [15] 63 "personally torn".

In the weeks after his return from Innsbruck, Jörg Gail printed his route handbook with the well-known Augsburg typesetter Valentin Othmar . The first copies of the Raißbüchlin must have been completed by the beginning of July 1563 at the latest, because on July 20 the Augsburg council issued an instruction to Gail and two other travel book authors, the printer Philipp Ulhart and the school owner Georg Mair , to present their printed itineraries for inspection. All three authors could show an imperial impression. The council decided on July 29th that “every privilege should remain with”, “because the individual parties would probably not act against the privileges and know how to protect themselves from harm and disadvantage.”

Gail's route manual, “the first independently printed travel guide in German literature”, has remained virtually unknown for centuries. It is true that Jörg Gail's directions served as a template for various maps and travel manuals until the middle of the 17th century, but Gail's name and the title of his work were usually kept secret. It was not until 1950 that two copies of the Raißbüchlin autographed by Gail were rediscovered almost simultaneously, but independently of one another, by Arend Wilhelm Lang and Hermann Wolpert . The copy that Lang found was in the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel , Wolpert found it in the Württemberg State Library in Stuttgart . In the period that followed, both published several essays in which the Raißbüchlin , which is now almost four hundred years old, was described and honored for the first time in its history.

On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the Raißbüchlin , Herbert Krüger created an extensive monograph, the so-called "great Gail", which, however, could not be printed and published until 1974 for reasons of cost. In addition to a scientific study and a cultural-historical appraisal, it contains a facsimile edition of the travel guide as well as six route maps based on Jörg Gail's route manual. A reprint of the Raißbüchlin known as "little Gail" was published as early as 1963.

content

When Raißbüchlin is a small-sized work ( type area : 8.0 x 5.5 cm; outer size: 11.5 × 8.0 cm). It comprises 272 pages and describes 161 individual European routes with around 2400 individual stages named.

Front page

Gail presents his route manual on the first page as "neuwes Raißbüchlin" and thus indirectly refers to older travel guides. The scientific investigation of Herbert Krüger has shown that various intineraries were available to him and were at least partially used by him as source material. Particularly noteworthy in this context is an Upper German route directory, which was compiled by an unknown hand around 1520 on a 6 cm wide and 2 meter long parchment tape and was kept in a lockable metal tube.

On the title page there is also a reference to the author and the imperial printing privileges as well as a seal-shaped portrait of Emperor Ferdinand.

Preface

In the foreword Jörg Gail first sketches the history of the Raißbüchlin and then gives an outlook on its content and scope, namely the description of routes that run through “this Christian Land”, for example in “Theütschland / Welschland / Franckreich / Engelland / Hispania / Ungern un Beheim ”. Strangely enough, the routes in Northern and Eastern Europe also described by him are not mentioned in the foreword.

These introductory remarks are followed by instructions on how to convert the various external miles in the route work. In tabular form, the following correspondence results between foreign and German distances:

"What you will find ..." "... so thünd" "... Teütsche Meyl [en]"
Welsche Meyl 5 Welsche 1 Teütsche Meyl
French Meyl 3 French 1 Teütsche Meyl
Spanish Meyl 1 Spanish 1 Teütsche Meyl
English Meyl 5 English 3 Teütsche Meyl
Ungerisch Meyl 2 Ungerisch 3 Teütsche Meyl
Schweitzer Meyl 2 Schweitzer 3 Teütsche Meyl

The end of the foreword is a list of the abbreviations used in the route descriptions.

Main part I: Emperor Ferdinand I's travels 1562/63

Raißbüchlin : Travels of Ferdinand I.

Five journeys by Emperor Ferdinand I form the start of the actual route manual. Strictly speaking, they are part of an extensive round trip that took the monarch from Prague via Frankfurt am Main, Strasbourg , Freiburg im Breisgau and Constance to Innsbruck. However, the year “Anno 63” added by Gail is demonstrably not entirely correct. Since the Raißbüchlin was published in the middle of 1563, the imperial tour should be scheduled between January and May of this year. But that is not possible because Ferdinand I stayed exclusively in Innsbruck from February to June 1563 because of a serious illness: “The emperor did not mount a horse again; his daughters prepared for the last farewell [...] ”. According to Ferdinand I's itinerary compiled by Anton von Gévay , the tour described by Gail was completed in the period from October 5, 1562 to the end of January 1563. The stages indicated by Jörg Gail, which are given in the following table, agree with those of Gévays Itinerar, but have been extended on some route sections by adding additional intermediate stations.

Travel section from to Stages (selection) miles
I. Prague Frankfurt am Main Schlen , Satz , Cada , Schlackhenwald , Eger , Khulmbach , Liechtenfelß , Bamberg , Haßfurt , Detelbach , Würtzburg , Bischoffhaim , Mildtenburg , Aschenburg 68
II Frankfurt am Main Speyer and Strasbourg Maintz , Oppenhaim , Wurmbs , Speire (stopover), Weissenburg , Hagenaw 32
III Strasbourg Freiburg in Breisgau Benfeldt , Schletstat , Kholmar , Preysach 13
IV Freiburg in Breisgau Constancy Walfenwiler , Newenburg , Basel , Reinfelden , Lauffenburg , Waltzhuet , Schafhausen , Rotholfzelt 20th
V Constancy innsbruck Yberlingen , Margdorf , Rauenspurg , Wangen , Eisena , Kempten , Füssen , Nasereith over fern [pass] 26th

Main part II: The actual route manual

Two sides of the Raißbüchlin : From Vienna to Sibiu

The Raißbüchlin offers a number of advantages compared to other itineraries before and after it. First of all, there is the wealth of stages that enabled early modern travelers here and there to spot their next destination with the naked eye. Many localities were also described in more detail as town (S), market (M), village (D) and monastery (K) and thus important basic information for travel planning (accommodation options, purchase of provisions, etc.) was conveyed. The distance information is also pretty accurate for the time. The specified "Teütschen Meylen" as well as the conversion table for non-German distance information added by Gail in his foreword made it possible to convert the route into distance hours and daily trips and thus to get an idea of ​​the expected travel time.

meaning

Jörg Gail's Raißbüchlin has demonstrably influenced travel literature until the middle of the 17th century. For example, the works of the Rothenburg cartographer Georg Conrad Jung and his father Johann Georg can largely be traced back to Gail's route manual. The Parisian engraver and map maker Jean Boisseau also shows a clear dependence on Gail when it comes to depicting the Flemish , Hessian and southern German regions.

literature

  • Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route manual. Jörg Gail's “Raißbüchlin”. With 6 route maps and 272 original pages in a facsimile , Graz 1974, ISBN 3-201-00820-6
  • Herbert Krüger: Jörg Gails Augsburger 'Raißbüchlin' from 1563 , in: Archive for German Postal History , 2/1969, pp. 10-17
  • Hermann Wolpert: Oldest German course book found , in: Archive for Postal History in Bavaria , 2/1950, pp. 139–142
  • Friedrich Blendinger: From the life of the schoolmaster and notary Jörg Gail , in: Archive for German Postal History , 1/1970, pp. 67–70

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Krüger: Jörg Gails Augsburger 'Raißbüchlin' from 1563 , in: Archive for German Postal History , 2/1969, p. 11, Sp II; P. 12, column I.
  2. ^ Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 8
  3. ↑ verzört = consumed
  4. ↑ Jörg Gail: A new useful Raißbüchlin of the furnemesten Land vnnd Stett, made by me, Jörg Gail, Burger zu Augspurg in truck , Augsburg 1563, sheet II; see facsimile of the Raißbüchlin from Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route manual. Jörg Gails “Raißbüchlin” , Graz 1974, p. 357
  5. ↑ Quotations from Friedrich Blendinger: From the life of the schoolmaster and notary Jörg Gail , in: Archive for German Postal History , 1/1970, p. 68, Sp II
  6. ↑ Jörg Gail: A new useful Raißbüchlin of the furnemesten Land vnnd Stett [...] , Augsburg 1563, [p. 12] (facsimile); Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route manual. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 359
  7. ↑ For Ot (h) mar see Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area. Based on the work of the same name by Josef Benzing. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007 ISBN 9783447054508 (Contributions to books and librarianship 51), p. 39 ( partly accessible in the Google book search) and Hans-Jörg Künast: Otmar. Buchdruckerfamilie (2010) in the Augsburger Stadtlexikon ( Memento of the original from April 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stadtlexikon-augsburg.de
  8. ↑ While Ulhart's route handbook has probably been lost, the itinerary written by Mair has been preserved. This travel book is a new edition of the 1563 version published in 1590; Herbert Krüger proved that this new Wegbüchlin is largely to be regarded as a reprint of Gail's route manual. See Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route manual. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 5
  9. ↑ Stadtarchiv Augsburg: Ratsbuch XXXII , p. 70a; quoted from Friedrich Blendinger: From the life of the schoolmaster and notary Jörg Gail , in: Archive for German Postal History , 1/1970, p. 68, Sp I
  10. ^ Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 1
  11. ↑ On Lang see East Frisian Landscape (Walter Deeters): Arend Wilhelm Lang ; Accessed March 21, 2014
  12. ↑ On Wolpert see Heinrich Hartmann: Ehrungen für Hermann Wolpert , in: Archive for German Postal History , 1/1953, p. 74
  13. ^ Arend Wilhelm Lang: The Augsburg Travel Guide of 1563 , in: Imago Mundi (Ed. International Society for the History of Cartography ), Volume 7, London 1950, pp. 85-88; Hermann Wolpert: Literature on the German postal system (Part I), in: Archive for the postal and telecommunications system , Volume 2, 1950, p. 468; same: Oldest German course book found , in: Archive for Postal History in Bavaria , 1950, pp. 139–142
  14. ^ Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. XI (foreword)
  15. ^ Herbert Krüger: Jörg Gails Augsburger 'Raißbüchlin' from the year 1563 , in: Archive for German Postal History , 2/1969, p. 11, Sp I and II
  16. ^ Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 4f
  17. ↑ See Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, pp. 359–361 (Appendix: Facsimile )
  18. ↑ Jörg Gail: A new useful Raißbüchlin der Fürnemesten Land and Stett , Augsburg 1563, p. 12; Facsimile of the original from Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route manual. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 359
  19. ^ Alfred Kohler: Ferdinand I. 1503-1564. Fürst, König and Kaiser , Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-50278-4 , p. 304 ( Google Books online )
  20. ^ Anton von Gévay: Itinerar Emperor Ferdinand I (1521 - 1564) , Vienna 1843, p. 91f
  21. ^ Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 34
  22. ^ Herbert Krüger: The oldest German route handbook. Jörg Gails Raißbüchlin , Graz 1974, p. 14