Sigismund Reichenbach

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Sigismund Reichenbach ( Latinized Sigismundus Reichenbach ) studied at the University of Wittenberg in the 16th century . As a listener to Martin Luther , he wrote the transcript of the Roman Lecture , which is now kept in the Anhalt State Library in Dessau and which is part of the world's document heritage in Germany .

Life

First page of the printed copy of the letter to the Romans with large line spacing for Martin Luther's letter to the Romans lecture in 1515; handwritten notes by Sigismund Reichenbach (Anhaltische Landesbücherei Dessau, signature Georg 1049a; UNESCO World Document Heritage)

Reichenbach's birth and death years are not known. " Johannes Ficker introduced him ... somewhat vaguely, that he was a» Central German compatriot of Luther «, from Löbnitz , about 30 km northeast of Leipzig ."

Reichenbach enrolled in Wittenberg on February 23, 1514. On October 12 of the same year he received his doctorate in baccalaureus . After attending Martin Luther's Roman Lecture from 1515 to 1516, he attended Andreas Bodenstein's Augustine lecture in the winter semester of 1517/18 - albeit irregularly and only at the beginning. In the same semester he attended a college of Johannes Aesticampianus on selected Jerome's letters.

Since he owned a book (No. 1) printed in 1521 and left traces of reading in it, Sigismund Reichenbach was apparently still alive in the early 1520s.

The Dessau anthology

Seven text corpora from Sigismundus Reichenbach's student days are preserved in an anthology in quarto format with the signature Georg 1049 A. All printed works show traces of reading, Reichenbach's handwritten notes are of particular interest. All books contain Latin versions of the ancient texts in question. Numbers 3–5 are specially set up for use by students in lectures (cf. Wolfenbüttel Psalter ).

  1. Martin Luther: Pericopes interpretations . Basel 1521 ( L 4544 in the VD 16. )
  2. Jerome : Letters to Paulinus on the historical books of the Bible . Wittenberg 1517 ( H 3543 in VD 16. )
  3. Jerome: Ten letters concerning the teaching of human life; a letter to a monk about monastic life; Letter to Rufinus about celibacy . Wittenberg 1517 ( H 3562 in the VD 16. )
  4. Augustine : De spiritu et littera . Wittenberg 1519 ( A 4237 in VD 16. )
  5. Paul : Letter to the Romans . Wittenberg 1515 ( B 5019 in the VD 16. )
  6. Handwritten scholias from Luther's Roman Lecture (1515–1516) and Luther's Hebrew Lecture (1517–1518)
  7. Bernhard von Clairvaux : Sermons . Leipzig 1516 ( B 1938 in the VD 16. )

Reichenbach's lecture notes

Reichenbach's handwriting was very small, but regular and clean. In his printed edition of the Letter to the Romans (No. 5) he entered explanations ( glosses ) between the lines and in the margin . He also titled a booklet (No. 6) Continuationes Ad Textum pauli and filled it with 32 pages with two columns.

It is difficult to answer the question of how exactly Sigismundus Reichenbach prepared his student notes. Johannes Ficker thought he could determine some passages that Reichenbach would have written down in the lecture hall immediately after Luther's dictation. But Reichenbach divides the space that he has in the printed Roman letter for his notes so cleverly that one does not get the impression of hasty notes, but of thoughtful reworking of the lecture. In addition, the ink used changes, which can only be explained by the fact that Reichenbach must have added to his notes over a certain period of time.

When he didn't have enough margin for his notes, he put handwritten sheets of paper in his printed working copy. Sometimes he just makes a note in the margin that he has put an extra sheet on it.

Since Luther's own manuscript that served him to prepare his lecture, is not currently available, but only the publish Ficker 1909 light pressure can be used, Reichenbach's transcripts is an outstanding importance for Luther research. The basic question is whether Reichenbach wrote exactly what Luther said in the lecture. It seems that Luther did not adhere closely to his prepared texts, but only read part of them to the students.

Quote

Reichenbach's only personal comment with which he provided the title page of the letter to the Romans:

"Attendite O yr mestschweyn!"

"Watch out, you fattening pigs!"

Web links

Commons : Luther, Roman letters lecture, transcript Reichenbach (Georg 1049a)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Ernst Koch : Notes on Luther's interpretation of the letter to the Romans - The handwriting in Dessau , in: Irene Dingel, Henning P. Jürgens (Ed.): Milestones of the Reformation. Key documents of the early effectiveness of Martin Luther , Gütersloh 2014, ISBN 978-3-579-08170-0 , pp. 56–59.
  • Gabriele Schmidt-Lauber: Luther's lecture on Romans 1515/16. A comparison between Luther's manuscript and the student transcripts , Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1994, ISBN 978-3-412-11193-9 (not evaluated)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annette Gens: Unesco decision: Book from the Georgsbibliothek is world document heritage. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. October 30, 2015, accessed January 23, 2018 .
  2. ^ A b Ernst Koch: The manuscript in Dessau . S. 57 .
  3. ↑ Carl Eduard Foerstemann (ed.): Album Academiae Vitebergensis . Leipzig 1841, p. 49 (For comparison: Johannes Oldekop, * 1493, enrolled in Wittenberg in 1515. Sigismund Reichenbach would have been born around 1492.): “Sigismundus Reichenbach de Lobenitz dioc. Misnen. "
  4. ^ Julius Köstlin: The Baccalaurei and Magistri of the Wittenberg philosophical faculty . S. 19 : "Sigismundus Reychenbach de Löbenitz diocesis Magdenburgensis"
  5. ↑ Ernst Koch: The manuscript in Dessau . S. 56-57 .
  6. ^ A b Ernst Koch: The manuscript in Dessau . S. 58 .
  7. ↑ Ernst Koch: The manuscript in Dessau . S. 59 .
  8. ^ Divi Pauli apostoli ad Romanos Epistola. Retrieved January 24, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Reichenbach, Sigismund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reichenbach, Sigismundus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German student, listener of Luther
DATE OF BIRTH 15th century
DATE OF DEATH 16th Century