Nequam book
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The Nequambuch is an eight and oath book of the city of Soest from the 14th / 15th centuries. Century. The colored miniatures on medieval criminal and legal practice are remarkable .
description
The book was started in 1312 and continued until 1421. It consists of 51 sheets of parchment . Another seven smaller sheets are bound in. The book is 21.5 cm high and 15.5 cm wide. It contains a total of 13 miniatures.
content
The name nequam book from Latin nequam (= useless, offender) is not contemporary, but dates from the 19th century. Essentially, it is the book of eight and oaths of the city of Soest. It contains a total of 376 entries from numerous different writers. The vast majority of 340 entries include the naming of people who had broken the law and were ostracized and banned for it and who had to swear the original feud . These entries follow one another in chronological order.
An older layer of entries is systematically structured according to legal topics. This also includes the thirteen miniatures. These show, for example, the homage of the Archbishop of Cologne or that of the Marshal of Westphalia . There are also pictures of the indictment before the city judge or illustrations of cattle robbery, execution by beheading, false witnesses, the demolition of a house for punitive purposes, wheeling , the indictment of servants in the house, the imprisonment of people, fake play, expulsion the city or the penalty of teetering . Most of the miniatures have matching texts.
The full-page miniatures are carefully and colorfully executed. The quality of the Soester Nequam book makes it stand out from the other eight and oath books of the time. According to today's view, the pictures date from around 1315. The artist himself is not known by name. Art-historical comparisons with the Hofgeismar Altar suggest the artist's origins in the city of Soest itself.
The careful execution of the miniatures suggests that the book did not initially serve as a directory of lawbreakers and administrative acts. The originally rather representative work could have been related to the enforcement of the city's jurisdiction against that of the archbishop. Only later were the vacancies probably filled by the entries of lawbreakers.
The work is now kept in the Soest city archive.
literature
- Norbert Wex: The Nequam book of the city of Soest. In: Aufruhr 1225! The Middle Ages on the Rhine and Ruhr. Darmstadt, 2010 p. 354
- Wilhelm Kohl (Hrsg.): The Soester Nequambuch (= publications of the Historical Commission for Westphalia. Vol. 14). New edition of the city of Soest's book of eight and oaths. Wiesbaden 1980, ISBN 3-88226-089-0 .
- Walter Wilkes (Hrsg.): The miniatures of the Soester Nequambuch from 1315. With city-historical explanations by Gerhard Köhn . Technical University, Darmstadt 1976.
