Theodor Falkeisen (publisher)

Theodor Falkeisen (born September 11, 1631 in Basel ; † December 7, 1671 there ) was a Swiss bookseller and publisher .

Youth and Family (1631–1660)

Falk iron ancestor, the farrier Hans Valckysen, came from the Palatine Kreuznach and acquired at the turn of the Middle Ages the baslerische civil rights . Falkeisen grew up as the youngest of six children in Basel. His father was the councilor Theodor (1594-1654). This belonged to the Basel «persons of rank». His mother was Ursula, née Ryff, the daughter of the professor and doctor Peter Ryff (1552–1629).

Falkeisen learned the book trade in the Offizin the printer and publisher King, which including through the publication of lexicographical works of famous Buxtorfe made a name. Subsequently, his years of traveling took him to Holland , where he found a job as a clerk at the Elsevier printing works through the intermediary of König . As a bookseller, Falkeisen stayed in Paris for a long time and got to know England and Italy on his travels .

Falkeisen returned to Basel in 1656 and in 1656 married Catharina, née Schell, the only daughter of the tanner and councilor Augustin Schnell (1609–1689). They had four children together. They lived in the "Schwanau" house on Freienstrasse, which also housed Falkeisen's bookstore. Here he sold classics commissioned by Elsevier. In 1660 Falkeisen moved his business to the "Taube" house on the market square , where Sebastian Henricpetri had previously run his business.

The Bible Work and the First Trial (1659–1661)

Falkeisen was planning a new edition of the so-called Tossan Bible, which was first published in Heidelberg in 1617 by Jakob Lancellot with the privilege of the Electorate of the Palatinate. On the advice of his brother-in-law Caspar Mangoldt (1595–1671), who was a follower of Kaspar Schwenckfeld's apprenticeship and son of the mayor of the imperial city of Kaufbeuren , Falkeisen acquired the privilege of elector Karl I. Ludwig , according to which no one would be without for thirty years Prior knowledge and permission from Falkeisen to reprint or sell the Bible work.

But right from the start there was resistance to this project from the circles of his Basel specialists, above all from the bookseller Ludwig König (1633–1685). This was the son-in-law of Johann Rudolf Wettstein , who was also against Falkeisen's plans. The printers Georg Decker and Jakob Werenfels even contested Falkeisen's master craftsman rights, which he was able to refute with documents.

As a result, there were further delays and financial bottlenecks, whereupon Falkeisen concluded a secret contract with his brother-in-law Carl Mangoldt on August 1, 1660, from which it emerged that the proceeds of the planned 2000 Bible copies were primarily used to repay the Mangoldt's contributed capital is determined, but two-thirds of the net profit goes to Falkeisen and one-third to his brother-in-law; any damage should be borne by both parts. To secure Mangoldt, Falkeisen and his wife signed the entire business establishment, their present possessions and their future inheritance as a pledge.

Only one year later, Falkeisen planned the printing and publication of the imperially privileged Corpus Juris Civilis in Eglisau on behalf of the Zurich bailiff Bürkli . For this project Falkeisen rented larger premises in Basel and rushed into further expenses. Through further intrigues on the part of the king and other envious people, Falkeisen became entangled in ever greater difficulties. The result was that his wife, his father-in-law as well as his brother-in-law Mandgoldt and Falkeisen's relatives distanced themselves from him. They arranged that Falkeisen was put into custody for punishment for his alleged dissolute lifestyle. During the five days in detention, his sister and father-in-law searched Falkeisen's papers. The electoral Bible privilege found there was handed over to the Basel authorities.

As a result, Falkeisen also fell into disrepute at Elsevier. They asked the Basel Council to sequester the books submitted to the commission, which request was also granted. After his release, Falkeisen traveled to Frankfurt to buy the necessary letter material for his Corpus Juris Civilis. His absence was in turn used by his relatives, relatives and other opponents to discredit Falkeisen through further slander. At the request of his relatives, Falkeisen was arrested shortly after his arrival in Basel and held in the Spalentor from mid-August 1661 on account of alleged insanity and wastefulness. The Basel authorities later sued Falkeisen for public annoyance and alleged customs fraud.

Afraid of dying in prison, Falkeisen signed a petition dictated by the notary Jeremias Fäsch († 1698) after five months in prison in November 1661, in which he admitted all the business misconduct accused of him and asked the council to ban him to Holland. In the original feud , Falkeisen swore to stay in Holland for the next six years, which the council accepted despite his alleged insanity.

In exile (1661–1671)

A council decision prohibited Falkeisen from stopping in Heidelberg on his way to Holland , but this did not prevent him from staying with his friend Emanuel Froben (* 1604), the father of Emanuel Froben and from the Swiss family of publishers and civil servants, with his friend the electoral-Palatinate stable master Frobenius came to find shelter in Heidelberg for the first few weeks. In 1659, Falkeisen campaigned for Emanuel Froben, who wanted to set up an academic riding school in Basel. However, the project failed because of stubborn resistance from Basel mayor Johann Rudolf Wettstein.

Through Froben, Falkeisen came into contact with the lawyer, Palatine Chancellor and privy councilor Johann Ludwig Mieg (1609–1671). This persuaded Falkeisen to stay and introduced him to the court of Karl I. Ludwig . The elector took Falkeisen into his service and gave him the office of "computing council". He also stood up for him by forwarding Falkeisen's detailed defense to the Basel Council.

In the spring of 1664, Falkeisen, with the support of the elector, sent the imperial notary Johann Wendel Nagel von Heidelberg to Basel with powers of attorney to represent his claims. Falk iron main demands for lifting of Urfehde, recognition of his Bible privilege and a conviction of his brother Mangoldt to 30,000 Reichstalern because of credit damage but were turned away. As far as Mangoldt's printing of the Tossanibibel was concerned, the Basel Council did not have to forbid Mangoldt's plans to print the Bible despite the elector's lack of consent. This appeared in the spring of 1665.

Falkeisen was able to win the Frankfurt book printer Balthasar Christof Wust , the elder, for an edition of his Tossanibibel, which the Count of Donnersmarck financed in advance. Wust had Friedrich Casimir von Hanau approve this reprint and sent his journeymen, presses and writings to Hanau to carry out the work. Mangoldt was able to prevent the reprinting, however, by winning over the Reichsfiskal Phillipp Werner von Emmerich in Speier and the Count of Hanau for his concern with the help of many gold dukets and this Wust and Falkeisen forbade the Bible to be reprinted.

In the following years, Falkeisen tried several times in vain to obtain compensation from Mangoldt for the expenses he had already paid. In the summer of 1669, Falkeisen received support from Charles IV by sending his Colonel Jormann to the Basel Council with a petition. These should revise the previous judgments regarding Falkeisen and Mangoldt again. But this attempt also failed.

Finally, Count Colbert, the French resident in Ensisheim , appointed Falkeisen as an officer of the cavalry and offered him a free company to catch or shoot down the gentlemen's trains and everything one comes across from Basel and French soil under the pretext of the plague. Among the officers with whom Falkeisen dealt was also the Basel lieutenant colonel Samuel Henzgi (1630–1679), known as La Roche. This made Falkeisen believe that he had campaigned for him in Basel and that Falkeisen could safely return to Basel, which he did on October 3, 1671 and was taken prisoner.

The Duke Mazarin, the French commandant in Alsace , sent a letter to the Basel mayor via an express rider to hand over Falkeisen to the King of France. However, which was rejected.

The treason trial 1671

Falkeisen was accused of breaking the original feud, touching the exemption and defamation and activities at foreign courts. Since Falkeisen was incapable of understanding and repeatedly insisted that he was the victim of his adversaries, he was taken to the Spalenturm. There he was tortured, which resulted in Falkeisen confessing what they wanted to hear from him. On the basis of these confessions, which were gathered in six interrogations lasting several hours, the lawyers were instructed to submit their official concerns, which were read out in the council on November 29th.

After the legal scholars and the clergy demanded the death penalty for Falkeisen and a written pardon from the closest relatives as well as the intercession of Falkeisen's wife had no effect, there was no rescue for Falkeisen. The judgment, death by the sword, was pronounced by the council on December 6th and carried out quietly the next day at five o'clock in the morning by the executioner Master Jacob. Falkeisen's body was buried near St. Elisabethen . His writings were also publicly burned in the marketplace to deter his supporters.

The lawyer, politician and leader of the civil rights movement Jacob Henricpetri (1644–1695) celebrated Falkeisen's memory as that of a Basel arch-martyr in his treatise “Basel-Babel”. Thereupon Henricpetri was declared outlawed by the Basel authorities, his picture was hung on the gallows and his treatise was publicly burned.

literature

• Paul Kölner : The Falkeisensche Handel from 1616–1671. In: Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde , Vol. 23, 1925, pp. 8–93. ( e-periodica.ch )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Ryff, Peter. Retrieved May 16, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Paul Cologne: Falk iron Bible privilege. Retrieved May 16, 2020 . 
3. ^ Paul Kölner: Falkeisen's sworn primal feud. Retrieved May 16, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Balthasar Christoph Wust the Elder. GBV, accessed on May 16, 2020 . 
5. ↑ Thomas Schibler: Henricpetri, Jacob. Retrieved May 16, 2020 .