Theses sheet

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Theses sheet Die Weltmission der Gesellschaft Jesu , 17th century. Engraving from two plates, 91.9 × 64.4 cm; State and City Library Augsburg

The historical and art-historical research uses the printed announcements of the disputations as theses sheets , with which the subjects of the scholarly discussions were publicly announced in the academic world of the early modern period . The thesis sheets experienced a special bloom in the 17th century as elaborately designed baroque copper engravings .

history

From the beginning of the 16th century it was the custom to announce the theses of the disputations , the academic exams, by posting; this was done in the form of single-leaf woodcuts and increasingly also in notebooks. It became customary to add a dedication to a patron of the announcements , from which the illustrated theses sheet as a large-format copper engraving developed around 1600 based on homage and dedication sheets.

The form and use of the artistically designed theses sheet spread in the 17th century in Catholic higher education in Europe, particularly through the Jesuits . In Protestant circles, the announcements remained simple text posters that were only sparsely illustrated. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, the thesis sheet went out of fashion among scholars in the course of the Enlightenment .

features

The baroque thesis sheet, engraved in copper, printed on paper or silk, shows a combination of text and image in a large format. In addition to the theses to be defended and the tenets, the text also contains the place and time of the disputation as well as the names of the defendants , the examinees, and the name of the president in charge of the event , who usually wrote the theses to be disputed.

The text corpus is creatively integrated into the image representation and subordinate to it; frequent motifs are altars and triumphal arches, theaters and stages. In terms of the type of illustration, a distinction is made between two types: on the one hand, depictions that have a direct reference to the topics announced in the text, and on the other, pictorial depictions of a symbolic or emblematic character that are more independent in terms of content , a reception of the prints that is independent of the actual occasion and therefore others Editions of the sheets allowed.

A draftsman laid out the entire composition, the draft was carried out by an engraver. Jeremias Wolff , Wolfgang Kilian and Gottfried Bernhard Göz worked as engravers of theses ; Mathias Rauchmiller is documented as a draftsman . The thesis sheet also served as an invitation for the professors as well as the fellow students and friends of the examinees and was also sent to noble houses and monasteries. It was also used as a poster and as a program for the audience at the public disputations. After completing an exam, it occasionally became a collector's item.

reception

The limited edition and the loss of the academic function in the 18th century resulted in a comparatively low number of theses sheets being preserved; since then, the second-hand book trade has not infrequently carried them as single printed works. For the theses sheet on “The World Mission of the Society of Jesus”, a print of two copper plates, the reprints could prove that the plates had been in use at various universities for over 40 years. This sheet experienced verifiable editions in 1664 in Dillingen , 1672 in Freiburg im Breisgau and 1705 in Prague .

literature

  • Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke: The Theses Sheet in High Baroque. Studies on a graphic genre using the example of the works of Bartholomäus Kilian . Konrad, Weißenhorn 1988, ISBN 3-874-37251-0 .
  • Gregor Martin Lechner: The baroque thesis sheet. Origin, distribution, effect. The Göttweiger stock . Annual exhibition June 30th to October 29th ( annual exhibition of the Graphisches Kabinett des Stift Göttweig 34) Graphisches Kabinett, Stift Göttweig, Furth Lower Austria 1985 (without ISBN).
  • Anette Michels: Philosophy and praise to the ruler as a picture. Beginnings and development of the southern German theses sheet in the work of the Augsburg copperplate engraver Wolfgang Kilian (1581–1663) . In: Art History: Form and Interest , Volume 10; Lit, Münster 1987, ISBN 3-88660-301-6 (Partly at the same time: Dissertation at the University of Bonn , 1986).
  • Stefan W. Römmelt: Thesis sheet . From: media and communication . In: historicum.net
  • Jutta Schumann: The baroque thesis sheet . In: The other sun. Kaiserbild and media strategies in the age of Leopold I. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-050-03752-3 (Online: p. 355 ff. ).
  • Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke: Thesis sheet . In: RDK Labor (2020).

Web links

Commons : Theses Sheets  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The graphical Thesen- and promotion leaves in Bamberg . Wiesbaden 2001 ( review by Manfred Komorowski )
  2. ↑ Stefan W. Römmelt: Thesenblatt
  3. ↑ Stefan W. Römmelt: Thesenblatt
  4. ↑ Ingrid Eiden: Thesis sheets and congratulatory sheets . "Appearances" (1991)
  5. ↑ Stefan W. Römmelt: Thesenblatt
  6. ^ Sibylle Appuhn-Radtke: Das Thesenblatt im Hochbarock (1988), pp. 256–260