Valerius Anshelm

Valerius Anshelm (* 1475 as Valerius Rüd (also Ryd ) in Rottweil , † 1546 / 47 probably in Berne ) was a Bernese chronicler .

Life

Valerius Anshelm was probably born in Rottweil in 1475. The city in Swabia was allied with the Swiss Confederation as a place facing it . His grandfather "Boley the Rüd called Anshelm" fought on the side of the Confederates in the Burgundian Wars . After studying in Krakow , Tübingen and Lyon , he settled in Bern . There he was appointed schoolmaster of the Latin school in 1505 and city ​​doctor in 1508 .

Anshelm was one of the first and most ardent proponents of the Bern Reformation . He was in correspondence with Zwingli and Vadian and was friends with Berchtold Haller and Niklaus Manuel . Due to religious differences, Anshelm and his family temporarily withdrew to Rottweil in 1525. As early as 1528 he was to be found again in Bern, where after the introduction of the Reformation he was commissioned to write a chronicle "from the Burgundian war to this hour". In addition, he continued to work as a city doctor. The exact date of death is not known. He died between August 1546 and February 1547.

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Title page of the Bern Chronicle Volume 4 of the 1829 edition

Anshelms employment as a Bernese chronicler was based on an assignment from his first stay in Bern. The Latin chronicle, created in 1510, was not printed until 1540. His main work is the Bern Chronicle , which was commissioned as a continuation of the chronicles by Konrad Justinger and Diebold Schilling . The history of the city of Bern begins with a brief introduction to its early history and then delves into the period from the Burgundian Wars to the present day (1536). From the time after 1526, however, only fragments are available.

Anshelm's presentation is based on older chronicles, eyewitness accounts and his own experiences. His access to documented material and official sources is remarkable. He lets his reformed sentiments be clearly expressed and vehemently attacks the traveling and the pensions system . The chronicle is lively and vividly written. Leopold von Ranke already praised it as one of the best chronicles of its time.

Expenditure:

• Berner Chronik, from the beginning of the city to 1526 , ed. by Rudolf Emanuel Stierlin and Johann Rudolf Wyss , 6 vols., 1825–1833. Vol. 1 Vol. 2 Vol. 3 Vol. 4 Vol. 5 Vol. 6 ,
• The Bern Chronicle of Valerius Anshelm , ed. from the Historical Association of the Canton of Bern, (Emil Bloesch), 6 vols., 1884–1901. Digital edition 2008

literature

• Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  Anshelm, Valerius. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 1, Bautz, Hamm 1975. 2nd, unchanged edition Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-013-1 , Sp. 188-188.
• Richard Feller , Edgar Bonjour : Historiography of Switzerland from the late Middle Ages to the modern age. Basel / Stuttgart 1979, pp. 165-174.
• Hans-Beat Flückiger: Anshelm, Valerius. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Franz Moser: Anshelm, Valerius . In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 312 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Regula Schmid: History in the service of the city. Official history and politics in the late Middle Ages . Zurich 2009.
• Regula Schmid: The chronicle in the archive. Official historiography and its potential for use in the late Middle Ages and in the early modern period. In: Instrumentalization of Historiography in the Middle Ages , ed. v. Gudrun Gleba (Das Mittelalter 5, 2000), pp. 115-138.
• Alfred Stern :  Anshelm, Valerius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 483 f.
• Urs Martin Zahnd: “We are willing to have a kronick described” Bernese historiography in the 16th and 17th centuries. In: Bern journal for history and local history. Historischer Verein des Kantons Bern, 67/1 (2005), pp. 37–61. ( Online ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Valerius Anshelm in the catalog of the German National Library
• RAG