Eine Augsburger

Sittenlehre

Vorwort des Herausgebers

Angus Graham

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The spiritual curriculum of a young citizen:

a reading of Hain 10006

Angus Graham, Muscat, March 2005

Often referred to by the title of the first work in this compendium (the Lere und unterweisung), sometimes valued only for the inclusion of a work by Steinhöwel, Hain 10006 presents us with an anthology of German language texts which is of itself interesting in the nature of its collection. Regarded, to some extent misleadingly, as a second edition, several of the texts collected into Hain 10006 are the same as some texts in the earlier, larger-format collection Hain 10005 (of 1472, and regarded as Johannes Bämler's earliest print to bear a date), so:

That the texts were intended to be bound together as one compen­dium is not in doubt, even though portions have circulated separately. One copy of Hain 10006 retains the original 'Register' listing the works to be found in the volume, and the same is true for several copies of Hain 10005. The selection and order of texts is therefore deliberate, as one might expect in an anthology. But what is the anthologist's purpose? This question has not as yet been addressed.

Let us begin with the earlier Hain 10005. The first item, a stripped-down version of Albertano of Brescia's three treatises, is from a Swabian translation of the 1450s, and is known in manuscript also. The text gives general moral guidance on a variety of familiar topics including control of one's tongue, respect for authority, the notions of alms and charity, etc. Framed in the typical pedagogic mode of a young man asking advice of an esteemed elder, the text is plainly targeted quite precisely at the teenage burgher schoolboy. The Sermo de matrimonio which follows explains marriage as a moral duty and the procreation of children as providing for spiritual fulfilment. The teenage youth, soon to leave school, would be in precisely this position. The next two texts further strengthen the notion of lay spirituality, Newn stuck on how service to God might be bound into professional life, and Der menschen spiegel on how such spirituality is be be developed through self-examination and examination of one's relationship with God. The Ars moriendi reminds the young burgher of the need to be prepared for death, which could come at any minute and, indeed, in the Augsburg of 1472, was once more present in the form of the plague. Only the few very oldest citizens would remember the terrible plague year of 1420, but 1472 was quite bad enough in Swabia and in Augsburg and Ulm in particular. The seventh and eighth items pick up on this theme in particular, after Steinhöwel's tale of Griseldis, this paragon of womanly virtue and reassertion of male authority/female submission. The exposition of the decalogue right at the end of the book reminds the reader both how to live one's life and also how we all will be judged. Hain 10005, therefore, is targeted nicely at the young burgher and contains themes of guidance for the life before him: civic life, the responsibility of marriage, lay spirituality, mortality, the virtues to be sought for in a good woman, all within a framework of spiritual self-knowledge and divine law.

Hain 10006 is even more closely focused. The Lere und unter­weisung is followed immediately by the Apollonius; from the generally moral life recommended in the condensed works of Albertano, we move immediately into the man of responsibility at large in the world, suffering reversals and losses, but surviving and eventually triumphing through faith and morality. This is a more logical choice of text for a young man soon to enter professional life, and it leads into the Sermo de matrimonio quite logically, before the Newn stuck (how to lead a virtuous civic life), Der menschen spiegel (how to gain insight into one's relationship with God) and the Ars moriendi (a warning on mortality). The selection and sequence of texts in this volume has become a quite- strictly ordered curriculum vitæ, taking the youth from professional life into the adventuresome world outside the city, to marriage, to civic service, to one's own spiritual development, and ultimately to death. It argues an understanding of civic life which is at once professional and worldly, but also depends on an understanding of spirit, morals, and responsibility. Like Hain 10005, this volume also ends with an expression of law and legality, though the Processus juris is man's law, not God's, bringing us closer now to the city as man's creation.

Bämler was printing in the Benedictine city-centre monastery of SS. Ulrich and Afra in Augsburg, in his early years under the direction of Abbot Melchior von Stammheim. It is no coincidence that Johannes von Werdenberg, at that time bishop of Augsburg and tutor to the young Prince Maximilian, was instrumental in poaching Zainer from Ulm and so introducing printing to Augsburg. The Benedictines were, of course, educators, and were at the forefront of schooling in much of Europe. That an educator such as Melchior, running an essentially Benedictine press, should print a school-text for use with the local bourgeois youth is no surprise. But the achievement of unity from a not-obviously related corps of texts is something quite notable, suggesting a holistic and progressive approach to syllabus and an intimate understanding of civic life. It should be remembered that Maximilian, mentioned above, was of precisely the age that this book would have been targeted at. It should also be remembered that, as emperor, later in life, Maximilian entered the lay confraternity of the very monastery whose presses had produced this work and others.

It is difficult now to reassemble this book into a form resembling its original composition. Of four surviving portions, none are complete, all are mutilated, and they are dispersed between Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart. Overlap between the portions does not permit us to recreate every single sheet – for this we need to be informed from elsewhere within the textual transmissions. This has, however, now been done with the text presented here. The objective has been to create a text that is first and foremost readable. It is not a text-critical edition nor does it attempt to be. It is a readable book containing a collection of texts and it offers, through a different medium, a similar experience to that enjoyed by the young Augsburg citizen of the 1470s – the citizen who would, as an adult, participate in the great Reformation debate, help to finance the discovery of the New World and contribute to and benefit from the cultural renewal of the Renaissance, of which texts like this were a first inkling.

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For the modern reader I have resolved Bämler's typographic u/v to represent current norms; vowel modifications have been restricted by the keyboard, and so are limited to 'umlaut' (not always appropriate) above everything except for 'w' (left unmarked) and 'ů'. All contractions have been expanded without notice. 'S/s' has been used throughout, whether initial, medial or final.

Copyright © 2005 Angus Graham