Abstract
Sigmund Gossembrot (1417–1493), a representative of early German humanism, has left a remarkable collection of books that so far has only partially been explored. After completing a busy career as a civil servant in Augsburg, Gossembrot moved to Strasbourg where he joined the convent of the Knights Hospitaller zum Grünen Wörth (the ‘Green Isle’) in order to study his books. Today the surviving volumes are spread in libraries all over Europe (with a certain concentration on the Bavarian State Library in Munich). Gossembrot left numerous annotations on the pages that attest his manifold literary interests and his reading habits, embedded in the social environment of both imperial towns and beyond. The abundant glosses, including many cross-references to other works, also allow the reconstruction of the content of currently lost manuscripts. This paper discusses methods of documenting and examining Gossembrot’s library, including a digital database currently under construction on: www.gossembrot.unibe.ch.
Presenters
Michael StolzProfessor, Department of German, University of Bern, Bern (de), Switzerland
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Reading, Library, Humanism, Digitization
