Textmanuscripts - Les Enluminures
92 folios on paper, unidentified watermark with letters ‘C’ and ‘S’ below two columns that support an entablature on which inscribed the letters ‘W S’, modern foliation in pencil, 1-92, complete (collation i14 [-1, lacking one blank leaf before f. 1] ii18 iii14 iv18 v14 vi18 (-16, -17, -18, lacking three blank leaves at the end)), catchwords on ff. 2 and 2v, no signatures, no ruling visible (no justification), written in brown ink in cursive script on a variable number of lines, OVER THREE HUNDRED PEN AND INK DRAWINGS OF COATS OF ARMS HAND-PAINTED IN COLORS, some unfinished, an impressed seal with a cardinal’s coat of arms on f. 33, most pages with vertical fold marks, some minor stains and signs of use, small tears on ff. 77 and 80, overall excellent condition. Bound in a parchment leaf over pasteboards reused from a thirteenth-century manuscript of sermons of St. Leo the Great (text from the second sermon of St. Leo the Great on the Resurrection of Christ, “...nobiscum deus. Implet ergo Ihesus proprietatem nominis tui... ; Leo Magnus 1662, p. 70), flat spine, inscribed upside-down in brown ink at the top of the spine “92,” edges painted in red and blue, an attractive cardboard slipcover embellished with marbled paper in blue, pink, green, yellow and liquid gold imitating peacock feathers, inscribed on the spine in black ink in modern handwriting “Wappenhandschrift 16. Jahrh.,” parchment covers stained, a tear at the top of the spine, two pairs of ties lost, but overall good condition. Dimensions 193 x 76 mm.
Both the non-pious content and portable wallet format of this attractive early armorial offer a lively portrait of the original owner – a city councilman in Nuremberg – and the context in which he created and used it. Containing over three hundred hand-painted arms, including some examples that are otherwise unrecorded, and written in easily accessible German and French, instead of Latin, this captivating physical object provides a glimpse into the non-noble social strata of a vibrant Renaissance city in a transformative epoch, when the middle classes found new ways to forge their identities.
1. The manuscript was made in Nuremberg around 1550, most likely for a member of the Pfinzing von Henfenfeld family, Martin II Pfinzing (1521-1572), a city councilman. He certainly owned the manuscript when his bookplate was affixed to the front pastedown sometime between 1569 and 1572, and his name was filled in by hand in the blank lower band of the bookplate, “Martin(us) Pfinzing ab H:.” The etched Pfinzing von Henfenfeld bookplate was made by the Nuremberg printmaker Matthias Zündt in 1569; the initials of Zündt and the date are included in the etching (Warnecke, 1890, no. 1568; Online Resources). French is the traditional language of heraldry, explaining its use here in a manuscript made in Germany.
Martin II Pfinzing adopted a new family coat of arms in 1554 (discussed in detail below), suggesting he was interested in heraldry. Our manuscript includes, among the other arms, the original (pre-1554) Pfinzing arms. As an elementary guide to heraldry, this volume would have served as a useful reference for Martin, or for a herald working for him, and includes an explanation of heraldic division, essential to the new coat of arms adopted in 1554.
2. Modern note of a name “Brat...(?)” written in pencil at top left on f. 7. The Roman and Arabic numerals added in pencil next to many names refer to entries in Siebmachers Wappenbuch (see below).
3. Sold by the auction house Weidler in Nuremberg, September 23, 1995, for 422 German marks according to a note in pencil inside the slipcover.
4. The ink stamp of “Chr. u. H. Klemm” of Grosshabersdorf inside the slipcover.
5. Modern booksellers’ marks on the front pastedown.
TEXT
[f. 1r-v, blank]; ff. 2-3, [Basic information on heraldry, in French, illustrated with pen and ink shields], incipit, “Dans la Composition des Armoiries il y entre doux Metaux, et cinq couleurs particulieres, qui y sont employées à l’execusion de toutes les autres ... L’escu, ou Escusson se partit et divise en diverses sortes de ces partitions. parti, coupé, tranché, taillé.”;
[ff. 3v-6v, blank]; ff. 7-90, Hand-drawn and hand-painted shields with simple figures (parti, coupé, fascé, palé, etc.). The shields are drawn on the recto of the leaves only, with four to each page, most with the names of the towns and families written below. The towns are mainly in Germany and the family names are German, beginning with the arms of Grienbach, Schmügger de Wagerstain, Praunen, Braitenstein, Schmühen, Altorf, Wolnschlager, Hertenstein, and Wolfsatel. A reference in Roman and Arabic numerals to Siebmachers Wappenbuch has been added in pencil next to many of the names (e.g. I. 92, II. 14, etc.; discussed below). [ff. 90v-92v, blank].
Our manuscript belonged to Martin II Pfinzing (1521-1572), from one of the most important patrician families in Nuremberg. Patrician families were entitled to belong to the Inner Council, representing the actual center of power in Nuremberg until the French occupation in 1806. Martin II Pfinzing was the first Obermarktsherr to be elected to the trading board of the Nuremberg Stock Exchange, a link in trade between Italy and other European economic centers, organized on the main marketplace in Nuremberg in the sixteenth century. His father, Martin I Pfinzing (1490-1552), who was portrayed by Albrecht Dürer, acquired Henfenfeld Castle in 1530, the ancestral seat of the Burg Henfenfeld (near Nuremberg), and named his line of the family after the village.
In 1554, the addition of von Henfenfeld to the Pfinzing name was recognized as a title of nobility, and it was confirmed by an addition to the coat of arms. The original Pfinzing arms were: coupé d’or et de sable (illustrated on f. 11 in our manuscript). In 1280/85, Fritz Pfinzing of Nuremberg married Elsbet Geuschmid. Elsbet’s father, Berthold Geuschmid, was the son of Elisabeth Pfinzing, and around 1300 Fritz Pfinzing discarded the old Pfinzing family arms and adopted the Geuschmid coat of arms: coupé d’or à l’aigle naissante de sable et de gueules à un annelet d’argent. In 1554, after the acquisition of the Burg Henfenfeld, Martin II Pfinzing decided to integrate the three coats of arms, resulting in the shield that we see on his bookplate: écartelé, aux 1 et 4, coupé d’or et de sable (Pfinzing), aux 2 et 3, coupé d’or à l’aigle naissante de sable et de gueules à un annelet d’argent (Geuschmid), broché d’un écu fascé d’or, d’azur et d’argent (von Henfenfeld).
Later notes in pencil give short numerical references to Siebmachers Wappenbuch Nuremberg 1772 edition. Thus, the note “II. 63” for “Aheim” on f. 9 refers to Johann Siebmachers allgemeines großes und vollständiges Wappenbuch, 2. Teil, 12, Nuremberg, 1772, p. 63 (cf. Index of Siebmacher's Armorials in Online Resources). The Siebmachers Wappenbuch was the main armorial for the former lands of the German and Austrian empires. It was compiled by Johann Siebmacher (1561-1611), a heraldic artist and publisher from Nuremberg, and first published in 1605 as a multivolume armorial providing 3320 fully illustrated armorial bearings of the nobility and city states of the Holy Roman Empire. It was continually enlarged and reprinted over the years.
People adopted personal or corporate emblems long before the Middle Ages, but the systematic use of colored devices on shields to identify knights grew out of the need to make them recognizable in battles and tournaments, where their armor rendered them virtually anonymous otherwise. As codified in the late Middle Ages, heraldry was restricted to those who had earned the right to bear arms. It was also hereditary: once a man had a coat of arms, he could pass it on in some form to his children, and it also carried legal weight. England, where the college of heraldry was founded in 1484, saw the greatest institutionalization and control over the right to coats of arms. The circumstances in Germany were quite different. Although by c. 1500 new coats of arms in the Holy Roman Empire were supposed to be issued by heralds, in practice, there were many exceptions. Our manuscript, small and easy to use, surviving with vertical fold marks suggesting it was carried about, would have been a convenient introduction to heraldry for its patrician owner, or (perhaps more likely), for a herald in his employment.
Recent research on vernacular illuminated manuscripts owned by the middle classes in Bavarian cities, including Nuremberg, has shown that chronicles charting world history helped the rising middle classes establish their place(s) and importance in a changing urban landscape (see Rowe 2020). Written on paper and in German, these delightful tales help uncover the everyday concerns of people going about their business in a newly defined social stratum. The contemporary readers of the world chronicles were men like Martin Pfinzing who owned this armorial, which, although less deluxe than the world chronicles, similarly sheds light on the struggle for recognition and identity in a civic environment.
Imhoff, C., von, ed. Berühmte Nürnberger aus neun Jahrhunderten, Nuremberg, 1984.
Leo Magnus, [St. Leo the Great]. Heptas praesulum christiana sapientia et facundia clarissimorum, Paris, 1662.
Pastoureau, M. Heraldry: Its Origins and Meanings, London, 1997.
Rowe, N. The Illuminated World Chronicle: Tales from the Late Medieval City, New Haven, 2020.
Warnecke, F. Die deutschen Bücherzeichen & Ex-libris von ihrem Ursprunge bis zur Gegenwart, Berlin, 1890.
Wunder, G. “’Pfintzing die Alten’: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Nürnberger Patriziats,” Mitteilungen des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg 49 (1959), pp. 34-65.
Available online:
https://periodika.digitale-sammlungen.de/mvgn/Blatt_bsb00000966,00039.html
Bookplate of the Pfinzing von Henfenfeld family, 1569 (British Museum)
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_Rosenheim-272
German armorial, with index of family names, and links to images
http://www.wappenbuch.de/
Index of Siebmacher’s Armorials
https://data.cerl.org/siebmacher/_search?lang=en
Bernhard Peter, “Heraldik: Quellen, Literatur und Links,” with lists of editions of Siebmacher, and links to online copies
http://www.welt-der-wappen.de/Heraldik/seite53-sieb.htm
TM 1209
