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The Original Manuscript of Ulrich Schmidl: German Conquistador and Chronicler

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Marion Lois Huffines
Marion Lois Huffines*
Affiliation:
Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
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Extract

In 1534 Ulrich Schmidl set sail for South America where he participated in the Spanish conquest of the River Plate region. He remained there twenty years, after which he returned to his native town Straubing and wrote a diary of his adventures. This account represents one of the oldest and most important sources of information about the Spanish conquest of the River Plate region and the first settlements in Argentina. Although it is often difficult to identify tribes and villages due to his distorted spellings of the Indian names, historians regard the account as generally reliable. The text is preserved in three manuscripts in Stuttgart, Munich, and Hamburg. The Stuttgart manuscripts stems from Ulrich Schmidl himself. It is located in the Hautstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, where it is identified as Cod. hist. 4° 153. It was edited in 1893 by Johannes Mondschein, who, in the preface to his edition, characterized the manuscript as “die erste Niederschrift von der ungeübten Hand des eben von einem langen und wilden Kriegsund Abenteuerleben heimgekehrten Kriegsmannes.” The two other manuscripts are later copies, although the Munich manuscript does contain Schmidl's signature in his own hand.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , October 1977 , pp. 202 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1977

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References

1 Ulrich Schmidls Reise nach Südamerika in den Jahren 1534 bis 1554, Programm zum Jahresberichte der K. Realschule Straubing für 1892/93 (Straubing: Cl. Attenkofer, 1893), Vorbemerkungen.

2 The Conquest of the River Plate 1535–1555). Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 81 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1891), p. xxiii.

3 Hulsius, Levinus, “Nothwendige Erinnerungan den günstigen Leser,” in Schmidel, Ulrich, Warhafftige Historien einer wunderbaren Schiffart (Nürnberg: Levinus, 1599),Google Scholar sig. A4r.

4 The only Spanish translation which is based on this manuscript was done by Wernicke, Edmundo, Cronica del viaje a las regiones del Plata, Paraguay y Brasil (Buenos Aires: Comision oficial del IV centenario de la primera fundacion de Buenos Aires 1536–1936, 1948).Google Scholar This edition contains a facsimile of the manuscript, a transcription of the German, and the Spanish tranlation.

5 The most complete account of Schmidl’s life is given by Mondschein, Johannes, Ulrich Schmidl von Straubing und seine Reisebeschreibung, Beilage zum Jahresberichte der Königl. Realschule Straubing pro 1880–1881 (Straubing: CI. Attenkofer, 1881), pp. 1–47.Google Scholar

6 This statement is deleted in the later editions. It follows a description of a crocodile and reads:

Jch hedt von diessem fisch nit geschrieben wan ich sein haudt nit gesehen hedt Zu Munchen Jn meiness gennedigen herrn Hertzog Albrechten in seiner schiess hueden die Er hadt Jn dem duergarden/so hab ich geleich daruon muessen sagen Auch diessem obgemelten flechken Achere sinnen am Aller maiesten dan An Annder ortten (leaf 56v, line 10)

Literally translated: I would not have written about this fish if I had not seen its hide in Munich in the hunting lodge of my gracious lord Duke Albrecht, which he had in the animal park. Thus I just had to say something about it. Also in this above-mentioned land Achere, there are more than in any other place.

The corresponding passage in the 1567 printed edition does not have the specific reason for Schmidl’s writing about the crocodile: hette derhalben von diesem Fisch nit so viel geschrieben/wenn ich nit einen gewissen grundt von jhme hette (leaf 12v, line 34). Translation: I would not have written so much about this fish if I did not have a certain reason for it.

7 Domínguez, p. xvii.