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Joannes Susenbrotus: A Forgotten Humanist

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Joseph X. Brennan
Joseph X. Brennan*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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Extract

No humanist of comparable influence upon Renaissance learning has been so little known and so long ignored as Joannes Susenbrotus. In addition to two fairly popular Latin grammars, Susenbrotus compiled a definitive treatise on the figures of speech, the Epitome Troporum ac Schematum, which during the century following its first appearance in 1541 was the most frequently printed and widely used work of its kind. As T. W. Baldwin has amply established in William Shakspere's Smalle Latine & Lesse Greeke, in the second half of the 16th century this Epitome generally became the standard work from which English schoolboys—including most probably Shakespeare himself—learned their precepts for eloquence. The influence of the Epitome, moreover, extended far beyond the limits of the Latin curriculum and penetrated yet more deeply into the cultural life of England through various English adaptations. On the continent, in German-speaking areas particularly, the influence of Susenbrotus was no less extensive, but even there his fame did not endure. Despite his considerable contribution to sixteenth-century learning and the wide fame of his Epitome, no encyclopedic or biographical work of the present century so much as mentions his name. The most complete account of Susenbrotus' career, in fact, is a five-page study which appeared more than half a century ago in an obscure diocesan publication—a study still of value, though limited in range and inaccurate in some of its conclusions. There is distinct justification, then, for a detailed study of a man whose importance modern scholarship is only just beginning to recognize.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 75 , Issue 5 , December 1960 , pp. 485 - 496
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1960

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References

1 For a detailed analysis of the make-up and function of the Epitome, the reader is referred to my article “The Epitome Troporum ac Schematum: The Genesis of a Renaissance Rhetorical Text,” QJC, xlvi, No. 1 (February 1960), 59–71.

2 Urbana, 1944. ii, 138–175; and iand ii passim.

3 Pp. 40, 43. There is evidence also that Richard Sherry's A Treatise of the Figures of Grammar and Rhetorike, 1555, is in part derived directly from the Epitome.

4 P. Fox, S.J., “Hans Susenbrot, ein verschollener schwâ-bischer Humanist und lateinischer Schulmeister,” Diozes-anarchiv von Schwaben, xxv (1907), 8–12.

5 On pp. 40r-v appears the following marginal note to the term Almangavia: “Alemanorum ager sive convallis das Algôw / sive potius Almangôw.” The etymology which Susenbrotus here gives of the term Algôw is quite inaccurate; according to the Schwâbisches Worterbuch (Hermann Fischer, 1887) the term derives ultimately from Alpen and gau through a number of such intermediate forms as Alpigowe, Albegewe, Alhegowa, Algowe. The term Almangams, accordingly, is a misnomer.

6 A detailed study of this problem may be found in my article, “The Grammaticae Artis Institutio of Joannes Susenbrotus: A Bibliographical Note,” Studies in Bibliography, xiv (1960), 197–200.

7 For my information concerning the family of Susenbrotus in Wangen, I am greatly indebted to Dr. Albert Scheurle, Archivist of that city; he has kindly transcribed and summarized from the city's ancient records the materials to be used in the discussion below.

8 I am particularly indebted to Dr. Hengstler for transcriptions and summaries of a number of entries in the city records respecting Susenbrotus.

9 Die Matrikel der Universitat Freiburg im Breisgau von 1460–1656 (Freiburg, 1907), i, 196.

10 This information Susenbrotus imparts in detail in the introduction to the 2nd and 3rd eds. of his Grammaticae Artis Institutio.

11 Dr. Johann Schupp, Zell am Andersbach uber Pfullendorf, has kindly provided me with this and all other available information to be found in the unpublished Stadtbuch of Pfullendorf concerning the name of Susenbrotus.

12 Hans Georg Wackernagel, ed., Die Mairikel der Universitat Basel (Basel, 1951), i, 348.

13 Dr. Franz Gall, Archivist of the University of Vienna, has kindly provided me with the following transcriptions of these: 1. Protocollum nationum Rhenani universitatis Vienn. I, 218: “Anno 1S03 in vigilia palmarum [April 8] Johannes Hauyenpratten ex Wangen.” 2. Matricula univ. Vienn. torn, iii, fol. 125, col. 2 ad annum 1503 in die Sanctorum Tiburtii et Valeriani [April 14]: “Joannes Sawsenbrat de Wangen.” 3. Matricula facullatis arlium univ. Vienn. (1501–75), fol. 10 ad 5 May 1503: “Johannes Susenbrot ex Wangen.”

14 Joseph Ritter von Aschbach, Geschichte der Wiener Universitat (Vienna, 1877), pp. 41–72.

15 K. Klupfel, Urkunden zur Geschichle des Schwabischen Bundes (1488–1533) (Stuttgart, 1853). Zweiter Theil 1507–33, p. 63.

16 C. A. Bâchtold, Schaffhauser Schulgeschichte bis zum Jahre 1645 (Schaffhausen 1884), p. 68.

17 Geschichte des Kantons Schaffhausen, Festschrift des Kantons Schaffhausen zur Bundesfeier 1901 (Schaffhausen, 1901), pp. 363–364.

18 Albert Scheurle, Wangen im Allgâu (Wangen im Allgâu, 1950), pp. 129–130.

19 Wilhelm Vischer, Geschichte der Universitat Basel (Basel, 1860), pp. 149–156.

20 Bernard Harms, Der Stadthaushalt Basels im ausgehenden Mittelalter (Tubingen, 1913), pp. 333, 344, 356.

21 Rudolf Wackernagel, Geschichte der Stadt Basel (Basel, 1924), iii, 429.

22 Dr. Hans Fehrlin of the Stadtbibliothek, St. Gallen, has kindly sent me the following transcription of this passage in Rutiner's Diarium: “Johannes sussenbrot ludimagister iam Ravenspurg praefectus bursae basileae dum ego ibidem uxorem habet avidissimam ut libros emat rarum in uxore ipse alias parcissimus.”

23 In the Spitalarchiv of Ravensburg, a deed dated 28 May 1537, refers to “Johannes Sausenbrat, latein. Schulmeister in Ravensburg und seiner Hausfrau Elizabeth [sic] Hippoltin.”

24 H. G. Wackernagel, Die Matrikel der Universitât Basel, p. 368.

25 In the Geschichte des humanistischen Schulwesens in Wurttemberg (Stuttgart, 1912), i, 441, we find the notice that Susenbrotus “ist 1524 Zeuge bei einer Priesterinvestitur in Ravensburg”; it seems likely that he may have used this occasion to negotiate his appointment at Ravensburg for the following year.

26 Adalbert Horawitz and Karl Hartfelder, eds., Briefwechsel des Beatus Rhenanus (Leipzig, 1886), p. 364.

27 In T. Hafner's Geschichte der Stadt Ravensburg (Ravensburg, 1887), p. 505, there is the notice that “1528 wurde Hans Hoffmeister von Lindau als lateinischer Schulmeister angenommen.”

28 Hinterlegung Pfullendorf, Akten Fasz. 226 fol. 82, in the Badische Generallandesarchiv, Karlsruhe.

29 See the passage from the archives of Ravensburg quoted on p. 486.

30 I have quoted these passages, with all their imperfections and inconsistencies in spelling, verbatim from Hafner.

31 This procession is even today called the Blutritt. See Der Grosse Brockhaus, xx, 128.

32 The director of the Bayerische Hauptstaatsarchiv, Munich, has informed me that the original documents which Gunter here summarizes have been lost.

33 Summary of a deed, 8 December, 1545, in the Stadtarchiv of Ravensburg, Fasc. 440a.

34 In Conrad Gesner's Bibliotheca (Zurich, 1545), p. 457v, the following notation is added to the list of Susenbrotus' works: “Rudimenta Latinae & Graecae Grammaticae simulconiuncta, nondum impressa.” The manuscript was evidently at the Froschauer printing house at the time but was never printed.

35 Information from German libraries indicates that copies of five printings of this work are still extant: 1542 (Leopold-Sophien-Bibliothek, Tubingen); 1544 (Universitàtsbiblio-thek, Freiburg im Breisgau); 1549 (Stadtbibliothek, Trier); 1554 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich); 1558 (Universitâtsbibliothek, Freiburg im Breisgau).

36 Of this third edition there were at least two undated editions and four dated editions (1544, 1558, 1565, 1570) printed at Zurich by Froschauer. The Bibliothèque Nationale also possesses a copy of an edition printed at Lyons by A. Vincentius in 1556.

37 This information, which has been gathered from a variety of sources, is detailed in my unpublished doctoral dissertation at the Univ. of Illinois Library: The Epitome Troporum ac Schematum of Joannes Susenbrotus: Text, Translation and Commentary, 1953, pp. xxii-xxiv.