Germany’s Glory, Past and Present: Konrad Peutinger’s Sermones convivales de mirandis Germanie antiquitatibus and Antiquarian Philology

Abstract

In the 1470s, for a relatively short period, Alsace was carried into the bright spotlight of history. Sigismund of Habsburg, Archduke of Austria, had given his possessions in Alsace as a fiefdom to the duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold. In return, Charles would help the house of Habsburg defend its frontiers against the Swiss confederates. The Burgundians had become important players in European politics since the fourteenth century, and the control of a region abutting on the southern Rhine was an important step in their attempt to unite an impressive amount of territory in central Europe. But in 1474, Sigismund signed an agreement with the Swiss and decided to get back his possessions. However, Charles refused. The result of this and other problems in these same years were the so-called Burgundian Wars, which lasted until 1477 when Charles died on the battlefield. The beginning of the Burgundian Wars was accompanied by weighty propagandistic writings in Germany. Alsatian authors regularly characterize Charles the Bold as an opponent as dangerous as the Turks.2 Johannes Knebel, chaplain at the Minster of Basel, in a letter from 1474, writes: ‘the whole of Germany is nervous because of this damned Burgundian’ (‘tota Germania commota est propter illum maledictum Burgundum’).3 It is noteworthy that here and