Details

Subjects:

Oaths -- Germany.
Letter writing, German.
Oaths.
Pfreimd (Germany) -- History -- Sources.
Bavaria (Germany) -- History -- Sources.
Germany.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Manuscripts, German.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

German, with some letters in Latin.

Summary:

The core of the codex (f. 25-66 plus 87r) is a collection of 40 oaths of office to be sworn in the context of a town government within the landgraviate of Leuchtenberg in Bavaria, presumably the city of Pfreimd, in the Upper Palatinate (Oberpfalz), dated as of emendations made on 11 April 1597; the oath for new citzens (f. 29v) specifies that one is to swear loyalty to Georg Ludwig, Landgrave of Leuchtenberg (1563-1613), sovereign of the land (Landesfürst) and mayor and counsel (Bürgermaister und Rath) of the town of Pfreimd. The offices covered range from mayor and town councillor to diverse functions such as brewmaster, inspectors of bread and meat, and midwife; an oath for Jews is also included. The oaths are given in the form of third-person directives summarizing the responsibilities that the person should swear to uphold, rather than as first-person statements. Interposed among the oaths are two general sections: 1. f. 55-58, pertaining to the meaning of the oath and the consequences of swearing a false oath; and 2. f. 60-63, on the Shrovetide court (Fastnachtgericht) and certain tolls collected at that time (Fürsten Zoll). In addition to the oaths, the codex contains an assembly of diverse model letters inserted both before (f. 9-24) and after (f. 67-396), under categorical headings such as petition, passport letter, wedding invitation, and letter of condolence. A few of the letters are in verse (f. 319r, 369r-370r); and one is an acrostic (370v-372r). The model letters are copies of actual letters including names, places of residence, and dates. The dates of the letters range from 1546 (f. 89r) to 1627 (f. 316v, 324v); place names include Nuremberg (f. 64v, 84v, 108v, 237r), and other localities in Bavaria such as Fürth (f. 69v), Altdorf (f. 146v, 233r), Demeldorf (f. 67v), Hallernsdorf (f. 295r), and Regensburg (f. 316v). The codex includes a table of contents or index (f. 1-8) that details both the oaths and the letters (the latter listed alphabetically according to category).

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from inside upper cover.
Collation: Paper, 396; 1⁸ 2¹⁶ 3-4⁴ 5⁴(-1) 6-12⁴ 13⁴(-4) 14-17⁴ 18-19⁸ 20⁶ 21¹² 22-24⁸ 25⁶ 26⁴ 27-28⁸ 29⁶ 30⁸ 31¹⁴ 32⁶ 33⁸ 34¹²(+4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) 35¹² 36-37⁸ 38⁶(+2,3) 39⁴ 40-41⁸ 42¹² 43-45⁸ 46⁶ 47-49⁸ 50-51¹² 52-54⁴ 55⁸ 56¹²; [1-396]; contemporary pagination or foliation in ink using a variety of schemes, upper outer corners, modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto. Additional leaves appear to have been removed between gatherings 17 and 18, or f. 82 and 83, contemporary with the writing and binding. A partial loose leaf was found lying between f. 387 and 388.
Layout: Written in 16-31 long lines with varying margins.
Script: Written in several German cursive hands.
Decoration: Some embellished initials of 2-7 lines (f. 150v, 159r, 221r, 223r, 267v, 282v, 285r, 377r, 381r).
Binding: Contemporary stamped calf over wooden boards, rebacked (Zacour-Hirsch), with remnants of two clasps.
Origin: Written in Bavaria between 1597 and 1627 (f. 316v).

Penn Provenance:

On the inside lower cover is a dedication from someone by the last name of Zeiss (?), town clerk (Stadtschreyb) of Hilpoltstein, to a person of noble birth; the name of the recipient is difficult to read.
Sold by Ivan Volkoff (Pasadena, Calif.), 1956.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 81 (Ms. German 12).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1093

Contains:

Allerley Missiv Brieff.

OCLC:

183894558