DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.74283#0029
CHARACTER OF SCHEMBART MSS
II
celebration, as held from 1449 to 1539, was probably included
among the annalistic details of an early chronicle, which then was
the source of the items appearing in the later chronicle compila-
tions, in most of which the Schembart account is to be found.
Thus the seventeenth-century chronicle of Nuremberg in the
Columbia University collection11 has the following comment on
the first Schembartlauf and the dance of the butchers:12
In diesem 1449 Jahr ist der Erste Schenbarth mit 24 Manlein nemblich
12 von den Erbern und 12 von der Gemein Gelauffen, in Welchem
Conradt Eschenloher Hauptmann gewesen, alda haben die Metzger biB
fur das Spitler Thor gedanzt, da sie der Feindt so fur den Wald umrannten
wohl sehen kdnnen.
A brief note like the above is given for the succeeding years until
1539,13 whenever the festival was held, and each time a marginal
caption draws attention to the event. For this text a group of
illustrations of the costumes worn by the Schembartlaufer and of
their activities were furnished by artists, and later these minia-
tures were incorporated in some of the large chronicles.14
The relation between the miniatures in the Schembart MSS and
those appearing in contemporary illustrated MSS is close. Some
Schembart books15 are similar to the Geschlechterbucher in which
the scions of noble and patrician families found portrayal, and
contain many miniatures of knights and their coats of arms (MS
No. 61 has 469 Wappen\ )16 or a complete Turnierbuch, with illus-
11 Columbia University Library, Rare Book Room. This chronicle is dated 1686
and runs from 16 B.C. to 1686 A.D.; it contains no miniatures.
12 Ibid., f. 55V. In this study quotations from the MSS will be modernized with
respect to punctuation and in the treatment of r and s symbols.
Ibid., f. 97v.
14 Cf. MS No. 26: "Niirnbergische Cronica sambt denen gemahlten Schonparten
etc." (1200-1549). Reproductions of the Schembart miniatures are listed in App. C.
15 Cf. MSS Nos. 2, 28, 42, 45, 48, 61.
16 For descriptions of Geschlechterbiicher cf. H. Bosch, "Das Niirnberger Ge-
schlechterbuch von 1563," Mitteilungen des germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1898,
pp. 6gff.; further Katalog der Frhrl. v. Lipperheide'schen Kostiimbibliothek (Berlin,
1896-1901), II, No. 773 (cited below as "Lipperheide"), for a description of the
Geschlecht Buch def Heiligen Reichs Stat Nurnberg (1610; illustration of Die
Tucher opp. p. 354). The Katalog der Holzschnitte im Germ. Museum (Nurnberg,
1892), I, 63-89, contains a very complete and illustrated description of a Nuremberg
Geschlechterbuch of i6io(?). The New York Public Library possesses an un-
finished Geschlechtbuch of Nuremberg (Genealogy Room). These genealogical
chronicles usually have a text borrowed from Meisterlin's Histori, together with
II
celebration, as held from 1449 to 1539, was probably included
among the annalistic details of an early chronicle, which then was
the source of the items appearing in the later chronicle compila-
tions, in most of which the Schembart account is to be found.
Thus the seventeenth-century chronicle of Nuremberg in the
Columbia University collection11 has the following comment on
the first Schembartlauf and the dance of the butchers:12
In diesem 1449 Jahr ist der Erste Schenbarth mit 24 Manlein nemblich
12 von den Erbern und 12 von der Gemein Gelauffen, in Welchem
Conradt Eschenloher Hauptmann gewesen, alda haben die Metzger biB
fur das Spitler Thor gedanzt, da sie der Feindt so fur den Wald umrannten
wohl sehen kdnnen.
A brief note like the above is given for the succeeding years until
1539,13 whenever the festival was held, and each time a marginal
caption draws attention to the event. For this text a group of
illustrations of the costumes worn by the Schembartlaufer and of
their activities were furnished by artists, and later these minia-
tures were incorporated in some of the large chronicles.14
The relation between the miniatures in the Schembart MSS and
those appearing in contemporary illustrated MSS is close. Some
Schembart books15 are similar to the Geschlechterbucher in which
the scions of noble and patrician families found portrayal, and
contain many miniatures of knights and their coats of arms (MS
No. 61 has 469 Wappen\ )16 or a complete Turnierbuch, with illus-
11 Columbia University Library, Rare Book Room. This chronicle is dated 1686
and runs from 16 B.C. to 1686 A.D.; it contains no miniatures.
12 Ibid., f. 55V. In this study quotations from the MSS will be modernized with
respect to punctuation and in the treatment of r and s symbols.
Ibid., f. 97v.
14 Cf. MS No. 26: "Niirnbergische Cronica sambt denen gemahlten Schonparten
etc." (1200-1549). Reproductions of the Schembart miniatures are listed in App. C.
15 Cf. MSS Nos. 2, 28, 42, 45, 48, 61.
16 For descriptions of Geschlechterbiicher cf. H. Bosch, "Das Niirnberger Ge-
schlechterbuch von 1563," Mitteilungen des germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1898,
pp. 6gff.; further Katalog der Frhrl. v. Lipperheide'schen Kostiimbibliothek (Berlin,
1896-1901), II, No. 773 (cited below as "Lipperheide"), for a description of the
Geschlecht Buch def Heiligen Reichs Stat Nurnberg (1610; illustration of Die
Tucher opp. p. 354). The Katalog der Holzschnitte im Germ. Museum (Nurnberg,
1892), I, 63-89, contains a very complete and illustrated description of a Nuremberg
Geschlechterbuch of i6io(?). The New York Public Library possesses an un-
finished Geschlechtbuch of Nuremberg (Genealogy Room). These genealogical
chronicles usually have a text borrowed from Meisterlin's Histori, together with