Embellished Matriculation Manuscripts

"The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains semester and annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students, thus providing an important resource for the history of the University of Basel. In addition, Vol. 1 contains records in illustrations and text of the opening of the university. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel."

A selection of manuscript page images shown below come from the first three matriculation volumes, covering the period 1460 to 1764, courtesy of Basel University Library. The three volumes are in order from oldest to newest, but the sequence of images displayed from each volume is - fairly obviously - not in date order. Under each image is the name of the rector in charge and their service period, corresponding to the approximate production date of the manuscript page decoration.

Rector Christoph von Utenheim (1473/74)

Rector Ulrich Coccius (1563/64)

Rector Augustin Lutenwang (1510/11)

Rector Werner Schlierbach (1506/07)

Rector Melchior von Baden (1496)

Rector William Greaves (1493)

Rector Heinrich Vogt (1490/91)

Rector St. John Siber (1487/88)

Rector Otto Blades (1472)

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The above images...
Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 3: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 1 (1460-1567)
Link to e-codices overview page & access to digitised manuscript of Volume 1.
The manuscript and images remain the property of Basel University Library,  are covered by a CC 3.0 license and appear here with permission.

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Rector St. John Brandmüller (1587/88)

Rector Felix Platter II (1651/52)

Rector Johann Jakob Faesch (1630/31)

Rector Martin Chmieleck (1613/14)

Rector Thomas Cook (1602/03)

Rector Sebastian Beck (1617/18)

Rector Heinrich Justus (1599/1600)

Rector Emanuel Stupanus (1631/32)

Rector Johann Rudolf Burckhardt (1620/21)

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The above images...
Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 2 (1586-1653)
Link to e-codices overview page & access to digitised manuscript of Volume 2.
The manuscript and images remain the property of Basel University Library, are covered by a CC 3.0 license and appear here with permission.

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Rector Johann Friedrich Burckhardt (1665/66)

Rector Christopher Faesch (1672/73)

Rector James Rudin (1676/77)

Rector Luke Gernler (1659/60)

Rector Peter Falkeisen (1655/56)

Rector Jacob Burckhardt II (1698/99)

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The above images...
Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4a: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 3 (1654-1764)
Link to e-codices overview page & access to digitised manuscript of Volume 3.
The manuscript and images remain the property of Basel University Library are covered by a CC 3.0 license and appear here with permission.

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In addition to providing a chronological record of academic life at the University, these beautiful Basel matriculation manuscripts show differences in tastes, customs and directives of the many rectors in charge of the institution and cultural developments in the local territory. As official documentary records, these books may well have been the subject of outside inspection (benefactors, nobility, religious leaders &c), so political considerations will have influenced the nature of the content at any given time as well. There are periods where calligraphic flourishing is missing for whatever reason. Introductions for each teaching semester (in verse or prose, alphabetic or seasonal) varied in style and length as rectors and decades rolled along. The decoration of the manuscripts, although obviously extensive, was tamped down or sparse, in some periods: in particular, during the religious upheavals of the Reformation in the 16th century.

The manuscripts are also priceless catalogues of three centuries of (the presumably) regional artist output. Some of the artists/scribes are listed in the descriptions that accompany each manuscript, although they are often only identified ("artist Hand-B" &c) rather than being specifically named. Among other forms of decoration, the matriculation volumes contain cryptic allegorical motifs, elaborate coats of arms (they dominate), embellished grotesque and baroque architectural structures, cartouches and occasional rector and faculty portraits. Many of these border designs and frames serve to visually enhance mottoes, a rector's c.v., poetic verses and the like. Obviously additions have been made over the centuries and not all of the contents can be accurately dated or attributed. In one instance, a rhyming couplet of verse accompanied by the initials SB was added and is judged to have been inserted by the renowned Sebastian Brandt (of 'Ship of Fools' fame), who taught law at the university towards the end of the 16th century. All the text, throughout each of the manuscripts, is in Latin.

The only outside commentary I could find mentions that one of the painted miniatures among these matriculation volumes shows some evidence (esoteric specifics about a room seemingly filled with pieces of art - image 5th from bottom) that Basel University was one of the earliest places to evolve from the personal collector mentality - kunstkammer* - towards public educational displays of artifacts in the form of galleries and museums.

These manuscripts are owned by Basel University Library and are posted online through the e-codices portal: the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. Some 40+ Swiss libraries contribute materials for display through this outstanding multi-institutional website. It should be noted that e-codices are very particular about rights and permissions in relation to their clients' works and I would strongly advise you to contact the specific client institution and seek prior permission to display or reuse any of their materials. This is mostly to do with monitoring their national heritage and ensuring proper attribution for the works are used. I have happily corresponded with a few of their libraries and the central portal in the past without incident.

• Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 3: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 1 (1460-1567)
• Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 2 (1586-1653
• Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4a: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 3 (1654-1764)
• Addit: A [pdf] article about Basel's early collector culture with small reference to this series (in Deutsch).
• Previously: Illuminated | Switzerland.
• This post first appeared on the BibliOdyssey website.

Atlantic Crossing

Children's book illustrations of Gédéon the duck 
and his animal friends, by Benjamin Rabier.

The selected images are in page order starting with 
the title page (identical to the book's cover image)

Benjamin Rabier (1864-1939) ('the man who made the animals laugh') produced some sixteen books featuring his beloved animated duck, Gédéon [& friends], between 1923 and 1939.

This is the 3rd post on BibliOdyssey featuring book illustrations by Rabier so I'll keep the repetition to a minimum. The colour saturation has been slightly boosted in the images above which constitute about ½ to ¾ of the book's illustrations.

• The above book, 'Gédéon Traverse l'Atlantique' 1933, by Benjamin Rabier, was sourced from the French National Library.
• Previously on BibliOdyssey (including background/links): Le Bouffon Choisi & Fables de Florian.
• Rabier posts at Patricia's wonderful Agence Eureka -- Le Fond du Sac & Aristide et Bobino & Les Aventures d'une Souris Verte & Rabougri, Chat de Gouttière & Gédéon en Afrique & Les Contes du Lapin Vert & Le Petit Père Mulot.
• Benjamin Rabier at Amazon.
• Review of a Rabier documentary (& captioned trailer) released earlier this year (part-crowd funded) & uniFranceFilms info summary.
• ADDIT: BiG thanks to Will of 50watts.com for alerting me to the BnF copy of this Rabier book!!
• This post originally appeared on the BibliOdyssey website.

Noble Country Living

From beer barrels to blood-letting to breeding, this 3-volume proto-encylopaedia of agriculture and homestead management had the landed gentry in Austria/Germany in the late Baroque period well-covered for farming information. 'Georgica Curiosa' by Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg was first published in 1682. Editions were released in the following decade of both two and three volumes in length and they all included copious numbers of engravings to illustrate the extensive text.

The full title of the work (probably just one of the volumes) approximates as follows:

" Georgica Curiosa -- that is, a complete and clear education report about living a noble, country life.
Covering the german countryside and home economics /
Here and there mixed with rare inventions and experiments /
All embellished with a large number of beautiful copperplates /
In two marvellous Parts - each divided into six books /
Presented in such a way that in the
FIRST PART:
The workings and holdings of country estates /
How christian house-fathers and house-mothers act during their work-life inside and outside of the house /
In every situation and during seasonal changes, throughout the whole year /
In each chore and situation in the house and on the field /
In their behaviour towards others /
And how to best arrange wine and fruit for the kitchen, and the use of medicinal and flower gardens /
How to keep them viable and how to profit from them is also included
IN THE OTHER PART
How to organize all of farming in the easiest, lightest and most useful way /
Be it in the breeding and training of horses, or how to care or breed and enjoy cattle /
How to obtain bees' wax, the silk of worms - from which to make a profit /
How to create all kinds of fountains, cisterns, canals, ponds, pools, dams, brooks, fish nurseries, and other waterworks /
How to plant, maintain and improve the manure and any kind of farm field with different types of game and fowl: all this is explained.
Brought to light by a member of the honourable fruitbearing society "

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Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg (1612-1688) was a soldier in his early adult life, attaining the rank of Captain by the time he was 30. He left the army soon after and took up residence at his family's land holdings in Thaya, ~Czech/Austria. He became something of an informal scholar (supposedly to while away the winters), educating himself in ancient and modern languages, poetry, literature, history and agriculture.

He fled his farm for Regensburg (SE Germany) in ~1660 due to the persecution of Protestants and he remained there until his death. He was a well respected citizen and a highly decorated member of the exiled Austrian nobility. Though his main love was agriculture, von Hohberg published a number of epic poems, inspired by figures such as Virgil and Aristotle. One of these works apparently told the story of a Byzantine superhero percursor to the Hapsburg dynasty(!?)

Von Hohberg is best remembered for his contributions to agricultural and rural studies. The images above come from an exhaustive and pioneering review of both farming practises and wholistic rural living.

"A rare three-volume edition of Hohberg's major work on agriculture, considered a forerunner of the specialized agricultural encyclopedias of the eighteenth century, and which also covers fruit-growing, gardening, viticulture, manufacture of glass and soap, mining, food, spices, cattle breeding, horses, forestry, human and veterinary medicine, hunting, fishing and beekeeping. The particularly rare third volume ends with a cookery section titled 'Bewahrtes Wohleingerichtetes Koch-Buch'." [Source]

That basic description leaves out an important dimension of von Hohberg's publication (which itself began life as an extended poem!). Beyond the practical and academic concerns, von Hohberg was trying to teach the farming community how to lead a dignified life. His volumes lay out the importance of the patriarchal system and appropriate subordination to the paterfamilias*; how people might best control their inner 'passions'; the varied economies of a household and holdings; the nature of just and unjust earnings; as well as the rightful place of religion and prayer in a good person's life.

I noted in passing that 'Georgica Curiosa' supposedly took von Hohberg more than 20 years to write, which gave him time to do both a comprehensive review of all the agricultural literature available, plus survey a wide section of the Regensburg rural community and surrounds to document the range of farming activities and best practices used by families, workers and the like. It also appears that his early epic poetry was received with less enthusiasm by his contemporaries than von Hohberg would have liked. It was apparently dismissed by the 'serious' folk as some sort of fanboy ravings by a Virgil-wannabe, who only ended up as a member of a fruit-bearing society for his 'epic' troubles. Or so the story goes..

• 'Georgica Curiosa' (1682) by Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg is available online from Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf (click 'Overview' for thumbs) - to be honest, I'm not totally certain how much of the series is on the website [eg.] but it's probably only the first volume [contents]. It was a 3-volume publication but was released at least once in only two volumes. In any event, it's a very large work whose ample number of (what might individually and charitably be called serviceable) engravings, together form a great visual farming record of the period. I like being surprised in this way. You see one engraving and shrug, but after 30, 50, 100+ illustrations of this type .. they can become fairly hypnotic, and much more informative, even beautiful in their own way, en masse.
• A couple of resource links (in German): Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg - Wikipedia :: Deutsches Museum = best link overall.
• Worldcat entries for Wolf Helmhardt von Hohberg.
• Amazon search mentions of Wolfgang Helmhard Hohberg.
• ADDIT: ULB Sachsen-Anhalt features digitised copies of von Hohberg's works and appears to have all three volumes from the 'Georgica Curiosa' series available online.
• Thanks very much Jeanne!
• This post first appeared on the BibliOdyssey website.

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The Foreword to 'Georgica Curiosa' goes something like this:

"I never thought of writing about economics, but after the original 'Georgica..', many of my reader friends told me that such an instructional work would be better as prose than as poetic verses. I didn't do that until I came to Regensburg, where I finally found the free writing time.

Everybody knows some parts of what I write about, so I will try to do it wisely, like Plutarch in his Feast for the Seven Wise (Greek) Men, where Periander asks which domestic economy is the best, and Solon answers, one where no stolen goods or land is to be seen, that you can keep without mistrust and give without regret. Then come the opinion of the other six greeks... where there is more love than fear, where you have all you need and don't desire the unnecessary, where you only do sufficient as is necessary, etc.

Many writers have tried this. It is a long list: first, the Greeks and Romans and Phoenicians. Then Italians, Frenchmen, Spaniards (one of them is better at prayers then at economy). Then the Africans, translated from latin to arabic by the Granadian scholar Mansor. Then a Jesuit from Poland, some Flemish. And quite a few good works from England.

The first german work is from Kaiser Konstantin IV and then, the best known is the 'Calendarium Perpetuum' by Johannis Coleri, in 20 volumes. A few more and I almost forgot, Georg Andres Böckler, who in 1678 edited a useful House and Field School, and more followed. But some of them have stole their writing word for word from others, and are not worth being remembered (and, in fact, should be punished). Others manuscripts have helped me too. [..]

About no part of the book have I found works written in so many languages then Gardening. (Then [von Hohberg] thanks the people who made the etchings, his friends, particularly some doctor in Regenburg who lent him a lot of books. *But since Economy is one of the most all-encompassing sciences, one can't hope to have made a perfect work... Economy is like an ocean, with so many rivers coming into it.*

The order of the work is in two books, each divided into six, which makes 12 books altogether. Everything is included in named chapters, which makes perusing easy. The people who don't like the poetry should skip it and go to the more explicit parts. But I left some poetry in it, so as not to divide the sweet/aesthetic from the practical. If some wish to argue that I only speak about the climate in Austria, that the book can't be used for the whole of the Roman Kingdom, I'll say that, at least most chapters are universal, and in one chapter you'll find some charts that can help to calculate the differences between places.

Here's hoping for moderation in my readers.. "