Holy Roman Emperor Research Articles

К идеальным инструментам Арнольда Шлика

Arnolt Schlick was a Palatine organist, composer and organ expert of the Renaissance who is best known for Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten (1511), a treatise on building organs. In this work he presented a certain ideal of the organ seen from his own perspective. Schlick also published Tabulaturen etlicher Lobgesang (1512), a collection that enjoyed an imperial privilege and featured organ works of great originality of skill so much different from his Italian, French and Dutch contemporaries. Schlick demonstrates an even more bizarre technique in a later manuscript of compositions marking the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1520). The article is an attempt to establish a relationship between Schlick's organ writing and the features of the instrument his works were written for. What instrument did the famous blind musician write for? Did he write for the ideal instrument he described in his treatise Spiegel der Orgelmacher und Organisten? Was it the one he played until the end of his life after landing a lifetime contract with the Palatine court in 1509? The next aspect of the study, which may be of special interest to organists, focuses on the interpretation and execution of Schlick’s organ works. The South German organ tradition, with its heyday in the Renaissance, is still little studied by Russian and international musicologists alike. Only a few 135 delightful church instruments have survived since that time. They usually feature original organ cases, while all other structural parts are dated later. No less rare is the organ music of that period which does not only spark an interest, but also creates a certain difficulty for researchers. The methodology of the study combines historical and cultural approaches as well as the tradition of studying ancient musical art based on historically informed performance. The research findings contribute to the development of musicology and may inform music performers.

St. George in Legend and Verse

This paper investigates the emergence of the cultus of a medieval saint, St. George of Cappadocia, and correlates the production of legend with variations of the saint’s passio. It then considers the form of relics in relation to the narrative of their translationes. This is accomplished by exploring the political context in which they were translated by Archbishop Hatto of Mainz and the Holy Roman Emperor. It concludes with an exploration of the variations on George’s cultus on the Reichenau monastic center and presents an updated English translation of the late ninth or tenth century Georgslied.

The Notion of Nobility and the Impact of Ennoblement on Early Modern Central Europe

AbstractThis article discusses the problem of why there was a constant demand for ennoblement in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Central Europe, even though those who aspired to it had little or no prospect of integration into the established feudal nobility. Nobility was first and foremost an ideological concept closely connected to power and rule. The Holy Roman emperors ennobled persons who exercised power precisely because, in the premodern social order, the exercise of power was a prerogative of the nobility. However, the newly ennobled had only their title in common with the old aristocratic families and rarely attained the other privileges enjoyed by these families. For this reason, the emperors’ practice of ennoblement gradually reshaped the nobility as a whole and simultaneously the ideological notion of nobility. Certainly, ennoblement still served a strategic purpose in the context of social advancement. Particularly for civil servants and military officers, it was the most effective means of preserving their newly acquired status for their descendants and possibly establishing their families in a new bureaucratic and military hereditary elite, which in some places coexisted with the old aristocracy. The central element of the new ideological concept was the notion of the nobility as a hereditary ruling class, both qualified for and entitled to the exercise of power on account of inherited superiority.

Art History, Boundary Crossing, Making Worlds

Art History, Boundary Crossing, Making Worlds

Pražská univerzita za vlády Ferdinanda I. – její vztah k panovníkovi a k pražským městům

This contribution follows the relation of the Prague Utraquist university to the towns of Prague and, in parallel, its relation to Ferdinand I (1526–1564), Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Czech Lands. In the power struggle between the nobles and the burghers, the university tended to side with the towns, especially with Prague. The policy of Ferdinand I was, however, openly anti-burgher, anti-town. Within this political environment, university’s good relations with the towns and cities were therefore of a diminishing importance, although in the university’s daily operations, they remained essential since most of its students were burghers. Prague university’s relations with Ferdinand I were cautious, but not openly hostile. Its relations to the towns of Prague is traced not only on the level of political connections but also in terms of their daily coexistence, which included e.g. conflicts between the justice systems of the university and the towns, repairs to university buildings, or issues pertaining to ecclesiastic administration. Despite various efforts of Utraquist estates, proposed university reforms either did not take place or were merely partial.

Mnichovská dohoda z roku 1619

This article describes the origin, content and consequences of the treaty of Munich of 8th October 1619. This treaty was concluded between Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II and the Bavarian Duke Maximilian I. Under this agreement, Bavaria helped reactivatethe Catholic League, which provided assistance to the Habsburg dynasty for the liquidation of the Bohemian revolt (1618–1620). Bavaria obtained the Palatinate linked to the Electoral title under this agreement as a compensation.

The legal foundations of post-mortem examinations in early modern Flanders. Princely legislation, custom, doctrine and judicial practice

Summary Because of its manifold references to the consultation of medical experts in homicide and infanticide cases, the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V (1532) is often regarded as an important milestone in the development of early modern forensic medicine. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the County of Flanders, a principality within the Habsburg Netherlands, witnessed a similar upsurge in the production of normative and doctrinal texts aiming to regulate forensic activities. Drawing on princely legislation, local customary law and the writings of the jurists Filips Wielant and Joos de Damhouder, this contribution will compare the corpus of Flemish legal texts with its practical application by the myriad of law courts operating within the county. As the princely legislation only laid out a general framework, the regulation of the forensic post-mortem was essentially an issue of local governance. The local nature of forensic practices should however not be overestimated. Evidence from preserved post-mortem reports demonstrates that there were more similarities between towns and regions within the county than actual differences.

Normanitas and Memorial Traditions in the Apulian Architecture of Emperor Frederick II

ABSTRACT From 1225 to 1250, Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, built or renovated at least seventy defensive structures in the southern Italian province of Apulia. These buildings blended Roman, Islamic, or Byzantine elements with newer Gothic architecture; however, many of these architectural traits had already been adapted by the Norman lords of southern Italy in the preceding two centuries. Thus we must consider Frederick's originality in light of this less studied trend in the existing Romanesque canon. Frederick's replication of Norman architectural practices was based on the fact that they previously been used as a tool of empire, and it echoes his reuse of Roman remains. This article considers several aspects of Frederick's architectural program, including topographical layout and geographical positioning, his appropriation of Roman and Norman remains, and his adoption of classical and Norman artistic and engineering practices as nuanced processes of architectural spoliation and innovation.

The Prehistory of Innovations in The Russian Funeral Ceremony (Vasily M. Tyapkin at the Burial of Jan II Kazimierz and Michał Wiśniowiecki)

There is an opinion that the fi rst detailed description of certain aspects of the Western (royal) funeral rite appeared in Russia along with a description of the funeral procession in 1558-1559 of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Much more information contain reports of the Russian diplomat Vasily M. Tyapkin, who visited the burial of Kings Jan II Kazimierz and Michał Wiśniowiecki in Rzeczpospolita (1674, 1676). A unique example in Russian diplomatic practice of the age, these recordings expanded the ideas of the anatomical aspects of the funeral ritual, its public character, the use of state symbols, military paraphernalia, music, etc. Many of the things listed by the resident were used later in the Western-style funerals of Peter the Great’s associate Franz Lefort, in the “sad ceremonies” as a whole of the eighteenth and partly nineteenth centuries. This Moscow diplomat’s information also complements sources, in particular, on some aspects of the action with the heart of King Michał. The thoroughness of fi xing all the procedures suggests that Tyapkin used some ready-made sources of information, which really existed. Tyapkin’s reports, which were abundant in details, anticipated many innovations of Peter I and his followers, showed that Peter’s reforms of the funeral ritual could have a Polish-Lithuanian source.

POLITICAL CONFRONTATION OF ELISHKA PRSHEMYSLOVNA WITH CZECH NOBILITY: THE JOHN OF LUXEMBOURG’S POSITION

After the death of Wenceslaus III (1306), the last descendant of the Přemyslid dynasty, wrangling for the Czech throne lasted till 1310. Czech nobility, being the spine of Czech sovereignty’s idea, was looking for a candidate for the crown of Saint Wenceslaus I. Eventually, John of Luxembourg (ruled from 1310 to 1346), son of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII, became the Czech (Bohemian) king provided that he would get married with Elishka Prshemyslovna (born in 1292, died in 1330), the daughter of Wenceslaus II, and that he would aknowledge all the privileges of Czech nobility. It was a good choice. After all, under the rule of foreign king, the nobles have become a de facto government fot the country, despite any efforts of Elishka Prshemyslovna to defend and strengthen the royalty. The purpose is to investigate the cirmcumstances under which the Czech nobility has achieved the ratification of Domazlice treaty through the story of life and political activity of Elishka Prshemyslovna. The article covers political activity of Elishka Prshemyslovna аnd the circumstances under which she has been trying to defend and strengthen the royal power against the Czech nobility. Political relationship of Czech queen and Czech nobility has undergone two stages. During 1310-1313 Elishka Prshemyslovna collaborated with a group of Czech aristocrats who sought to overthrow the reigning king Henry of Carinthia. This collaboration has led to coup d'etat and Elishka Prshemyslovna marriage with the new dynasty’s founder - John of Luxembourg. The second stage (1313-1322) features intense rivalry for the power between Queen and an influentional magnate Henry Lipsky. Elishka Premyslovna has tried to actively participate in government of her state. Obsessed with the will to observe tradition of her father and to preserve the royalty from the encroachment of Czech noblemen has only led to political unstability in Czech kingdom. After all, the Czech kingdom was experiencing a new phase of inner transformation. Furthermore, John of Luxembourg has played an important role in that conflict. The king’s position dictated how the race for power would affect the state’s ability to successfully implement international politics. Whereas such a long opposition of his own subjects didn’t suit John of Luxembourg, he has signed the Domazlice treaty. Ratification of Domazlice conventions has obliged the king to give up the support of his wife’s political course; the queen has lost, while Czech noblemen, led by Henry Lipsky have increased their influence on the kingdom.

The Captive Self: The Art of Intrigue and the Holy Roman Emperor’s Resident Ambassador at the Ottoman Court in the Sixteenth Century

Abstract In 1580-1581, the Austrian Habsburg ambassador to the Ottoman court shared news of a remarkable letter and self-portrait that had arrived from an Ottoman subject in Habsburg captivity. Tracing the scramble for details on the matter and its import for Habsburg-Ottoman diplomacy reveals the structure, contours, and challenges of the Habsburg mission in Constantinople. The article argues that the image and the accompanying letter may be a forgery seeking to place the ambassador and the peace he was to uphold in jeopardy. Instead, the ambassador himself was captive to the factions, rivalries, and shifting loyalties in the borderlands that played out in the diplomatic culture of Ottoman Constantinople. This reveals the possibilities, limits, and ranges of control that early modern resident ambassadors had of their missions.

PROTECTED PUBLICATIONS: THE IMPERIAL AND SAXON PRIVILEGES FOR PRINTED MUSIC, 1550–1700

In the decades around 1600 many privileges for printed music were issued by the Holy Roman Emperor and the Elector of Saxony. Such privileges gave a bookseller or author an exclusive right to publish specified works for a limited period (usually ten years). The privileges threatened confiscation of any unauthorised copies, and fines for anyone caught printing or selling them. This article offers the first systematic study of archival material documenting the privileges for music, as preserved in the Österreichisches Staatsarchiv, Vienna, and the Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, Dresden. It reconstructs the ritualistic procedure for obtaining a privilege, analyses how composers justified their applications for privileges, and asks whether privileges gave effective protection against unauthorised editions. Revising previous interpretations of the privilege system as an early form of copyright, I instead argue that privileges enhanced the commercial and symbolic value of printed music.

THE ITALIAN EXPERIENCE OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR CHARLES IV: MUSICAL AND LITERARY ASPECTS

The Italians had conflicting sentiments regarding the visit of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV in Italy in 1355: from the enthusiastic expectations of the impact the Emperor would have on the local political life to contemptuous scepticism and even to overt disdain. Two Italian Trecento madrigals have traditionally been considered to refer to this visit: (1) the three-voice polytextual madrigal Aquil altera/Creatura gentil/Uccel di Dio by Jacopo da Bologna, seen as related to Charles’s coronation with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in Milan; and (2) the two-voice madrigal Sovran uccello by Donato da Firenze, considered a celebratory piece for Charles’s coronation as well. This essay explores the relevant historical contexts, Milanese for Jacopo’s madrigal and Florentine for Donato’s, with a view to placing both pieces.

The Materiality of Musical Diplomacy in Early Modern Europe

In 1648 Andreas Rauch, an Austrian composer living in the Hungarian town of Sopron, published the Currus triumphalis musicus, a collection of thirteen Latin motets, each dedicated to a different Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor. With its sumptuous paratexts and impressive musical scope, this “triumphal musical chariot” was not a typical commercial commodity. Instead the volume functioned as an assertion of Habsburg power at the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48). A straightforward reading of the book is complicated, however, by the exile of Rauch, a Lutheran, from Austria in the 1620s. This musical panegyric, produced by a composer with a troubled relationship to the honoree, opens the door to a reading of the print as an act of diplomacy, in which the composer not only seeks reconciliation by acknowledging the Emperor’s power but also subtly admonishes the Habsburgs in the wake of a peace settlement that was decidedly more favorable to his side. Through close readings of the paratexts and the texts of the musical works against a political and theological backdrop, it is possible to uncover the diplomatic functions of the print for Ferdinand III, the town of Sopron, and Rauch himself. In shedding light on a fascinating cultural artifact, this article offers a fresh perspective on the diplomatic potential of printed music in early modern Europe.

A Revolutionary Narrative of European History: Bonneville's History of Modern Europe (1789–1792)

A Revolutionary Narrative of European History: Bonneville's <i>History of Modern Europe</i> (1789–1792)

Collision of Royal Law and local fueros in the process of the Spanish state formation in XVI century on the example of the Antonio Perez case

In this article, the Author uses the concrete case of Antonio Perez, the ex-secretary of the king Philip II of Spain, to demonstrate the course of the Spanish state formation and the integration of the Law and State with its problems and contradictions. The object of this study is to research the mentioned process in theory and in reality, because they are different. In theory, the process of the State formation comes to its end in the epoch of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella governing. Later, in the epoch of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Spain was the Empire yet. However, in the epoch of Philip II the unity and integrity of the new sate are in danger, because the case of Antonio Peres demonstrates that customary law as fueros, privileges and time-honoured traditions are able to survive the political and legal processes.

»The messenger is the place of a man’s judgment«: Diplomacy between Emperors and Caliphs in the Tenth Century

Travel and communication in the early medieval period were fundamental parts of people’s conceptions about temporal and spiritual power, which in turn demonstrated a ruler’s legitimacy. Examining the role of messengers and diplomatic envoys between the first Umayyad caliph of al-Andalus, ‘Abd al-Rahman III, and his fellow tenth-century rulers in Christian kingdoms, including the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos and the first Holy Roman emperor, Otto I, illuminates internal and external negotiations that defined the pluralistic Iberian society in the early Middle Ages. Formal religious and ethnic differences among Muslim rulers and non-Muslim messengers enhanced the articulation of political legitimacy by the caliph. Diplomatic correspondence with foreign rulers using the multiplicity of talents and ethno-religious identities of their subjects was part of the social order provided by the Andalusi rulers and produced by those they ruled, demonstrating the political authority of the Umayyad caliphate.

Артефакт в историческом пространстве Нового Эрмитажа. Пирамида с камеями и витрины-пирамиды для гемм

The article is devoted to the history of the Hermitage museum interiors, its collections, showcases and historical ties between them. From the very beginning of the Hermitage history its museum space reflected the public policy. In its collection the Hermitage holds unique showcases shaped as pyramids. No such example is to be found elsewhere in museum collections. We have no documents about the reason for their appearance, but some facts give us possibility to suggest their connection with the memory of Catherine II.The article is devoted to the history of the Hermitage museum interiors, its collections, showcases and historical ties between them. From the very beginning of the Hermitage history its museum space reflected the public policy. In its collection the Hermitage holds unique showcases shaped as pyramids. No such example is to be found elsewhere in museum collections. We have no documents about the reason for their appearance, but some facts give us possibility to suggest their connection with the memory of Catherine II.In 1811 the unique item was made for the Hermitage — a wooden pyramid made by Heinrich Daniel Gambs. There were cornelian cameos with portraits of Ancient Roman emperors and Holy Roman emperors, the so-called “Kaiser-Suiten”, placed on its facet. The pyramid top was decorated by a Minerva figure, as Catherine II loved to be represented in art works. Wolf figures were the symbol of Rome. The whole complex was an allegorical representation of Catherine’s wise rule based on the Ancient Rome and West-European tradition.In 1816 the pyramid was placed in the hall together with the loveliest Catherine’s cameos collection. In 1854 a new Cameos hall in the New Hermitage building was arranged. The Gambs pyramid surrounded with showcases in pyramid shape for which the old pyramid became the prototype was placed in its center. This hall with pyramid and showcases became the peculiar symbol of memory about Catherine the Great. In 1854 it was pictured by Ed. Hau.

A Prince or a Pauper? Staging Noble Lineage in the Coronation Order of Emperor Charles IV

During the reign of Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia, the Czech lands experienced not only an unprecedented cultural blossoming marked by the production of outstanding artistic and architectural objects often meant to be exported to different parts of Europe, but also a period of remarkable political consolidation. Besides numerous founding activities and artistic commissions, the Emperor prompted the composition of several literary texts, one of them (the subject of this article) being a new coronation order of Czech kings. In an unmistakeably theatrical fashion, it stressed their descent from the local House of Przemyslid by means of a non-liturgical Ceremony of Bag and Sandals that allegedly belonged to the first Przemyslid ruler, Przemysl the Ploughman.

In the Name of the Emperor

In July 1786 Prince Carl Anselm of Thurn und Taxis concluded that he had no choice but to dissolve his Italian court opera. This owed in part to the success of the German theater, which had been established in 1784 to rival the Prince’s Hoftheater and contest his position as the Holy Roman Emperor’s representative to the Reichstag in Regensburg. New evidence challenges the prevailing view that the dissolution of the Taxis’s court opera marked the end of the family’s musical patronage and involvement in Regensburg’s cultural life. In the face of opposition from other Reichstag officials, the Thurn und Taxis continued their investment in music and theatrics, appropriating outdoor spectacles of a kind popular earlier in the century to project imperial power. The prince affirmed his position as the emperor’s representative in such older displays of affluence and standing but updated them to suit contemporary tastes. Carl Anselm’s musico-political theatrics around 1789 demonstrate that although Italian opera failed to articulate the legitimacy he intended to project, his culture of political representation conducted in the name of the emperor endured well into the twilight years of the eighteenth century. To understand the continued musical patronage of this contested and middling prince is to appreciate more fully the methods by which music, spectacle, and politics were negotiated during a transformative period in European history.