first edition Hardcover
1520 · Straßburg
by Hutten, Ulrich von (1488-1523)
Straßburg: Johann Schott, 1520. FIRST EDITION OF HUTTEN’S FIRST VERNACULAR WORK. Hardcover. Fine. Bound in modern ¼ vellum and marbled paper over boards. A very good copy with mild toning, a very small stain in the inner margin, and a small restored tear to the blank upper margin of leaf A4, not affecting the text. With the famous woodcut portrait of Hutten as poet laureate in full armor, accompanied by a revolutionary slogan: “Let us break the chains and throw off the yoke!”
An angry poem (“ein zorniger Spruch”, in the author’s words), the “Complaint and warning against the excessive unchristian power of the Pope in Rome, and the unspiritual clergy” summarizes all of Hutten’s feelings about Rome’s exploitation of Germany and the decline of the Church.
With the famous woodcut portrait of Hutten as poet laureate in full armor, accompanied by a revolutionary slogan: “Let us break the chains and throw off the yoke!” The printer, Schott, had used the image a few months earlier when he published “Conquestiones”.
Hutten paints a picture -in verse- of the depravity that he witnessed in Rome (during his stay there in 1515-17), epitomized by a procession in the crowded, dangerous streets. Along came the pope -carried on a litter, since his holy feet must not touch the ground, his courtiers, sycophants, and soldiers; throngs of ruffians; cardinals and women in luxurious clothing, and even asses adorned in gold; the Church bureaucracy represented by clerks, copyists, and notaries who “publish Bulls, lay down the law… /All these, and more than I have told,/ Live on our hard-won German gold.”
“In his first German-language publication, ‘Clag und Vormanung’, published in October/November 1520, Hutten addressed his transition to writing in German in an often-quoted passage:
‘I wrote Latin before
Which was unknown to everyone
Now I cry to the fatherland
To the German nation, in their language
To bring these things to pass.’
“Hutten now addressed a broader audience, which he had been unable to reach with his Latin writings… With publication in the vernacular, not only did the audience no longer have to be restricted to the circle of Latin-literate scholars, but the contents of these publications were also accessible to the illiterate classes when they were read aloud publicly or disseminated and discussed orally.”(Becker, Ulrichs von Hutten polemische Dialoge im Spannungsfeld von Humanismus und Politik, p. 210). (Inventory #: 5270)
An angry poem (“ein zorniger Spruch”, in the author’s words), the “Complaint and warning against the excessive unchristian power of the Pope in Rome, and the unspiritual clergy” summarizes all of Hutten’s feelings about Rome’s exploitation of Germany and the decline of the Church.
With the famous woodcut portrait of Hutten as poet laureate in full armor, accompanied by a revolutionary slogan: “Let us break the chains and throw off the yoke!” The printer, Schott, had used the image a few months earlier when he published “Conquestiones”.
Hutten paints a picture -in verse- of the depravity that he witnessed in Rome (during his stay there in 1515-17), epitomized by a procession in the crowded, dangerous streets. Along came the pope -carried on a litter, since his holy feet must not touch the ground, his courtiers, sycophants, and soldiers; throngs of ruffians; cardinals and women in luxurious clothing, and even asses adorned in gold; the Church bureaucracy represented by clerks, copyists, and notaries who “publish Bulls, lay down the law… /All these, and more than I have told,/ Live on our hard-won German gold.”
“In his first German-language publication, ‘Clag und Vormanung’, published in October/November 1520, Hutten addressed his transition to writing in German in an often-quoted passage:
‘I wrote Latin before
Which was unknown to everyone
Now I cry to the fatherland
To the German nation, in their language
To bring these things to pass.’
“Hutten now addressed a broader audience, which he had been unable to reach with his Latin writings… With publication in the vernacular, not only did the audience no longer have to be restricted to the circle of Latin-literate scholars, but the contents of these publications were also accessible to the illiterate classes when they were read aloud publicly or disseminated and discussed orally.”(Becker, Ulrichs von Hutten polemische Dialoge im Spannungsfeld von Humanismus und Politik, p. 210). (Inventory #: 5270)
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