CHAPTER TWO
THE EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPE OF LATE MEDIEVAL REGENSBURG
Few cities in medieval Germany were home to as many churches and religious houses as Regensburg. By the fi fteenth century, Regensburg had nearly two hundred church buildings, numerous chapels, four canonical houses, and fourteen houses of religious men and women.1 These created positions for educated men, and they provided educa- tional opportunities. Schools attached to parishes, monasteries, and especially, the canonical houses trained young boys for careers in the church, and in some cases, lay careers as well. The sheer number of religious institutions, and the impressive libraries that many of them accumulated, ensured that educated men continued to be attracted to Regensburg long after regional powers such as Augsburg and Nurem- berg had eclipsed it. Somewhat paradoxically, Regensburg’s economic decline, which began in the mid-fourteenth century, appears to have coincided with a period of increasing lay interest in education and a commensurate expansion in access to learning.
Early Medieval Regensburg: An Overview
Regensburg’s educational landscape owed much to its status as the political and economic center of early medieval Bavaria. Favored fi rst by the Aigilofi ng dynasty and then the Carolingians, the city fl ourished both politically and economically. After the foundation of a bishopric in
1 Map drawn from Alois Schmid, Regensburg: Reichsstadt—Fürstbischof—Reichsstifte— Herzoghof, Historischer Atlas von Bayern: Teil Altbayern, Heft 60 (München: Kommis- sion für Bayersiche Landesgeschichte, 1995), 165. Ulm, with approximately the same number of inhabitants, and Nuremberg, with a population more than three times that of Regensburg, had only eight religious houses each. Karl Josef Benz, “Klosterleben im Umbruch der Zeit zur Situation der Regensburger Klöster um die Mitte des 15. Jahrhunderts,” in Crossroads of Medieval Civilization: The City of Regensburg and Its Intellectual Milieu, ed. Edelgard E. DuBruck and Karl Heinz Göller, Medieval and Renaissance Monograph Series, vol. 5 (Detroit: 1984), 5.
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Regensburg in 732 and the rise of the Carolingians, royal favors contin- ued to fl ow into the old Roman city on the Danube. The assimilation of Bavaria into the Carolingian Empire further enhanced the position of Regensburg. Charlemagne himself visited the city frequently, spending more time in Regensburg than any place outside of Aachen. The later Carolingians, Louis the German and Arnulf von Kärnten, were even more partial to Regensburg. Both established residences within the city, the former near the Alter Kornmarkt and the latter near St. Emmeram.2 The monastery of St. Emmeram was renowned for learning through- out the German-speaking world, inspiring one eleventh-century writer to opine, “Ratispona vere secunda Athene, aeque studiis fl orida, sed verioris philosophiae fructibus cumulata.”3 Such hyperbole aside, Regensburg stood among the fi rst rank of German cities economically, culturally, and politically throughout the high Middle Ages. The expansion of trade during the eleventh century further improved Regensburg’s standing. Sitting astride important east- west and north-south trade routes, the city profi ted from the Italian as well as the Danube trade. Wine and cloth merchants in particular amassed significant fortunes and carved out a degree of political infl uence commensurate with their wealth. Their growing infl uence culminated in the mid-thirteenth century with the establishment of Regensburg as a Reichsstadt governed by a mayor and a council of sixteen.4 Inspired by both piety and hubris, the growing patrician elite emu- lated ducal and imperial generosity. From early on, these elites contrib-
2 Peter Schmid has written extensively on this subject. For a recent discussion, see P. Schmid, “Ratispona Metropolis Baioariae: Die bayerischen Herzöge und Regens- burg,” in Geschichte der Stadt Regensburg, vol. 1, ed. Peter Schmid (Regensburg: Pustet Verlag, 2000), 51–63. Compare Alois Schmid, “Ratisbona Benedictina: Die Regens- burger Benediktinerklöster St. Emmeram, Prüll und Prüfening während des Mittel- alters,” in Regensburg im Mittelalter: Beiträge zur Stadtgeschichte vom frühen Mittelalter bis zum Beginn der Neuzeit, ed. Martin Angerer and Heinrich Wanderwitz, vol. 1 (Regensburg: Universitätsverlag, 1995), 177–186. 3 Carl Theodor Gemeiner, Regensburgische Chronik, edited by Hans Angermeier. 4 vols. (Regensburg: Montag und Weiss, 1800–1824. Reprint, München: C. H. Beck, 1971), vol. 1, 137. The trope of the “New Athens,” akin to the modern Paris of the . . . cannot be taken too seriously. Compare Pierre Riché, Les écoles et l’enseignement dans l’Occident chrétien de la fi n du V e siècle au milieu du XI e siècle (Paris: Aubier Montaigne, 1979), 167: “Gozzechin, plus tard maître à Mayence, écrit . . . que Liège est une ‘nouvelle Athènes, fl eur de la Gaule tripartite, nourrice des études.’ ” 4 Peter Schmid, “Die Bürgerschaft auf dem Weg zur Reichsfreiheit,” in P. Schmid, Geschichte der Stadt Regensburg, vol. 1, 187–89.
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