The Donaueschingen Armorial (DWF) Belongs to This Group by Content and Style and in Part by Organisation
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Donaueschinger Wappenbuch Edited and reconstructed by Steen Clemmensen from Karlsruhe, Badische Landesbibliothek Hs. Don. 496 Donaueschinger Wappenbuch DWF Contents: 1. Introduction and summary 3 2. Manuscript 4 3. Imaginary arms 7 4. Foreigners 9 5. German nobles 11 App. A Segments 15 App. B Segment and page structure 16 App. C Society memberships in segment 18 App. D Possible membership of the Leitbracken society 19 App. E Drawing styles 21 App. F Members of the Bodensee group 24 Donaueschinger Wappenbuch 25 Bibliography 163 Ordinary of arms 172 Ordinary of crests 185 Name index 196 © 2012, Steen Clemmensen, Farum, Denmark, www.armorial.dk 2 1. Introduction and summary A number of german late medieval armorials belong to the Bodensee group, named after their region of manufacture. Strictly speaking, they do not make up a series of copies, but they share a number of features. All include many marker coats-of-arms, i.e. combinations of legends and figures-of-arms unlikely to have been invented independently. Some are curious mistakes of actual arms, but most belong to the imaginary arms attributed to non-christian realms or to names from literature. Some armorials include segments of ternionen (three best of each), notably the Nine Worthies, quaternionen (the Pillars of the Empire), and / or organize parts of the german nobility by their membership of tournament societies. Woodblocks were used for prestamping the outlines of shields, helmets and manteling, and several were reused for different armorials. It is likely that part of the sources used wasere older collations owned by or readily accessible to the artisans responsible. Except for short fragments copying was rarely used, but pick-and-mix would be the favoured approach, though by which guiding principles still need to b e clarified. They were probably part of a fashion trend in which wealthy burghers and local nobility acquired not only holy books and literature but also commissioned collections of coats-of-arms either as such or appended to chronicles. The manufacture of these manuscripts was probably done commercially in a few artisan workshops by professional illustrators or painters. Within a short time such manuscript books would be replaced by printed works. The most notable work, and perhaps the first, was the chronicle of the Church Council held in Constance on the Bodensee during 1414-1418 written by Ulrich von Richental (KCR). This combination of a chronicle and an armorial was probably finished around 1430, but most manuscript copies (with or without arms and miniatures) were made between 1460 and 1480 followed by a first printing in 1483 – and several reprints, copies in part and extractions for several hundred years. The Donaueschingen armorial (DWF) belongs to this group by content and style and in part by organisation. The manuscript was heavily damaged with many pages wholly illegible and several pages missing. It has now been restored and is accessible. The present edition is mainly based on colour photographs and contains 1094 numbered items, including 131 reconstructed coats-of-arms, 22 illegibles and 35 unassignable crests. The many later additions are numbered together with the original contents. Several different woodblocks and layouts were used, and though pageant helmets dominate, one will find both tilting and pot helmets too. The conventional date assigned to this armorial was '1433' from a listing of the titles of emperor Sigismund and is the year of his coronation in Rome. This is a weak argument both for a date of collation and for a date of manufacture. An examination of the contents reveals that much of the DWF relates to the Council of Constance - and the KCR, so at least part of the DWF must be based on older material. Unfortunately, it has very few items that are dateable, so any proposal will be tentative – the present suggestion being c.1460, a relatively early member of the group. The present order might be different from that originally intended, but within the segments suggested here most sheets relate to each other. There are two banners of tournament societies, a small number of imaginary arms and a few foreigners. Most of the germans come from the south. 3 2. Manuscript and editorial approach The present manuscript Hs.Don.496, Donaueschinger Wappenbuch, of the Badische Landesbibliothek (BadLB) in Karlsruhe, was already very derelict in 1939, when it was described in BGH #26 as examined in the Hofbibliothek Fürstenberg in Donaueschingen. The Fürstenbergs acquired it from Lassberg auf Eppishausen und Meersburg (on the Bodensee), and it came to Karlsruhe around 2003. The present edition is based on a b/w microfilm, first transcribed by my friend Emmanuel de Boos, later supplemented with digitized colour images, kindly provided by BadLB, and an examination of the actual manuscript at the BadLB. 2.1 The manuscript The manuscript was much damaged by moisture, destroying most of whole sheets, and some sheets are probably missing, but what remains is now finely restored as single sheets, but the present order is hardly the original sequence. About half the sheets are reduced to only a couple of legible arms or even crests only. No information was available on watermarks or any older quire structure. The items were finely drawn in ink and watercolour on paper, 140 ff, 195 x 135 mm, 4to; legends and painting in one hand, with mainly 3x2 crested arms per page, a few pages have been left blank. The outlines of most, if not all, items were pre-stamped with woodblocks, see App.E. From page 109r the paper size is smaller. Modern foliation in black ink at the top of recto pages indicating some loss of pages, 63rv transposed. There are a number of later additions and inserts, including some rewriting of legends. Only the surviving items, however fractional, are numbered, but any missing or damaged arms or crests have been reconstructed if the identification was reasonably certain. If the items are only partially legible, this is noted in the comments. On the basis of content, layout and style of drawing and in the present order it has been partitioned into 27 segments as noted in App.A. The people in most of the segments came from southern Germany (Alsace, Swabia, Bavaria, Schweiz and Austria). Segment 01 has the Nine Worthies and segments 02 and 06 a mix of actual and imaginary realms, discussed in the chapter on imaginary arms. There are a few foreigners (french, spanish, portuguese, milanese, czechs and poles) in segments 04, 07, and 14. The DWF has traditionally been dated 1433 from the reference to emperor Sigismund on fo.2v [11]. 2.2 Layout and drawing styles As detailed in App.E, most pages were prestamped with the outlines of shields and helmets, later redrawn in ink with mantling, crest and coats-of-arms added. The mantling is usually a narrow stripe down the back of the helmet in the same colour as the main colour of the crest. Wreaths and crest coronets are rare. The types of helmets and shield forms vary: • mainly rounded shields with pageant helmets, but tilting helmets on 12v-13v, 112r, 113r- 114r, 117r-120v, 127r and mixed with pageant type on 33v4-6, 34v4-5, 46r4-6, 51v6, 57v4- 6, 88r3+5-6, 88v6, 131v6, 132r4-5, 135r6; • pot helmets, crudely drawn on 114v, 122rv, 130rv, 136r-137v, probably later additions; and finely drawn on 15r, 16r; 4 Other notable features are: • targe type shields used, crudely drawn arms on 14v, 37v, 112v, probably later additions, 16C ?; • a few pages of uncoloured sketches on 35v, 106v, 109v, 111v, probably later additions; • crowns above kings on 2v-4v, 5v-, 11v; • 36r, 37r has 2x3 items, no crests; • several blank verso pages, and the following sheets are missing: 19rv, 20rv, 30rv, 64rv, 71rv, 76rv, 78rv, 82rv, 89rv, 98rv, 115rv, 116rv, 121rv, 123r-126v. The artwork has a strong likeness to those used in other southern german armorials, e.g. Codex Cotta al. Codex Ingeram al. Wappenbuch des Hz. Albrecht von Österreich (ING); Wappenbuch von St. Gallen-Haggenberg (SGH); and Conrad Grünenberg's Wappenbuch (GRU) making it a member of the Bodensee group of armorials, see App.E and F. 2.3 Editorial approach Many of the arms in this armorial are so heavily damaged as being practically illegible, but it has been possible to reconstruct a large number by reference to other members of the Bodensee group on the basis of even fragmentary names, crests or arms. However, some legible crests were so common that no name could be assigned with any certainty. The description of arms and crest used here is not intended to have the details necessary for recreating the armorial. It is based on my Ordinary of medieval armorials, and as such only intended to facilitate identification and present the key features of the arms and crests. Through the ages artists have varied their work by changing details and presentation of figures, having the shields vertical or inclined, and having the helmets and crests in profile, en face or half-turned. Similar differences are also peculiar to regions, e.g. in anglo-french regions some arms are usually blazoned as a chief, while in german-flemish regions they are mostly blazoned as per fess. Arms with animal figures as well as geometrical figures are variously painted or blazoned as having the animal over all, except where the secondary figure is a bend or a fess. But even here there are instances of placing the animal behind the geometrical fess or bend. If the animal figure is placed on a field parted per fess or per chief, it may be over both, but often we may find the animal confined to the lower part only.