Friendship album of Johannes Zumler, later clergyman at Brück.
8vo. 32 ff., including 15 pp. of poems and 32 pp. with 39 entries and 1 p. with contemporary contemplative entries by three writers. Contemporary limp vellum, using an old manuscript.
€ 3,500.00
All the entries in this early 17th century friendship album, which is also notable for its unusual format and binding, date from Zumler's sojourn at the Royal School of St Afra in Meissen in Saxony, where he was educated from September 1598 to August 1604. Hence, this is also an early and unusual example of a public school friendship album, rather than than of a university student. Apart from a number of later clerics - including an early relation of Georg Agricola - most contributors are boys or teachers who later achieved some renown as scholars, such as the humanist Gallus von Racknitz. The entries are prefixed by 15 handwritten pages of Latin poems, all copied from the works of Georg Fabricius (1516-71), who had been director of the St Afra's in 1546.
Noteworthy contributors include: 1) Gallus Baron Racknitz (1590-1658), poet and humanist.
2) Moritz III Baron Racknitz (b. ca 1590, d. before 1658), cousin of Gallus v. Racknitz.
3) Michael Fleischer (1580-1653), clergyman in Krakau in Saxony.
4) Paul Werner (d. 1626) of Gottlau, deacon at Seyda near Schweinitz.
5) Johannes Helbig (ca 1590-1646), administrator at St Afra's school from 1608 to 1645.
6) Caspar von Hermsdorf (d. 1619).
7) Bartolomäus Sättler (dates unknown), a son of Jacob Sättler (1540-1619), clergyman at St Nikolai in Freiberg. Jacob was a son of the cloth-maker Ambrosius Sättler and Anna Bauer, sister of the outstanding scholar and scientist Georg Agricola (1494-1555), hailed as the "father of mineralogy".
8) Daniel Menius (1585-1604), son of the like-named rector of St Afra's (1548-1625).
9) Johannes Richter (d. 1609).
10) Georg Lönig (d. 1639), clergyman in Lössnig near Leipzig in 1610 and later in Zehmen.
11) Christoph Glaser (d. 1613), clergyman in Annaberg from 1613 onwards.
12) Johann Ulrich (dates unknown), clergyman in Dommitzsch.
13) Johannes Conrad (d. 1636), preacher in Bohemia, from where he was evicted, then clergyman in Großwaltersdorf and since 1628 in Großwaltersdorf near Freiberg, from 1633 onwards deacon in Meissen.
14) Abraham Plato (1570-1637), majordomo of Gallus von Racknitz.
15) Christian Gassmann (d. 1640), teacher and deputy rector of St Afra's.
16) Sylvester Zenck (dates unknown) of Vienna, presumably another majordomo of Racknitz.
17) Gabriel Wagner (1587-1655), theologian; from 1610 onwards preacher at Freiberg.
18) Samuel Starck (dates unknown), successor of Michael Starck as clergyman in Hirschfeld.
19) Wolfgang Schaller (1582-1626), physician, professor at Wittenberg, served twice as rector, private physician to Electress Hedwig of Denmark.
20) Samuel Richter (d. 1633), clergyman in Chemnitz.
21) Israel Maukisch (1584-1654), 1612 deputy rector in Braunschweig, then clergyman in Pulsnitz (1613), Berthelsdorf (1617), and from 1635 onwards in Freiberg.
22) Johannes Nicolai (d. 1643), preacher in Pillnitz, later clergyman in Seifersbach near Sachsenburg.
A charming example of a German late Renaissance pupil's friendship album.
