Item 20 - Inscriptions from alba amicorum

The contents of this volume were removed from alba belonging to Balthasar Friedrich Saltzmann, Johann Heuppel, Elias Silbermann, Albert Wessener, and others. Inside the front cover is an inscription which appears to read ‘Coral Lach für G: F: P: in Lahn d 14 Juli 1754’, which suggests that the col-lection had been made by that date. Below this is the armorial bookplate of Robert, Earl of Crewe. Various numbers appear on the same paste-down, and on the facing pages are notes on the number of autographs in the book, from which it is clear that some have been removed at different times.

On the front cover is stamped ‘CL [i.e. 150] Orginal-Handschriften [sic] Welt-Berümter Männer’. Three or four letters have been scraped away after ‘CL’.

The contents of the book are mostly autograph inscriptions on slips, removed from various alba amicorum. Each slip typically contains a moral injunction or other text (most of which have been quoted in the individual descriptions), a complimentary message to the recipient, and the name and titles of the writer. A few are painted with arms or other designs. The slips on ff. 8r, 45r, 53r, 62r, 65r, 76r, 77r, 93r, 97r, 98r, 113r, 124r, and 147r have inscriptions on the front and the back.

In the descriptions of the individual items MS ‘j’ and ‘v’ have been printed ‘i’ and ‘u’ respectively where they represent vowels, and breves (˘) have been disregarded. The Greek characters ȣ and ϛ (stigma) been replaced by ου and στ respectively. The sources of texts have sometimes been indicated, though they are not usually mentioned on the slips themselves. It should be noted that in many cases the texts are adaptations rather than exact quotations.

Some slips share characteristics with others, indicating that they probably have a common origin. The most obvious of these groups are as follows:

(1) Five fairly small slips, all about 9 cm wide, though clearly trimmed, bearing inscriptions dated at Wittenberg in June and November 1593: ff. 28r, 29r, 51r, 87r, and 104r.

(2) Seven small slips of various sizes, all trimmed, bearing painted coats of arms, all undated but probably of the 17th c.: ff. 4r, 13r, 16r, 17r, 112r, 135r, and 146r.

(3) Nine slips, mostly trimmed but probably originally measuring about 9.5 by 15 cm, three of them written on both sides, bearing inscriptions dated as follows:

Leipzig, 25 Oct. 1667 (f. 53r)*
Wittenberg, 27 Feb. 1670 (f. 147r)
Wittenberg, 1 Mar. 1670 (f. 93r, reverse)
Wittenberg, 1 Mar. 1670 (f. 26r)*
Wittenberg, 1 Mar. 1670 (f. 86r)
Wittenberg, 1 Mar. 1670 (f. 111r)
(Leipzig), 30 Mar. 1670 (f. 99r)*
Leipzig, 1 Apr. 1670 (f. 80r)
Leipzig, 7 Apr. 1670 (f. 147r, reverse)*
Leipzig, 25 Apr. 1670 (f. 151r)
Leipzig, 28 Apr. 1670 (f. 93r)*
Giessen, 15 May 1670 (f. 150r)*
Ulm, (1671 x 1674?) (f. 53r, reverse)

These slips probably came from the album of Balthasar Friedrich Saltzmann, to whom those marked with asterisks are addressed.

(4) Thirty-eight slips, mostly measuring about 9.5 by 15 cm, six of them written on both sides, bearing inscriptions dated as follows:

Darmstadt, 22 Mar. 1709 (f. 77r)
Giessen, 3 Apr. 1709 (f. 90r)*
Giessen, 3 Apr. 1709 (f. 14r)
Giessen, 3 Apr. 1709 (f. 142r)*
Giessen, 5 Apr. 1709 (f. 136r)
Giessen, 7 Apr. 1709 (f. 77r, reverse)
Frankfurt am Main, 13 Apr. 1709 (f. 119r)
Arnstadt, 25 Sept. 1709 (f. 45, reverse)
Arnstadt, 26 Sept. 1709 (f. 107r)
(Leipzig), 6 Dec. 1709 (f. 106r)
Leipzig, 8 Dec. 1709 (f. 115r)
Leipzig, 9 Dec. 1709 (f. 76r)*
Leipzig, 10 Dec. 1709 (f. 76r, reverse)*
Leipzig, 11 Dec. 1709 (f. 11r)*
Jena, 3 Mar. 1710 (f. 95r)
Jena, 20 May 1710 (f. 145r)
Jena, 21 May 1710 (f. 85r)
Jena, 22? May 1710 (f. 44r)
Jena, 22 May 1710 (f. 65r)
Jena, 28 May 1710 (f. 23r)
Jena, 29 May 1710 (f. 36r)
(Jena), May 1710 (f. 8r)
Halle, 4 Oct. 1710 (f. 20r)
Halle, 13 Nov. 1710 (f. 97r)
Halle, Nov. 1710 (f. 5r)
Halle, 22 Mar. 1711 (f. 84r)
Halle, 30 Apr. 1711 (f. 46r)
Halle, 13? May 1711 (f. 97r, reverse)
Leipzig, 13 May 1711 (f. 65r)
Wittenberg, 29 May 1711 (f. 83r)
Wittenberg, May 1711 (f. 42r)
Wittenberg, May 1711 (f. 31r)
Dresden, May 1711 (f. 109r)
Frankfurt an der Oder, 10 June 1711 (f. 32r)
Celle, 25 July 1711 (f. 88r)
Berlin, 29 June 1711 (f. 123r)
Hamburg, 20 Aug. 1711 (f. 8r, reverse)
Bremen, 28 Aug. 1711 (f. 92r)
Franeker, 7 Sept. 1711 (f. 138r)*
Franeker, 7 Sept. 1711 (f. 62r, reverse)
Amsterdam, 12 Oct. 1711 (f. 39r)
Leiden, 17 Oct. 1711 (f. 62r)
The Hague, 21 Oct. 1711 (f. 96r)*
(Weimar, 1702 x 1725) (f. 45r)

Each of these slips is numbered in the top right-hand corner on one side, but there is no obvious pattern to the numbering. The slips probably came from the album of Elias Silberrad, to whom those marked with asterisks are addressed.

It may also be noted that there are two inscriptions dated at Lützelstein in 1618 (ff. 49r and 69r), two at Giessen in 1653 (ff. 43r and 56r), two at Jena on 10 April 1654 (ff. 30r and 101r), two at Leiden in 1713 (ff. 3r and 102r), seven at Halle in April 1717 (ff. 47r, 67r, 70r, 122r, 124r, 131r, and 148r), three at Halle in October 1740 (ff. 10r, 81r, 98r), and three at Jena in July 1741 (ff. 57r, 63r, and 68r).

See:

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB)

Robert and Richard Keil, Die Deutschen Stammbücher des sechzehnten bis neunzehnten Jahrehunderts, 1893 (Keil)

Rudolf Lenz, Uwe Bredehorn, and Marek Winiarczyk, Abkürzen aus Personal-schriften des XVI. bis XVIII. Jahrhunderts (Marburger Personalschriften-Forschungen, vol. xxxv)

Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3rd ed., ed. A. Hauck, 22 vols., 1896–1909

Max Rosenheim, ‘The Album Amicorum’, Archaeologia, lxii (1910–11), 251–308

The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 13 vols., 1908–14

Werner Wilhelm Schnabel, Das Stammbuch: Konstitution und Geschichte einer textsortenbezogenen Sammelform bis ins erste Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts, 2003