The German Political Broadsheet 1600-1700.
Wade, Mara R.
John Roger Paas. The German Political Broadsheet 1600-1700.
Volume 8. 1649-1661. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. 490 pp.
+ 18 b/w pls. illus. bibl. [euro]888. ISBN: 3-447-05061-6.
This is a truly splendid volume: the design and layout are
superior, the content of the highest scholarly quality, and the
potential to give durable impetus to future scholarship clear. The
reproduction of the plates is excellent, and in a day and age when most
publishers shy away from producing such meticulously executed
illustrated folios, Harrassowitz, and of course, John Roger Paas, are to
be commended for their far-reaching vision and superb craftsmanship.
While this outstanding quality is characteristic of all the volumes in
this series, volume 8 stands out for its marvelous presentation of
irregularly sized, large-scale graphics, many requiring multiple
folding--some vertically and others horizontally--an aspect that, in
view of the complicated printing and binding process, would deter most
publishers. While the individual volume price is staggering and puts the
entire set beyond the reach of most scholars, it is well worth the
efforts of readers of this journal to ensure that their university
libraries acquire the entire set, be it through the normal acquisition
process or designated funds from special donors and friends of the
library. The potential for teaching attractive and intellectually
rigorous undergraduate courses as well as graduate seminars from these
plates is great; many new materials await discovery here. Each volume
harbors the seeds of dissertations, articles, and monographs waiting to
be written.
This volume covers a time in German history largely unknown outside
of German studies--the period 1649-61--but deserving scholarly attention
from many disciplines. Most interesting, perhaps, for readers of this
journal are the numerous plates (listed under "P" numbers) and
their related images (listed under "PA" numbers) concerning
the execution of Charles I, the rise and fall of Cromwell, the
Commonwealth, and the Restoration of Charles II. There are numerous
plates, numerous states of plates, and copious related material,
providing a treasure trove of information on continental attitudes
toward the regicide and its aftermath. Of interest is the equestrian
portrait of Oliver Cromwell (P2312) with a depiction of Dresden in the
background, a recycling of a plate originally depicting the Saxon
Elector Johann Georg I. While the reception of these English events is
well known to scholars of German Baroque literature, owing largely to
the excellent studies by Gunter Berghaus and the considerable
scholarship on Andreas Gryphius's tragedy Carolus Stuardus, the
associated visual materials are still largely unknown. With the
publication of volume 8, scholars no longer have an excuse.
While the volume is bursting with pictorial materials concerning
Anglo-Dutch, Swedish-Dutch, and Swedish-Danish conflicts, the great
Northern Wars, the death of King Charles X, and accession of Charles XI
of Sweden, the entry of Louis XIV and Marie Theresa into Paris, entries
of brides and emperors, coronations, funeral corteges, and the centenary
of the signing of the Peace of Augsburg--including a series of portraits
of the secular and episcopal Electors of the Holy Roman Empire--two
events are particularly well documented: the so-called Executive
Congress in Nuremberg (1649-50), with the associated celebrations
marking the final negotiations concluding the Thirty Years' War,
and the election and coronation of Emperor Leopold I (1658), including
the entries of various princes into Frankfurt as well as Leopold
I's entries into Nuremberg, Munich, and Vienna. The fold-out plates
for the triumphal arches at Nuremberg are particularly spectacular. In a
quirk of publishing history which speaks volumes about
seventeenth-century practice, Paas's detailed research shows that
P2476, depicting Leopold's entry into Nurnberg in 1658, is a
recycled engraving for the entry of the Emperor Matthias into that same
city in 1617. Also of bibliographic interest is the note to P2341, a
plate commemorating the death of Emperor Ferdinand IV, stating that a
Yiddish version of the first song was published in Prague in 1654 (483).
John Roger Paas is to be commended for his painstaking research and
the resulting magisterial command of his material as reflected in both
this volume and the series. The brief introductions to the most
important historical events and accompanying bibliographies serve to
orient the reader well. The amount of bibliographic, library, and
archival work necessitated by this volume is most impressive.
Contemporary emphasis on visual studies and material culture confirms
our indebtedness to both the author and the publisher for making these
broadsides available to wider audiences.
MARA R. WADE
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
