Diebold Schilling von Bern. Die grosse Burgunder Chronik "Zürcher Schilling". 2 Volumes: Facsimile and commantary

This facsimile edition, faithful in every detail, was produced on the basis of the original, which is kept under the number A 5 in the Zurich Central Library. The Burgundian Chronicle was written around 1480 as the third part of the comprehensive Bernese city chronicle and is the most important source on the Burgundian Wars. The miniatures are particularly appealing, providing detailed accounts of sieges, battles, and camp life. The Zurich Schilling, a chronicle by the famous Diebold Schilling, named after its place of storage, is the most original and comprehensive source on the Burgundian Wars. It was written around 1480 and continued the tradition of Bernese historiography begun by Konrad Justinger in 1420 and resumed by Bendicht Tschachtlan in 1470. The author and writer of this fascinating work is Diebold Schilling the Elder. The Zurich Schilling, with its 199 magnificent illustrations, is an impressive testimony to Bernese and Swiss history. The facsimile edition: The facsimile volume of the Great Burgundian Chronicle is faithful to the original in every detail. The 1,036 pages were published in a format of 39 x 25 cm in a limited edition of 980 numbered copies, which is unique worldwide. The leather binding is completely identical to that of the original. It is decorated with embossing and clasps. The capital was hand-stitched; the individual layers were cut true to the original and bound by hand. The Great Burgundian Chronicle: In 1474, Schilling was commissioned by the assembled councilors of Bern to write a chronicle of the city from its founding to the present day. In keeping with the city's importance, Schilling approached his task on a grand scale. Between 1474 and 1483, he produced the monumental three-volume Amtliche Stadtchronik von Bern (Official Chronicle of the City of Bern). Schilling kept the original version of the third part for himself: our Great Burgundian Chronicle. It is the most comprehensive of Schilling's chronicles. The official version of this third volume was censored in some respects. The Burgundian Chronicle is therefore a unique testimony: it clearly expresses the unadulterated opinion of a patriot. However, it was not only highly political events that were deleted from the official text, but also, for example, a story about a grub trial that only appears in the Burgundian Chronicle, which Schilling considered very amusing to hear. In 1478, the Bernese parish priest had threatened from the pulpit that if the terrible plague of May beetles did not end within six days, he would summon the insects before the Bishop of Lausanne. The text. A monument to history: the 429 chapters of the Zurich Schilling do not offer history in the modern sense. Schilling is not concerned with underlying contexts, but rather describes events. Something happens in each of his chapters: military campaigns, pillaging, sieges, robbery and murder, court judgments and acts of violence. And what is described so vividly is conveyed at the same time through the illustrations. Schilling's beautiful, regular handwriting, a Gothic cursive with sweeping initials, is accompanied by 199 watercolor pen-and-ink drawings that are not by his hand. The decorative illustrations magnificent medieval art: The most important element of the illustrations is the landscape in which the events take place. However, this rarely corresponds to the topographical reality, but rather springs from the artist's imagination. The view falls from above onto the scene depicted, onto towns, villages, and castles, which are skillfully inserted into the hilly terrain with its beautifully rounded lines. Particularly appealing is the narrative style in which the artist depicts the entire course of the Burgundian Wars. He shows almost every event mentioned in the text in great detail, drawing and painting sieges, small skirmishes, and the camp life of the soldiers. Blood flows in battle, Swiss confederates pierce Burgundian horsemen with pikes, horses collapse. Idyllic scenes are found only at the margins; war prevails. As a whole, the illustrations in the Zurich Schilling have a peculiar charm, based in part on the naive realism of the depictions and in part on the carefree stylization of the heroes and events. The facsimile is accompanied by a comprehensive commentary volume that provides information on Diebold Schilling's life and work, the social history of Schilling's work, art-historical and military-historical aspects, and a political assessment of the Burgundian Wars in the context of late medieval European politics.