Wolfenbüttel, 02 September 2024
The Großes Stammbuch of the Augsburg merchant, art dealer, and political agent Philipp Hainhofer (1578–1647) is one of the most remarkable alba amicorum of the early modern era, both in terms of the book’s artwork and the names it contains. There are nearly one hundred entries by high-ranking figures from the period between 1596 and 1633, which are illustrated with coats of arms and decorated sheets, some of them by renowned artists, using various techniques.
With the support of the Kulturstiftung der Länder (Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States), the Niedersächsisches Ministerium für Wissenschaft und Kultur (Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, MWK), the VolkswagenStiftung (Volkswagen Foundation), the Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media), the Familie Wittchow-Aschoff-Stiftung an der Herzog August Bibliothek, (Wittchow-Aschoff Family Foundation at the Herzog August Bibliothek), the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung (Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation), the Stiftung Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony Foundation) and the Rudolf-August Oetker-Stiftung (Rudolf-August Oetker Foundation), it was purchased for the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel in 2020 and then catalogued in depth as part of a three-year research project.
Over the course of the project, this valuable illuminated manuscript has been digitised, with each sheet catalogued in depth and edited to scholarly standards. The iconography of the miniatures has been analysed, the texts transcribed and translated and material features studied. The relations between the people involved and the genesis and function of the entries have been researched and reconstructed in light of their historical context, while connections to Hainhofer’s other friendship books and travelogues have been identified. The data generated has been related to other normative data and linked to comparative illustrations and to registers. A number of search and download functions have been provided.
The results are now available in open access on a dedicated edition website for research and public access:
Philipp Hainhofer, Das Große Stammbuch: Kommentierte digitale Edition eines bedeutenden Album Amicorum aus der Zeit um 1600 (Digital Edition of a Significant album amicorum from the Period around 1600, with Commentary), edited, transcribed, translated, and annotated by Sabine Jagodzinski, Wolfenbüttel: Herzog August Bibliothek 2021–2024 (Wolfenbütteler Digitale Editionen, Nr. 6), https://stammbuch.hab.de.
The digital edition of Philipp Hainhofer’s Großes Stammbuch is a milestone in two respects. On the one hand, it supports the present endeavours of libraries, archives and museums to intensively research and create an in-depth catalogue of the many surviving friendship books of the early modern period, while on the other, as a digital version, it offers a valuable, state-of-the-art resource for further research. In parallel to the edition website, a richly illustrated high-quality print version has been published, presenting the Großes Stammbuch and selected aspects of its genesis and function:
Sabine Jagodzinski, Das Große Stammbuch Philipp Hainhofers, ed. Kulturstiftung der Länder with the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel, Patrimonia 405 (Berlin/Wolfenbüttel, 2024), ISSN 0941-7036.
Title image: Das Große Stammbuch Philipp Hainhofers, HAB, Cod Guelf. 355 Noviss. 8°, S. 58-59, Foto: HAB
