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Nuremberg A. Imperial city, crafts and tradeThe Imperial city of N. in the early modern period succeeded Cologne and long preceded Vienna as the largest city in the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire. Around 1500, it had some 36,000 inhabitants [9.10] in an area of around 160 ha. Its size was partly dictated by topography: the establishment of two royal courts under the protection of the castle by the Pegnitz, close to its confluence with the Rednitz to form the Regnitz, created an easily-accessible nodal point that offered excelle…

A. Imperial city, commerce, craftsThe Free Imperial City of A., politically, economically and culturally speaking, was one of the leading cities of the Holy Roman Empire from the Late Middle Ages. Occupying a favourable location between the Rivers Lech and Wertach, on the trans-Alpine road connecting the upper Etsch (Adige) Valley with the Danube via the Reschen and Fern Passes ( via Claudia Augusta), A. in the Roman Imperial period, as the municipium (town with Roman citizenship rights) of Augusta Vindelicorum, was the major centre of the province of Raetia. The early medi…

A. IntroductionAccording to the Humanist view, E. was a process by which a man was perfected ( perfectio hominis) by the free unfolding of his abilities ( ingenium). This process, through to the Reformation and beyond, was determined by content that was defined in respect of formal, intellectual, aesthetic, and moral goals. Concepts of education depended primarily on a greater reliance on the heritage of Antiquity in order to achieve an intensive appropriation of rediscovered knowledge, but new discoveries of the early mo…

A. LifeWillibald P., the German Humanist, scholar and writer, was born into a wealthy family of Nuremberg patricians on December 5, 1470 at Eichstätt and died on December 22, 1530 at Nuremberg. His ancestor, Hans P., already with a considerable fortune, had in 1386 been coopted into the Kleinerer Rat (‘Lesser Council’), the de facto ruling committee of the city, as Junger Bürgermeister (‘Young Mayor’). P.’s great-grandfather Franz P. (1388–1451) laid the foundations of the considerable family library, with a particular interest in traditional scholastic li…