German Stammbücher or Libri amicorum at Stanford Libraries: Primary sources and manuscripts
16th and 17th-Century manuscripts
- Album amicorum made from Alciati's Emblemata, 1551?-1560Call Number: MSS CODEX 1123Publication Date: 1551-1560A printed edition of Andrea Alciati's "Emblemata" that has been made into an album amicorum [autograph book] by a German student of Ingolstadt University. 220 woodcut emblems in borders from the original text (published in Lyon, France) are interleaved with approximately 75 autograph entries, some on both sides of a leaf, almost all with large coats-of-arms, dated between 1558-1560. Many of the emblems and nearly all of the autograph entries have been hand-colored.
- (NEW ACQUISITION--CATALOGING IN PROCESS) Liber amicorum. Manuscript on paper in Latin, German and Italian. Siena, 1569-1570, owned by Wolfgang Albrecht von Würzburg (d. 1610)The liber amicorum of Wolfgang Albrecht von Würzburg. A native of Kleingeschwenda near Saalfeld, he was since 1592 provost in Bamberg, Würzburg and Comburg, and died on 24 March 1610 (cf. Grosses vollständiges Universal Lexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste, Leipzig-Halle, 1749, vol. 59, col. 1308; and Regeste einer werthvollen, reichhaltigen Sammlung von Originalurkunden […], Nürnberg, 1850, p. 58). As the present album amicorum proves it, he studied in Siena in the years 1569-1570. The volume opens with a pretty costume picture of a “Gentildonna Senna” (‘Sienese noblewoman') and an entry of the owner (“In Catalogum amicorum”) facing his coat of arms. Further entries, partly with fully painted or simply sketched coats-of-arms, are by Johann Gottfried von Seckendorff, Bartholomäus von Romrod, Johann Gottfried von Berlichingen, Hannibal von Bocksberg, Hildebrand von Stain, Adrian von der Linde, Johann Georg von Fraunberg, Karl Ehinger, Virgilius Fröschlmoser, Jacob Mackl, Octavianus Schrenck, Nikolaus Hoier, and many others. Some of the contributors indicates their country of origin, namely Austria, Silesia, Pomerania, Swabia, etc. The only non-German entry is by the Bolognese student Galeazzo Balboni. All entries are dated 1569-1570 but one dated 1580, and all entries are signed from “Senis Hetruriae”. At the end is a partial register arranged in alphabetical order by first name probably written by the owner and, after that, a two-line saying (repeated twice), possibly as a counterpart to the beautiful Sienese woman depicted at the beginning, which goes: “Amor di putana é vin di Fiasco / la sera é bono, ela mattina eguasta” (‘Whore's love is like flask wine, good in the evening, rotten in the morning').
- Flores Hesperidum: pulcherrimae plerorumque Graeciae comicorum sententiae, 1574Call Number: PN6279 .A3 1574Publication Date: 1574Anthology of epigrams and heraldic woodcuts forming a template for an album amicorum, edited by Christian Egenolff, not to be confused with the Frankfurt printer.
- Flores Hesperidvm, 1574Extracts from Henri Estienne's Comicorum graecorum sententiae, with translations into Latin by Estienne and Egenolff, and into German. Each group is followed by blank pages containing ms. sentiments, usually signed and dated.
- Album amicorum of Matthias Olhan, 1588–1618Call Number: MSS CODEX 1474Publication Date: 1588–1618Viennese and Southern German friendship album from the late 16th and early 17th century. German manuscript on paper. 40 ff. (1 folding) with 46 coats of arms in colours and gilt, mostly full page. Most of the entries are from Vienna, and a few others from Augsburg, Komorn (Komárom), Raab (Györ), and Regensburg. The names of the contributors and their arms are almost exclusively those of commoners, many of which were probably colleagues of Ölhans, including Ahaim, Dietl, Mardl, Perleb, Perschaw, Rittersdorffer, Schoenberg, and Zaiminger, but also the Barons Bartholomaeus and Paul zu Egkh und Hungersbach as well as the noble family of Wolzogen. Near the end the album contains a curious allegorical drawing captioned in Italian.
- (NEW ACQUISITION--CATALOGING IN PROCESS) Album amicorum of the physician Benedikt Geiger. Freiburg im Breisgau, Munich, Florence, and Groningen 1592-1617.An early album amicorum containing mainly contributions by students and scholars of the university of Freiburg im Breisgau, including: Georg Bernhard Burger from Biberach, matriculated in 1579, doctor of law in 1592; Abraham Bellini from Florence 1593; Theodor Hepperger, Petrimontanus (South Tyrol), matriculated 1589, doctor of law 1596; Georg Linggahöl from Tyrol; Christoph von Brandis from Innsbruck, matriculated 1591, thesis in law 1594; Wolfgang Graf von Öttingen (1573-1598), canon of the cathedral of Eichstädt, rector in 1592; Johannes Maximus Steiner from Pleinfeld, doctor of law in 1594; Zacharias Loss from Wurzach, matriculated 1590; Johann Eberhard Lauentinus von Landshut, matriculated 1588; Georg Pölsterl (+1604), Austrian jurist and magistrate, dated from Florence 1593; Nicolaus (Miklos) Thurzó of Bethlenfalva and Bajmócz (1578-1609), dated from Florence 27 June 1593; Georg Meyer (1530-1609) from Strasbourg, professor of medicine, rector of the University of Freiburg several times from 1577 to 1606 (printed coat of arms); Ulrich Gayler, former secretary to the counts of Hohenzollern, dated from Munich 2 Jan. 1593; Carl Scheurl a member of the Nuremberg patrician family, dated from Florence 1593; Peter Schleher from Villingen, matriculated 1585; Johann Jacob Radt, court clerk in Freiburg, dated from from Florence 1593; Johannes Weigel from Florence 1593; Stanislaus Thurzó of Bethlenfalva and Bajmócz (Hungary), dated from Florence 27 June 1593; Jakob Mock (1540-1616) medical doctor, rector 1603 and 1613; Gallus Streytstaimer (1524-1595), medical doctor, rector 1571, 1574, 1579, 1585, and 1588; Joannes Joansonius Boltes (?), Groninganus, 1617; Walter Rettich, son of an episcopal official from Strasbourg, born in Dachstein in Alsace and raised as a Catholic, initially a mercenary in the service of Spain, then a law student in Freiburg i. Br. (1589) before becoming a councillor there. Rettich converted to Calvinism in 1619 and a year later back to Catholicism under the guidance of the Jesuits in Schlettstadt and probably died soon afterwards.
Benedikt Geiger from Munich, matriculated at the university of Freiburg on the 22 October 1591 and graduated with a doctorate in medicine on 23 November 1592. According to the Freiburg university register he had previously received a master's degree at the universty of Ingolstadt. A few years later he became the private physician of the bishop of Passau Urban von Trennbach who recommends him as the successor of the famous botanist, physician and explorere Leonhard Rauwolf in Linz (cf. OÖLA Linz, Landschaftsakten, Schachtel 462, Nr. E III 49). - Album of Wolfgang Kress von Kressenstein, 1597-1601Call Number: MSS CODEX M0442Publication Date: 1597-1601Painted coats of arms together with inscriptions to the owner in various hands. Many are written at Jena or Altdorf and dated 1597-1601. Leaves 242-245 contain miniatures of the four seasons.
- Album amicorum of Hermann Werner, 1598-1608Call Number: MSS CODEX 1157Publication Date: 1598-1608Student's album amicorum, kept over the period of a decade by Hermann Werner. Contents include 9 colored coats of arms, half-page colored scene of puttos, and a small sketch. The earliest entries appear to be from Stadthagen, including those of the 13-year-old Count Julius zu Holstein-Schaumburg (d. 1601) and of the Klencke family, whose members Ludolf, Wilken, and Theodor sign with Latin quotations and a full-page coat of arms. Late-Renaissance humanist friendship album from Northern Germany, including several noted representatives of local scholarship, politics and nobility.
- Friendship album of Johannes Zumler, later clergyman at Brück, from Meissen, Royal School of St Afra, 1602-1603Call Number: On orderAll the entries in this early 17th century friendship album, which is also notable for its unusual format and binding, date from Zumler’s sojourn at the Royal School of St Afra in Meissen in Saxony, where he was educated from September 1598 to August 1604. Hence, this is also an early and unusual example of a public school friendship album, rather than than of a university student. Apart from a number of later clerics – including an early relation of Georg Agricola – most contributors are boys or teachers who later achieved some renown as scholars, such as the humanist Gallus von Racknitz. The entries are prefixed by 15 handwritten pages of Latin poems, all copied from the works of Georg Fabricius (1516–71), who had been director of the St Afra’s in 1546. [Dealer description]
18th-century manuscripts
- German autograph albums, 1733-1835Call Number: MSS CODEX 1324 TTwo apparently unrelated volumes, however they are similar and probably representative of the time and place. One belonging to G.C.W. Poemer von Dippoltsdorf of Nuremberg, the other also with Nuremberg entries as well as from Fürth and Augsburg. Both are beautifully illustrated and calligraphed. The album belonging to Dippoltsdorf has many entries by military people.
- Liber amicorum of a Westphalian physician named Brüning, 1770-1799Call Number: MSS CODEX 1170Publication Date: 1770-1799Liber amicorum of a Westphalian physician named Brüning, containing 198 dedicatories by friends, mainly medicine students among whom is listed the famous German anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752-1840). His text in praise of Brüning is dated 1770 and was redacted in Iena where he was studying medicine.
- Autograph album of Johann Christian Fischer, 1774-1784Call Number: MSS CODEX 0045Publication Date: 1774-1784Consists of a dedication leaf, 305 numbered p., and an unnumbered index of 23 p., bound in an 18th cent. leather binding. Each p. consists of a ms. inscription, most signed and dated, with the dates ranging from 1774 to 1784. Inscriptions are in Greek, Latin, German, French, Dutch, Italian and English. A 20th century person writing in German has annotated some of the entries in pencil. He notes on the upper fly-leaf that there are 242 entries, of which 38 are by noteworthy persons. The 1st p. of the index has: "Register ergänzt 2/8 Jan. 1923 G. Meyer." The bookplate of the Janus Foundation San Francisco is mounted on the upper pastedown.
- Extensive album with 46 inked portrait silhouettes, 1775-1784Publication Date: 1775-1784Extensive album with 46 inked portrait silhouettes, one of them with a small watercolour and one small pencil drawing. Altogether the album contains 99 handwritten entries from the years 1775 to 1780 (mostly Bremen) and 1780 to 1784 (mostly Göttingen).
- Autograph album belonging to Catharina Heydin, Nuremberg, 1783-1787Call Number: MSS CODEX 0078
- Commonplace book of Caroline Meyer, 1786-1823Call Number: MSS CODEX 1322Publication Date: 1786-1823Commonplace book filled with handwritten transcripts from books, newspapers and magazines. Included are letters (probably mostly parts of epistolary novels), poems and prose passages. A multi-page text "From Faramonds family history. Daily rules of conduct given by a Catholic pastor" is followed by excerpts from Blum's New Walks, an Intelligence Sheet (a letter from a mother to her daughter a few days before her marriage), some from Sophie de la Roche, transcripts from women's magazines (Frauenzimmermagazin, Neue Magazin für Frauenzimmer), several paragraphs of Knigge, two poems on the death of Clemens Maria Joseph Duke of Saxony, as well as several other poems, spells and prose texts. Most entries seem to come from the same hand, only a few from others.
19th-century manuscripts
- Collection of alba amicorum, 1813-1877Call Number: M2256 FLAT BOX 1 & 2Publication Date: 1813-1877Seven alba amicorum (or "stammbuchkassette") kept by seven different individuals throughout central Europe. Former owners include one Hilbert from Suessenbach, Gustav Jenke, Gertrud Jenke, Anna Heuser, an individual from Glogau, a woman named Pauline, and a woman named Bertha. Some albums include color drawings, locks of hair, or embroidery.
- Emilie Delling album amicorum, 1831-1840Call Number: MSS CODEX 1192Publication Date: 1831-1840A Stammbuch (or album amicorum) belonging to Emilie Delling. Presented in an elaborate folding dark green half leather case with contemporary if not original spine and parts, giving owner (E. Delling) and titled, "Reminiscenz." Contemporary marbled slipcase. Approximately 80 individual leaves with entries, about 15 illustrations with 6 watercolors and watercolor vignettes, 3 embroidered pictures, 4 applied curly hair examples, pencil drawing, etc. Sheets measure approximately 10 x 16.5 cm. Entries range from 1831-1840. Numerous sayings and artistic expressions of friends from the town of Meerane in the northwest of the district of Zwickau in Saxony, including autographs, very pretty young ladies with a watercolor drawing of a round table under a large willow, one figure playing a mandolin while a young man hides behind a bush watching.
- Album amicorum of Lieutenant Hugo Visconti, 1836-1840Call Number: M2449 FLAT BOX 1Publication Date: 1836-1840Album of a member of the military, probably of Lieutenant Hugo Visconti "in the 47th Lin (ien) Infanterie Regimente", named on the finely calligraphed sheet of paper used here as the title. The contributors are almost exclusively women, including his sister, who asks God that he should not make her brother happy in the "distance", but "soon lead back to our fatherland and into the arms" of his "sister Hermine" , dated Karlsruhe, March 13, 1836. The attached water-color plan, apparently cut from a larger sheet, shows the floor plan of the Karlsruhe Cadet Institute and its green spaces opposite the Botanical Garden. This section of the plan bears the year 1826. Visconti probably came from Karlsruhe, was trained at this institute and was transferred to Padua in 1836. In the period up to 1840 he must have done military service in Croatia. He seems to have made various female acquaintances, some of which have been immortalized in his album. Only one sheet comes from the military context, with an entry and pen drawing showing a maneuver with cavalrymen and a closed infantry line.
- Album Amicorum of Frau Hedwig, 1862-1872Call Number: M2462 FLAT BOX 1Publication Date: 1862-1872Album amicorum for a woman named Hedwig consists of 21 entries, of which 5 have ink sketches on rectos. Entries signed in Graz, Linz and Salzburg. Notable entries include an ink sketch of a farmhouse in the mountains by a Josef Kogl and a small watercolor sketch of the monastery and castle of Nonnberg, near Salzburg, signed by Josef von Bechinie in Nonntal.
- Album amicorum, 1881-1884Call Number: MSS CODEX 1201Publication Date: 1881-1884Album amicorum with 63 entries of poetry, mostly in German, with a few in English and French. Contains 11 pen or pencil drawings, mostly accentuated with color. Among the numerous entries are those of A. Kornhas, M. Agnes, Josepha Rauch, Th. Knöpfler, M. Angéle, Mary Agnes, Louise Vogl, F. Widmann, Hassler R., Fanny Schneider, Marthe Wicky, Noémie, Bertha Fasold, Godwin Sequin, Mizi Frohm, Louise Weber, Betty Dorner, Lina Stichel, Carla Luckmann, Amèlie Angele, Marie Schamm, Wally Zoller, Claudine Grübler, E. Kispert, Marie Pischl, Julie Kofler, Bertha Kofler, Clementine Wittmann, Marie Bodmaier, Auguste Salzmann, Vittoria Frizzi, Maria von Geismar, Lina Thomm, Alina Salzmann, Monika Forstner, Ida Haldenwang, Albertine Vogl, Emma Steidle, Emily Prunner, Elisa Beck, Lina Sitmara, Bertha Hofmann, Elise Felber, K. Sichmann, and Emma Wickel.
- Enid Lucy Pease Robinson album amicorum, 1897-1903Call Number: M2329 FLAT BOX 1Publication Date: 1897-1903A late Victorian, early Edwardian England album amicorum featuring the friends and family of Enid Lucy Pease Robinson reflecting on their "favorites." Each album page features two pre-printed "My Favorite" forms, which provide a cut-out window for a photograph and a grid with 21 slots, one per topic, arranged in 7 rows, 3 across to be completed for: "My Favorite--Poet/ Poem/ Composer/ Song/ Artist/ Picture/ Author/ Book/ Hero in fiction/ Heroine in fiction/ Historical hero/ Historical heroine/ Study/ Amusement/ Flower/ Color/ Animal/ Musical Instrument/ Proverb/ Quotation/ Motto." Respondents include 31 young women born between 1876 and 1886, the majority between 1881-1883, who comprise two thirds of the subjects. Enid herself is represented in the album in three photos, taken at ages 16, 18 and 21, each time varying her answers to "My Favorites." Totals 44 records for all 42 subjects and 33 for the 31 female subjects, all but one of whom were in late adolescence or early womanhood, and whose median age was 18, at the time they dated their individual records variously between 1897 and 1903. The remaining 11 subjects comprise older men and women, among them Enid's parents and six members of the Hanbury family, including Cecil Hanbury, MP.
20th-century manuscripts
- Maja Iffland album amicorum, 1905-1906Call Number: M2140Publication Date: 1905-1906An album amicorum belonging to Iffland containing entries written by Iffland's classmates at the Institut Friedlander, Karlsruhe. Most entries are in German and date to 1905-1906, though there are some entries in English and French, and a few feature pen or pencil drawings. Signers include Iffland's cousin Gretel, Else Maier, Meta Altmann, Leni Bock, Dorothea Ebert, Lisl Pfeifer, Jenny Meurer, Ella Hirsch, Bella Mausbach, Ella Neu, Rosy Heinsheimer, Karola Strauss, Anna Sahm, Leontine von Beck, Eva Dahlmann, Ifflands Lehrerin Frau Obermüller, Frida von Daum, Gertrud Hornung, Bertha Neff, Johanna Rößler, H. Sickinger, Helene Theobald, Concordia Kienzler, Emilie Mennarth, Ifflands Seelsorger E. Bodenstein, Irmgard Enders, Maria Höllischer, Enid Wittington, Thilde Leuhsler, Herma Roth, Hedwig Freyheit, Helene Frey and Elisabeth Gräff.
- ALBUM AMICORUM. ARTIGES, P. [Ninie] A ma chère Frida, Souvenir Affectureux, Ninie. Ostende, 1913 -1915Call Number: on orderThe poems are dated from November 1913 to February 1915 and were written in Ostende, Brussels, London and Folkstone, presumably by ‘Ninie’ who is clearly the painter P. Artiges. Artiges was clearly very talented as a miniaturist and watercolourist and her works have appeared in provincial auctions in the UK. This album spans the period before WWI in Belgium and then during the beginning of the war in the UK. Frida it would appear is Belgian and ‘Ninie’ is from England. [Dealer description]
- Edith Anna Strauss papers, 1921-1942Call Number: M2845Publication Date: 1920s-1940sThis collection consists of correspondence, official documents, printed materials, schoolwork, ephemera, album amicorums, and other materials documenting the life of a young German Jew from the 1920s to the early 1940s.
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