Hidden Roots of Austrian Humanism - Johannes Fuchsmagen

The project makes accessible for the first time an intellectual portrait of the thus far scarcely researched Tyrolean Johannes Fuchsmagen (c. 14501510). Born in Hall in Tyrol, Fuchsmagen received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg/Breisgau and is later documented as a counsellor to Emperor Frederick III and his son Maximilian I. More important than his political-diplomatic career is his position within intellectual history: Fuchsmagen was the center of a humanistically interested circle in Vienna and was also connected to southern German humanists. He apparently introduced an entirely new feature into the humanistic efforts of various scholarly circles, detectable from around the middle of the fifteenth century in Austria, namely an interest in antiquity and the collecting of antique artefacts. Because Fuchsmagen himself did not leave behind any written texts, with the exception of a few letters and various brief notations, it is possible to reconstruct his interests and efforts only indirectly and by means of an interdisciplinary approach. The project thus consists of three pillars: one having to do with the history of books, one philological, and one art historical. The first project part reconstructs Fuchsmagens book collection and systematically analyses the traces of his use in the books (e.g. marginalia, nota signs, purchase marks). The second project part will produce a commentated online edition of the Codex Fuchsmagen, a collection of roughly 200 Latin poems by numerous humanists, which is dedicated to Fuchsmagen and which displays his European network of scholars in a unique manner. A German translation will make the Latin texts available to a broader public for the first time. The third project part addresses two central, but as yet not adequately appreciated Austrian cultural artefacts, both of which were commissioned by Fuchsmagen: first, the so-called Fuchsmagen Tapestry, produced around 1500, showing the donor in the company of the Austrian Margrave and Saint Leopold III and his family; and second, the so-called Filocalus Calendar, a manuscript owned by Fuchsmagen and created at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The manuscript is a copy of an illustrated late antique calendar and by means of its illumination, which has been attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder, is also a work of first-rate art historical importance. These two testaments will be used to investigate Fuchsmagens self-understanding as a humanistic donor and the facets of his reception of medieval and antique history. The synopsis of the three project parts will for the first time provide a vivid portrait of Fuchsmagen as an intellectual, a portrait that does as much justice to his self- understanding as to his impact on the humanism north of the Alps.

The project makes accessible for the first time an intellectual portrait of the thus far scarcely researched Tyrolean Johannes Fuchsmagen (c. 1450-1510). Born in Hall in Tyrol, Fuchsmagen received his studied at the University of Freiburg/Breisgau and is later documented as a counsellor to Emperor Frederick III and his son Maximilian I. More important than his political-diplomatic career is his position within intellectual history: Fuchsmagen was the center of a humanistically interested circle in Vienna and was also connected to southern German humanists. He apparently introduced an entirely new feature into the humanistic efforts of various scholarly circles, detectable from around the middle of the fifteenth century in Austria, namely an interest in antiquity and the collecting of antique artefacts. Because Fuchsmagen himself did not leave behind any written texts, with the exception of a few letters and various brief notations, it is possible to reconstruct his interests and efforts only indirectly and by means of an interdisciplinary approach. The project thus consisted of three pillars: one having to do with the history of books, one philological, and one art historical. In the first project part we reconstructed Fuchsmagen's book collection and systematically analysed the traces of his use in the books (e.g. marginalia, nota signs, purchase marks). We made both the descriptions of Fuchsmagen's manuscripts and prints as well as the transcriptions of his marginalia available online. The second project part produced a commentated digital edition (soon available online) of the Codex Fuchsmagen, a collection of roughly 200 Latin poems by numerous humanists, which is dedicated to Fuchsmagen and which displays his European network of scholars in a unique manner. A German translation makes the Latin texts available to a broader public for the first time. The third project part addressed three central, but as yet not adequately appreciated Austrian cultural artefacts, all of which were commissioned by Fuchsmagen: first, the so-called Fuchsmagen Tapestry, produced around 1500; second, the fragments of Fuchsmagen's epitaph; and third, the so-called Filocalus Calendar, a manuscript owned by Fuchsmagen and created at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The manuscript is a copy of an illustrated late antique calendar and by means of its illumination, which has been attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder, is also a work of first-rate art historical importance. The attribution to Cranach could be confirmed in the project, but the drawings seem to have been made some years later than previously assumed. The synopsis of the three project parts will for the first time provide a vivid portrait of Fuchsmagen as an intellectual, a portrait that does as much justice to his self- understanding as to his impact on the humanism north of the Alps.