Endres II Tucher (1423-1507) and his wife Adelheid Tucher, née Gundlach, 1590–1606

Endres II Tucher (1423-1507), brother of the Jerusalem crusader Hans VI (1428-1491), was the eldest son of his father of the same name, who founded the younger line of the family. Endres came to the Inner Council in 1454 and took over the office of master builder in 1461, which he headed until 1476. During this time he produced the master builder's book, in which he described his tasks and gave us a unique insight into the medieval imperial city's building authority. Deeply religious, Endres resigned his offices in 1476 and entered the Nuremberg charterhouse as a converse brother, where he died at the age of 84 and was buried in front of the Carthusian Church's high altar.

We owe documents from his brother's trip to Endres, which he copied and added to his copy of the travelogue (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France). This includes the letter in which Hans described the visit to the Jerusalem Church of the Holy Sepulchre and placed the holy sites geographically in relation to the Saint Sebald Church, so that the reader would have a better awareness of their location. This "parable" was incorporated into the travelogue.

In the miniature, Endres is dressed in a beret and fur-lined skirt and is holding the master builder's book and a feathered leaf in his hands. His wife Adelheid, in a white festive cap, bonnet and yellow dress, is offering him a flower with a shy look. Their marriage remained childless. After Endres' retreat to the monastery, Adelheid returned to her family in Bamberg, where she died in 1482. An epitaph is dedicated to her memory.

Randall Herz

To the digitised copy