Lorenz

Stadtarchiv Nürnberg, E29/III, 258, fol.65r
Dr. Lorenz I Tucher, Miniature in the "Großes Tucherbuch", 1590–1606

Lorenz, founder of the Dr. Lorenz Tucher’sche Foundation, which is still active today, was born on St. Laurence’s Day in 1447 (10 August) as the eldest son of the Nuremberg patrician Hans V Tucher and his wife Barbara Hegner. In the "Großes Tucherbuch" his vita is illustrated with a portrait showing him as a scholar in a red skirt with biretta.

Lorenz studied law in Italy, the Artes Liberales in Leipzig from 1462 and theology and church history in Basel from 1470, earning a doctorate in canon law. After a post as canon in Regensburg he obtained a post as canon in Zurich in 1474, and in 1478 he became provost of St. Lorenz in Nuremberg.

During his tenure, Tucher expanded the old rectory and donated, among other things, the large chandelier in the nave of St. Lawrence. In 1496 he gave up his post in favour of his cousin Sixtus and retired to Regensburg. Lorenz died on 25 March 1503 and was buried in the family vault in St. Sebald. His epitaph, commissioned by his brothers Martin I and Hans IX, was designed by Hans von Kulmbach based on designs by Albrecht Dürer. After deducting a perpetuity for a choir foundation in Regensburg in his will, Lorenz divided his fortune into two equal parts, one half to support poor people in Nuremberg and the other half for the said family foundation.

Horst-Dieter Beyerstedt