bavarikon4UDescription
Manuscript Cgm 312 contains a collection of ten different divination book texts, written between 1450 and 1473. Divination books were used to predict the future from the weather to political events. Its writer, previous owner and partly also author is the former Oettingen chancery scribe Konrad Bollstatter (ca. 1420-1482), who had been living in Augsburg since 1466 and copied a large number of German manuscripts, including important early humanistic works such as the "Ackermann aus Böhmen". Bollstatter was very well educated, he had acquired his knowledge of older German literature in the library of his master, the Count of Oettingen. This divination book is a collection of oracle sayings for entertainment or instruction. The first part consists of 16 questions, 12 discs with the animal, plant and place names and the answers of 16 kings. Starting from a certain section, Bollstatter has four related figures each appear as proclaimers of the fate predictions: biblical figures, church teachers, ancient philosophers, the elements and the four winds. He introduced new figures to the divination book genre including bishops, lay princes and counts, the Knights of the Grail, the Knights of the Round Table, the Dietrich heroes and four Minnesang singers (leaf 139v-142v). The divination book texts are preceded by instructions for use. Datum: 2016
Author
Peter Czoik