Physical Description

1 online resource (1 title page) : color

Date

1511

Notes

Title page of: Reuchlin, Johann. Doctor Johannsen Reuchlins der K.M. als Ertzhertzogen zu Osterreich auch Churfürsten und fürsten gemainen bundtrichters inn Schwaben warhafftige entschuldigung gegen und wider ains getaufften Juden genant Pfefferkorn vormals getruckt ussgangen unwarhaftigs schmachbüchlin Augenspiegel. [Tuebingen : Thomas Anshelm, 1511]

Summary

The "Augenspiegel" is the famous defense of the Christian humanist scholar Johannes Reuchlin against the attacks of the anti-Jewish agitator Johannes Pfefferkorn, a convert from Judaism. Pfefferkorn had gained access to the Holy Roman emperor through the support of the Cologne Dominicans and in 1509 was empowered to confiscate and burn Jewish books as part of the plan to undermine the status of Jews within the empire. When the archbishop of Mainz, the Frankfurt city council, and various German princes intervened on behalf of the Jews, the emperor ordered the appointment of an investigating commission. The commission was headed by the archbishop of Mainz and Johannes Reuchlin, whose aid Pfefferkorn had tried in vain to enlist earlier. When Pfefferkorn learned that Reuchlin's opinion would be favorable to the Talmud he assailed him in his "Handspiegel wider und gegen die Juden" ("Hand Mirror," 1511). Reuchlin replied in his "Augenspiegel" ("Eye-glass," 1511), strongly attacking Pfefferkorn and his backers, and thereby starting one of the great literary controversies of history, in reality a battle between the reactionary and the liberal parties within the Church. It occurred at a time when the tide of humanism was rising, and most German humanists rallied to Reuchlin's side. Erasmus, the Rotterdam humanist, termed Pfefferkorn "a criminal Jew who had become a most criminal Christian." In September 1511 Pfefferkorn preached against the Augenspiegel outside a Frankfurt church, but the main battle was now fought between Reuchlin and the Cologne theologians. When the emperor visited Cologne in 1512, Reuchlin's enemies obtained from him an interdiction against the "Augenspiegel," and in the same year Pfefferkorn issued his "Brandspiegel" ("Burning Glass"), an even more vituperative attack on Reuchlin and the Jews. Reuchlin submitted a further defense and appealed.

Depicted

Reuchlin, Johann, 1455-1522, Augenspiegel

Subject

Antisemitism, Resistance to; Jewish literature, Censorship, Early works to 1800; Christianity and other religions, Judaism; Judaism, Relations, Christianity; Book burning

Medium

Title pages

Accession Number

URL

https://www.lbi.org/griffinger/record/5568152