The First German Edition of the Great Carolingian Heroic Epic

Fierrabras. Eyn schöne kurtzweilige Histori von eym mächtige[n] Riesen auß Hispanie[n] / Fierrabras gnant […] newlich auß Frantzösischer sprach in Teutsch gebracht […]. Simmern, Hieronimus Rodler, 1533.

The first German edition of the great medieval epic of Fierrabras, among the most beautiful illustrated German Volksbücher of the Renaissance and preserved here in exceptionally vivid contemporary colouring that transforms the woodcuts into miniature paintings.

Printed at the court press of Duke Johann II of Palatinate-Simmern in 1533, the book belongs to the remarkable flowering of chivalric and heroic literature produced at Simmern during the final years of Renaissance knightly culture in Germany. Combining crusading epic, Carolingian legend, courtly romance, and dynastic ideology, the volume stands beside Rüxner’s Turnierbuch and the Haymonskinder among the most ambitious illustrated secular books issued by the Simmern press.

Edition & Physical Description

Folio (approximately 313 × 211 mm).

Illustrated with 20 large woodcuts, mostly half-page and several composed from multiple blocks, together with a half-page woodcut printer’s device. All illustrations are coloured by a contemporary hand in rich and unusually well-preserved colour throughout.

Late sixteenth-century red morocco binding with Du Seuil gilt decoration, large central ornamental device, double gilt fillet frames with fleur-de-lis cornerpieces, and gilt edges. The elegant binding appears possibly still sixteenth century in date and survives in notably attractive condition overall.

Duke Johann II and the Court at Simmern

The book emerged from one of the most fascinating small court printing enterprises of Renaissance Germany.

Duke Johann II of Palatinate-Simmern (1492–1557), known as “Hans vom Hunsrück,” ruled only a relatively modest territory, yet transformed Simmern into an unexpected centre of aristocratic print culture. Although uninterested in warfare itself, Johann devoted himself intensely to law, scholarship, literature, and the arts. Emperor Charles V held him in particularly high esteem, appointing him judge at the Imperial Chamber Court in Speyer and imperial representative within the Reichsregiment.

Within the castle at Simmern he established a printing press under the direction of his secretary Hieronymus Rodler. Between 1530 and 1535 the press produced a remarkable group of lavishly illustrated books devoted primarily to chivalric and aristocratic themes, among them Rüxner’s Turnierbuch, the Haymonskinder, and the present German Fierrabras.

Modern scholarship has even suggested that Johann himself may have translated or adapted several of the texts issued by the press, including possibly the present work.

The Story of Fierrabras

The narrative derives from the great Old French epic tradition surrounding Charlemagne and the crusading legends of the Matter of France.

Fierrabras, a gigantic Saracen warrior from Spain, challenges the Christian knights of Charlemagne but is ultimately defeated by the knight Olivier and converted to Christianity. The story combines combat, dynastic conflict, captivity, conversion, romance, and religious warfare within the framework of Carolingian heroic mythology.

The choice of text was likely far from accidental. The subject connected directly to the world of Emperor Charles V, Maximilian’s grandson and successor, since the epic centres simultaneously on Charlemagne and Spain, the two symbolic poles of Habsburg imperial ideology. The publication may therefore be understood partly as a literary homage to Charles V himself.

At the same time, the book demonstrates that crusading ideals and knightly heroic culture remained deeply alive in the German imagination decades after the death of Maximilian I, the so-called “last knight.”

The Woodcuts

The extraordinary visual appeal of the volume rests above all in its woodcut cycle.

The 20 large cuts depict interiors, battle scenes, sieges, mounted combat, military assemblies, and courtly encounters with a narrative energy characteristic of the Simmern workshop. Several compositions were adapted from the Turnierbuch, while most appear newly created for the present edition.

Particularly remarkable is the contemporary colouring.

Applied with unusual richness and precision, the colours give the scenes an almost painterly character. Armour, banners, architecture, costumes, and landscapes are differentiated with considerable subtlety, creating an effect much closer to illuminated manuscript painting than to ordinary printed illustration. The catalogue rightly notes that comparable colouring has not been encountered in other surviving copies in recent decades.

The illustrations are generally believed to originate from the artistic circle of Duke Johann II himself and may possibly even derive from the duke’s own designs.

Provenance

Previously described in Tenschert Catalogue XX, Illumination und Illustration, number 76. Later in the celebrated Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica of Joost Ritman, Amsterdam. Sold Sotheby’s London, 6 December 2000, lot 54 (£16,350 / CHF 41,000). Thereafter in a German private collection.

Literature

BM STC German 303; Brunet II, 1251; Ebert 7539; Goedeke II, 21, no. 4; Graesse II, 577; Heitz/Ritter 149; Muther 1785; Nagler III, no. 1039; NDB 10, 510; Neufforge 237; VD16 F 1007.

For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, number 46:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume I