Title Paper memory : a sixteenth-century townsman writes his world / Matthew Lundin

Published Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2012

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Description 1 online resource (329 pages) : illustrations Series Harvard historical studies ; 179 Harvard historical studies ; v. 179. Contents Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter one A Secret Legacy -- Chapter two My Father's House -- Chapter three The Patriarch -- Chapter four The Middle Is Best -- Chapter five A Holy Household -- Chapter six As If We Had Never Been -- Chapter seven Spare No Quill, Ink, or Paper -- Chapter eight A New World -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Acknowledgments -- Index Summary Paper Memory tells of one man's mission to preserve for posterity the memory of everyday life in sixteenth-century Germany. Lundin takes us inside the mind of an undistinguished German burgher, Hermann Weinsberg, whose early-modern writings sought to make sense of changes that were unsettling the foundations of his world Paper Memory tells the story of one man's mission to preserve for posterity the memory of everyday life in sixteenth-century Germany. Matthew Lundin takes us inside the mind of an undistinguished German burgher named Hermann Weinsberg, whose personal writings allow us to witness firsthand the great transformations of early modernity: the crisis of the Reformation, the rise of an urban middle class, and the information explosion of the print revolution. This sensitive, faithful portrait reveals a man who sought to make sense of the changes that were unsettling the foundations of his world. Weinsberg's decision to undertake the monumental task of documenting his life was astonishing, since he was neither prince nor bishop, but a Catholic lawyer from Cologne with no special claim to fame or fortune. Although he knew that his contemporaries would consider his work vain and foolish, he dutifully recorded the details of his existence, from descriptions of favorite meals to catalogs of his sleeping habits, from the gossip of quarreling neighbors to confessions of his private hopes, fears, and beliefs. More than fifty years--and thousands of pages--later, Weinsberg conferred his Gedenkbuch, or Memory Book, to his descendants, charging them to ensure its safekeeping, for without his careful chronicle, "it would be as if we had never been." Desperate to save his past from oblivion, Weinsberg hoped to write himself into the historical record. Paper Memory rescues this not-so-ordinary man from obscurity, as Lundin's perceptive and graceful prose recovers his extraordinary story Analysis Multi-User Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 305-315) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Weinsberg, Hermann von, 1518-approximately 1598. Weinsberg, Hermann von, 1518-approximately 1598. Gedenkbuch SUBJECT Weinsberg, Hermann von, 1518-approximately 1598 fast Subject Catholic Church -- History -- 16th century. SUBJECT Catholic Church fast Subject City council members -- Germany -- Cologne -- Biography Diarists -- Germany -- Cologne -- Biography BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical. HISTORY -- Europe -- Germany. HISTORY -- Renaissance. City council members Civilization Diarists Intellectual life Manners and customs Geschiedbronnen. SUBJECT Cologne (Germany) -- History -- 16th century Cologne (Germany) -- Social life and customs -- 16th century Cologne (Germany) -- Intellectual life -- 16th century Germany -- Civilization -- 16th century Europe -- Intellectual life -- 16th century Europe -- Church history -- 16th century Cologne (Germany) -- Biography Subject Europe Germany Germany -- Cologne Keulen (stad) Genre/Form Biographies Church history History Biographies. Biographies. Form Electronic book LC no. 2012005059 ISBN 0674067657 9780674067653 0674071239 9780674071230

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