Table Of ContentFranz Posset
Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522)
Arbeiten zur
Kirchengeschichte
Founded by
Karl Holl † and Hans Lietzmann †
Edited by
Christian Albrecht and Christoph Markschies
Volume 129
Franz Posset
Johann Reuchlin
(1455–1522)
A Theological Biography
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung der Stadt Pforzheim.
ISBN 978-3-11-041947-4
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-041863-7
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-041880-4
ISSN 1861-5996
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. In the event of any omissions or
errors the author asks the copyright holders to inform him so that the correct credits may be
included in future editions.
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Printing: CPI books GmbH, Leck
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
Third version of the printer’s device of Thomas Anshelm of Baden (initials TAB) who printed
several books by Reuchlin. The design is inspired by Reuchlin’s theology of the name of God and
of Jesus. Woodcut by Hans Baldung Grien who might have adapted the concept from Albrecht
Dürer’s ‘Three Genii’. The printer’s device is used as colophon in Anshelm’s print of a book by
Martin Luther: Von den guten werken, ain gantz nützlich büchlin dem layen zuo lessen / durch D.
Martinum Luter zuo Wittenberg gepredigt (Hagenau: Anshelm, 1520).
Dedicated to The Most Rev. Richard J. Sklba,
emeritus auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,
former chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs
Foreword
IntheprefacetothefirstvolumeofthenewcriticaleditionofJohannReuchlin’s
correspondencethelateManfredFuhrmann(AcademyofSciencesofHeidelberg)
expressed the expectation that the new edition may lead,via translations or as
thefoundationforfuturebiographies,toawiderdisseminationoftheknowledge
aboutReuchlin.Hecouldnotforeseehowsoonhishopeswouldberealized.In
2011 the German translation of all of Reuchlin’s letters became available and
nowalsoabiographyinEnglishisgoingtopress.And,itisnotjustanordinary
biography,butamonumentalopuswhichmasterfullyincorporatesthemultifar-
ious research contributions of the previous decades; and in doing so sets new
standards.Thisnewbiographywillsecurethehonorificmemorialinternationally
whichFuhrmanndemandedfortheuprighthumanistwhoalwaysremainedtrue
to his convictions.
WritingascholarlybiographyofReuchlinthesedaystakescourage;notonly
becauseoftheexpectationsintermsofhistoriographyandlanguageswithwhich
abiographerisfacedinthisparticularcase,butalsobecausethereisstillanau-
thoritativebiographyinGermanavailable,thatofLudwigGeigerof1871.Aman
of courage was Max Brod in the 1960s.Two decades after the Holocaust he is-
sued his historical monograph Johannes Reuchlin und sein Kampf, a book
which could never have been written, so the author admits, without Geiger’s
“classical biography”. Brod was a courageous man also in other regards: He
publishedtheliteraryopusofhisfriendFranzKafkaagainstKafka’sexplicittes-
tamentary will that it be destroyed.
FranzPossetwasnolesscourageouswhenhedecidedtopresentReuchlin’s
biography in a new way from the original sources in a language that is not his
mother tongue, and being deprived at first of the benefits of Geiger’s standard
work, for several years. Posset is courageous also in another regard; otherwise
he would not have published his book The Real Luther in 2011 with none
otherthanPhilipMelanchthonashischiefwitnessforhispresentationofLuther
asaCatholicReformer,fullyawareofthecontroversialrolewhichMelanchthon
played through the centuries for the preservation of the Lutheran heritage. Per-
haps Melanchthon,too, needed abit of courage when in 1552 he gave his com-
memorativespeechaboutJohannesReuchlinfromPforzheim.Hisspeechturned
out to be the first biography of Reuchlin. Although he may have known better,
Melanchthon styled Reuchlin primarily as a pioneer for Luther’s cause. For
this tendentiousness Posset takes Melanchthon to task in a similarly severe
way in which Geiger had done with his dissertation about Melanchthon’s
image of Reuchlin, Ueber Melanthons Oratio continens historiam Capnionis:
X Foreword
Eine Quellenuntersuchung (Göttingen 1868). The biographer does not perform
here a happy round-dance with the Jews, Protestants, and Catholics holding
hands, and with a glowing Reuchlin in their midst.What is at stake here is an
objective view, as much as this is possible, of the humanist from Pforzheim; a
view that does justice to his life and achievements. Nobody should, therefore,
besurprisedthattheCatholicbiographerdoesnotliftReuchlinupasthe“morn-
ingstarofthe Reformation” like Johann Gottfried Herder had done.To the con-
trary, Posset presents Reuchlin as the ideal of a Catholic lay theologian of the
Renaissance and he calls Reuchlin’s Cabala a specific “Catholic Cabala”. One
may take Posset’s perspective as the deliberate and justified correction of the
wide-spread images which Protestantism had painted in the past. Posset
shows us Reuchlin’s life andworkin greatdetail,especially Reuchlin’s remark-
able defense of Jewish books and Jewish rights against the contemporaneous
backdrop. Healso shedsbright lighton Reuchlin’sground-breakingphilosophy
of religion and Cabalistic theology. In doing so the great patrimony of the hu-
manist of Pforzheim shines now much brighter than ever before.
Matthias Dall’Asta,
Co-Editor of the Critical Edition of Reuchlin’s Correspondence.
