Title: Hans Dernschwam (*1494 – †1568/1569) between Ausgburg and Banská Bystrica: The Contribution to the Dernschwam’s Presence at the Červený Kameň Castle Estate in the Kingdom of Hungary
(Hans Dernschwam (*1494 – †1568/1569) between Ausgburg and Banská Bystrica: The Contribution to the Dernschwam’s Presence at the Červený Kameň Castle Estate in the Kingdom of Hungary) – PDF
Abstract: A personality of the humanist scholar and mining expert Hans Dernschwam (1494 – 1568/69) combined a major travelling appetite and a significant observation talent. His travelogue to the countries of Asia Minor from 1553–1555 has attracted also the attention of historians out of Europe. A thorough historiographical analysis of his work, however, still struggles with insufficient knowledge of Dernschwam’s actual biographical data. This paper focuses on the period of Hans Dernschwam’s life which is connected with the Červený Kameň (Slovakia, Vöröskő/Bibersburg/Rothenstein) estate in the western parts of the Kingdom of Hungary, and small town of Častá (Slovakia, Cseszte/Schattmannsdorf). A contextual analysis of the economic administration sources from the Červený Kameň estate from the 1530s–1550s, stored in the Slovenský národný archív (Slovak National Archive) in Bratislava, shows that Dernschwam’s handwritten note in Stöffler’s ephemerides on the real estate purchase in Častá in 1538 cannot be interpreted along F. Babinger’s line, namely as an unambiguous reference to a deed performed by the author of the note himself. Yes, Hans might have spent the autumn 1539 in the region below the Červený Kameň castle, but most probably, he may have stayed in the household of one of his brothers: either Matheus or Balthasar. When Matheus died in 1545 without an heir, Hans inherited his property. Although Anton Fugger’s letter from 16 August 1548, confirming the exemption of Hans Dernschwam’s property in Častá, does not specifically locate nor describe this property, when taking into consideration fortunes of Matheus’s family, the author of this paper takes the liberty of identifying this property with a house of Hans’s brother. At the end of the 1540s, after having served the Fugger family for many years, Hans moved from his Banská Bystrica home to a more peaceful environment in the area below the Little Carpathians. It is quite probable that it was in his new home in Častá, where he commenced to catalogue his extensive book collection. As Dernschwam’s property had a new owner at least from 1554 onwards and since later Červený Kameň estate sources do not confirm Hans’s presence in Častá, he must have returned back to Banská Bystrica, once he had come back from his travels in Asia Minor. Thus, he must have spent last years oh his life in Lower Hungarian mining region.
Author: BENKOVÁ, Eva
DOI: 10.17846/SHN.2024.28.1.90-105
Publication order reference: Univerzita Komenského v Bratislave, Šafárikovo námestie 6, 814 99 Bratislava, Slovak Republic, mail: eva.benkova@uniba.sk
Source: Studia Historica Nitriensia, year: 2024, vol.: 28, number: 1, pages: 90-105
Key words: Hans Dernschwam; Fugger; Červený Kameň Castle Estate; Small Town of Častá; Slovak National Archive in Bratislava;
Language: ENGLISH