The Case Against Johann Reuchlin : : Social and Religious Controversy in Sixteenth-Century Germany / / Erika Rummel.

• VerfasserIn: Rummel, Erika,
• MitwirkendeR: Pfefferkorn, Johann,; Reuchlin, Johann,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (208 p.)

The case of Johann Reuchlin, one of the best-known controversies of the 16th century, has been interpreted in many ways: as a case of anti-Semitism, a controversy between humanists and scholastics, or a case foreshadowing the Reformation debate. The last interpretation was facilitated by Luther himself, who repeatedly linked his case with that of the biblical humanists Lefevre, Erasmus, and Reuchlin. In this lively critical analysis, Erika Rummel describes how the second interpretation, which was promoted in the 19th century, was replaced after WWII by a new sensitivity toward the anti-Semitic elements of the affair. More recently, however, the favoured approach is a more nuanced interpretation, acknowledging that the controversy is informed by a combination of social and intellectual currents and reflects both anti-Semitism and academic strife. The section containing the analysis is followed by documents illustrating the case, some of them translated for the first time into English.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE Cultural Bias and Historiography -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- CHRONOLOGY The Reuchlin Affair -- PART A - THE REUCHLIN AFFAIR IN CONTEXT -- CHAPTER 1. Pfefferkorn and the Battle against Judaism -- CHAPTER 2. Reuchlin and the Scholastic Theologians -- CHAPTER 3. Reuchlin and the Luther Affair -- CHAPTER 4. Sixteenth-Century Interpretations of the Reuchlin Affair: Beliefs or Constructs? -- CHAPTER 5. The Reuchlin Affair in Modern Historiography -- Notes -- PART B - TEXTS -- DOCUMENT 1. The Enemy of the Jews -- DOCUMENT 2. The Confession of the Jews -- DOCUMENT 3. Report about the Books of the Jews -- DOCUMENT 4. Defence against the Cologne Slanderers -- DOCUMENT 5. Letters of Obscure Men -- DOCUMENT 6. Reports on the Confiscation of Jewish Books in Frankfurt, 1509 -- DOCUMENT 7. Two Reports by the Faculty of Theology at Cologne -- DOCUMENT 8. Willibald Pirckheimer's Defence of Reuchlin, 1517 -- DOCUMENT 9. Two Letters from Erasmus Concerning the Reuchlin Affair -- DOCUMENT 10. The Dedicatory Letter of Reuchlin's De arte cabalistica, 1517 -- DOCUMENT 11. Jacob Hoogstraten, Information to the Reader, 1519 -- DOCUMENT 12. Hutten's Letters to Erasmus and Reuchlin, 1520/1 -- DOCUMENT 13. Two Comments by Luther on the Historical Context of the Reuchlin Affair -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX