The German Political Broadsheet 1600-1700.

John Roger Paas, The German Political Broadsheet 1600-1700

Volume 5:1630-1631. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1996. 351 pp. DM 1248,00. ISBN: 3-447-03861-6.

John Roger Paas, The German Political Broadsheet 1600-1700

Volume 6: 1632. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998. 403 pp. DM 1248,00. ISBN: 3-447-03944-2.

Some years ago, Roger Paas began the publication of this set of volumes dedicated to the broadsheets published in Germany during the seventeenth century. For some reason, broadsheets seem over the years to have suffered the same fate as the similarly underresearched occasional poetry (poems for births, birthdays, namesdays, funerals, marriages, and similar "occasions") of the period. They were not considered part of "real literature," and thus no one was interested in them, no one wanted to spend time searching them out and then studying them. This is somewhat strange, because broadsheets were, after all, the main way in which much news of the period was made known. What is even more interesting is that many major authors of the period composed poetry published by means of broadsheets (one need think only of the sheets dealing with individual figures and events, and of writers like Birken, Zesen, and Greflinger, to name but a very few).

The volumes under review are the fifth and sixth volumes in this multi-volume series being edited by Paas. An extraordinary amount of meticulous research has gone into each of the volumes, which actually propose to reproduce every broadsheet published in Germany in the seventeenth century. Occasionally, plates published in other countries are also included (for example, PA-302, published in Amsterdam and written in Dutch), as long as they concern themselves with events in Germany. Clearly, one of the highlights of broadsheet production during the seventeenth century was 1632, the year of the death of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and a key leader in the Thirty Years War; this is reflected in the fact that one entire volume is devoted to that year.

Each of the volumes contains reproductions of a large number of broadsheets, gleaned from libraries around the globe, although the majority stem from libraries in the Federal Republic of Germany. Other countries represented include Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. It is worth mentioning that Paas personally visited and worked in almost every single one of these libraries -- worthy of note because personal work, that is, actually having had the documents or broadsheets in hand, generally enhances the reliability of statements made, especially in the case of prints where the trained eye is better than any amount of words.

Each volume is introduced by an historical overview: for example, in volume five "The Beginning of Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War" and in volume six "Gustavus Adolphus's Final Campaign, 1632." In the course of those introductions, reference is made to most, if not all, broadsheets reproduced in the volume, so that one can actually combine the written introduction with the precise broadsheets to which reference is made. In other words, the introductions serve as a sort of guide, an interpretation to and for the reproduced broadsheets; one has the written word as well as the image.

When we come to the actual plates, there are precise descriptions given. For example, plates P-1577-1579 are basically all the same plate and same text; however, spacing is different and letterpress used in 1579 differs from that in the other two. Sometimes the date of publication has to be worked out from the chronogram in the poem or at the bottom of the sheet (for example, P-1471-1472, where one of the chronograms is accurate, the other in error: HIer VVIrd MagDebVrg geroChen [P-1471], but HIer VVIrd MagDebVrg gerochen [P-1472] in the other). A brief description of the content of the plate and the accompanying poem or rhymes (or in a few cases of the accompanying prose) is given (for example, P-1785: "Anti-Catholic lampoon, in which a ragged Jesuit driven from Wurzburg to the shrine of St. Raspinus [i.e., to prison] arrives there too weak to work and is sent on to purgatory"). Such notations help identify quickly the content of the broadsheet and are especially helpful for those whose knowledge of the lang uage involved would mean a lengthy study just to identify the content. Precise measurements are then given in millimeters, followed by a list of locations of the plate reproduced (the country, the city, the library, and the call number are always given), and, finally, a description of the way or ways in which this plate differs from seemingly identical plates. In most cases, the actual poetry (or prose) is legible, but in those cases where the lettering is small in the original, and thus difficult to decipher, it is equally difficult to read in the reproduction (for example, plate P-1291 or plate P-1614). In those cases where we have several states of a given sheet available, Paas has been able to determine the sequence of the various states, and these states are individually reproduced, with commentary, thus enhancing the bibliographic value of these volumes. A number of plates are of the fold-out variety, because the original was too large to be reproduced as a normal page. At the end of each volume, there is also a list of "Missing German Broadsheets," that is, broadsheets which were previously known but seem to have disappeared altogether. Finally, there are a significant number of notes at the end of the volume(s), often dealing with the identity of the engravers (whom Paas has identified), with the translation of unusual titles (for example, "Wie gewonnen/ so zerronnen" [Easy come / easy go]), with translation of the poem or prose on the sheets (for example, P-1584 or P-1609), or with the fact that particular impressions of the engraving are no longer available (for example, lost during or after the Second World War or simply can no longer be located). Judging from these two volumes, it seems that the collection in the Municipal Library in Ulm no longer contains nearly the number of broadsheets formerly housed there. In these notes, Paas is also able to correct inaccurate information previously supplied by other editors of broadsheet collections (for example, Schumann or Harms).

Because of the nature of the research involved, Paas has been forced to spend several years in Germany (and other countries); fortunately, he has been successful in securing financial assistance from various foundations (for example, the National Endowment for the Humanities) to facilitate his work. In the opinion of this reviewer, such support is not only essential for the recipient and the continuation of the project, but it also represents a sound investment on the part of the foundation(s) involved. The basic research being done by Paas will enable future scholars to continue to do further research, in many instances research based on this particular edition. We can only encourage Paas to continue his precise, even painstaking research (we eagerly await, among other volumes, those volumes dealing with the end of the Thirty Years War [1648] and with the threat of Turkish invasions [1683]); however, we equally encourage foundations to continue their generous support of his work! The study of seventeenth-cen tury Germany (literature, culture, and history) will be much the better for his research having been completed.