Beschreibung:

NUREMBERG, CHURCH OF ST.WALPURGIS. STUELBUCH OBER DIE KIRCHEN ZU SANCT WALBURGEN GEHÖRIG VOM HERRN GEORG VOLCKHAMER DAMALS VERORDNETER KIRCHENPFLEGER OFFGERICHTET WORDEN DEN 1.AUGUST A O 1615. [Register of the holders of family pews in the Church]. ILLUMINATED CALLIGRAPHIC MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM AND PAPER. 2° (315 x 205mm), 149 leaves (including blank leaves 38-45, blank f.40 lacking). Titles and headings written in a fine calligraphic hand in black and red ink, letters of first title outlined in gold. Coat of arms of Volckhamer on title and 334 ILLUMINATED ARMORIALS of holders of pews. (Waterstained in lower margin, sometimes severely, without affecting the text). Original brown calf, tooled in gilt and blind, in centre of upper cover the arms of Nuremberg, with title above, and the date 1615 below, surrounded by a panel of blind-tooled intersecting double fillets, lower cover decorated with intersecting diagonal double fillets, compartments of flat spine tooled in blind with diagonal fillets, the sewing is passed through the outside of the spine, forming three rows of cords, two pairs of holes for ties on each cover. (Stitching partly loose or broken.) In lined buckram box. TEXT: Title (on vellum); 11ff index of names with coloured vellum tabs (last tab lacking); Title 'Ordnung der Mannß unnd frawen Stuel' followed by the regulations, 2ff on vellum; title for section of the pews for men, all on the right-hand side, on vellum; list of pews ff 1-37; (ff 38-45 blank); title of list of women's pews on the left-hand side, ff 46-135. The donor of the manuscript, Georg Volckhamer, had been burgomaster of Nuremberg in 1602. The Church of St.Walpurgis was built within the precincts of the castle overlooking the city. The entries in the book were continued until 1780, thus listing not only the early 17th-century pew owners, but also their descendants, often with short biographical details, forming an interesting list of what were presumably some of the wealthier citizens of the city.