Paul Schneevogels erstes gedrucktes Gesprächsbuch, der Thezaurus eloquencie für junge Bakkalare, zusammengestellt im Sommer 1483

Eine kritische Edition

Abstract

Oliver Humberg: The Thezaurus eloquencie, the First Colloquial Book for Young Graduates by Paulus Niavis to Have Been Printed, Com-posed in Summer 1483. A Critical Edition. Paulus Niavis or Schneevogel published five Latin colloquial books for learners of different ages and needs. The presumably oldest one does not bear the title Latinum Ydeoma, as the subsequent ones do, but rather Thezaurus eloquencie.
This book addresses the communicative needs of young graduates, including travelling, applying for and starting careers as schoolmasters or city clerks, investing money in silver mines, sharing university life with roommates, communicating with other scholars, mostly priests, and finally discussing the possible adoption of monastic life. This paper provides an overview of the book’s content, relates its individual parts to other works by Niavis, presents the few sections that have been discussed so far, scrutinizes the textual transmission and its stemma and offers the first critical edition of the Thezaurus along with historical annotations. This provides a reliable textual basis to evaluate the source’s value for the history of scholars’ life in the late 15th century.