History of Early Modern Society and Everyday Life as Reflected in the Works of the Bestseller Author Johannes Pauli (1522)

Abstract

Historians would be well advised to take a closer look at the didactic and entertaining tales published by Johannes Pauli in 1522, a collection that quickly emerged as a true best- and longseller, being popular far into the eighteenth and even nineteenth centuries. Although he was a Franciscan writing during the early years of the Protestant Reformation, Pauli did not support Luther and his companions. Nevertheless, in many respects, he pursued similar ideas, criticizing, ridiculing, and commenting on the shortcomings and foibles of his contemporaries. For historians, his narratives, almost 700 in total, prove to be highly valuable since they reflect on the infinite kaleidoscope of human life conditions, with all the problems people tend to face or reveal. This study is the first probe into Schimpf und Ernst as a source for many different scholars in the field of Early Modern Studies, addressing the various social classes, the genders, economic and religious conflicts, war, justice, crime, fools, entertainment, truth, virtues and vices. Here we encounter a most valuable literary mirror of social, intellectual, religious, gender, economic, and political conditions in the early sixteenth century. Although Pauli drew heavily from classical and medieval sources, his selection and adaptation transformed these many prose tales into specific comments about ordinary conditions in human life.