Dances for the Queen of the Romans
Abb. A courtly dance accompanied by pipe and drum
Detail from the Fischereibuch of Maximilian I (Tyrol, 1504). © Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 7962, fol. 26r: http://data.onb.ac.at/rep/1002EBC9 . Maximilian I is shown here on horseback with Bianca Maria Sforza seated to the left of the dancers.
In the spring of 1494, Maximilian I, King of the Romans, embarked on the first expedition across his German lands since the death of his father, Emperor Friedrich III, the previous year. The journey was of great political and personal significance to the 35-year-old king, who was now the sole ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. It not only enabled Maximilian to renew the privileges, rights and taxes that his father had put in place across their German territories, but also allowed him to finally meet again with his two children Philip and Margaret and relinquish rule over the Netherlands to his son, who had that year reached his majority. As ever, Maximilian would not have been alone on this journey, but was accompanied by an entourage of courtiers and servants. Yet additionally, for the first time, the king was joined on his travels by his wife, the new Queen of the Romans Bianca Maria Sforza. Just days after the celebration of their nuptials in Innsbruck on 12 March (» Kap. Maximilian in Innsbruck), Maximilian and Bianca Maria set out for the Netherlands, stopping on route at Füssen, Kempten, Speyer, Worms and Cologne.[1] On their way they were regaled with all kinds of festivities befitting a king and queen, including jousts, banquets, and also dances. They arrived in Worms in June and there, after the city had sworn their loyalty to the king and queen, Bianca Maria initiated a dance with the nobility and citizens who were present:
Da tantzten mit der konigin pfaltzgraf Philips churfurst zur lincken hand und tantzten 8 graven vor und nach mit fackeln züchtiglich umbher und etlich graven und herren mit hofjungfrawen nach; doch nicht viel teutsche täntz. Darnach den andern tantz tantzten andere fürsten graven und herren und edle mit hofjungfrawen und bürgerin manch tantz bisz nach mitternacht.[2]
(There, the Elector Count Palatine Philip danced with the Queen, to her left, and 8 Counts danced around demurely with torches, before and behind them, and a number of Counts and Lords danced behind them with ladies of the court; yet not many German dances. After that, for the second dance, other princes, counts and lords and nobles danced several dances with ladies of the court and town until after midnight.)
By July, the royal couple had reached the Netherlands where they met with the 16-year-old Philip and the 14-year-old Margaret. As in the German towns, the Flemish people celebrated the arrival of the newlyweds with festivities that reflected their royal status, and dances again played a part in this cultural and political exchange. A retrospective account of Georg Spalatin, Secretary to Elector Friedrich the Wise of Saxony, describes one such occasion in Mechelen in September that year, when the marriage of the Austrian nobleman Wolfgang von Polheim, to Johanna, daughter of the Netherlandish Count Wolfhart von Borsellen, was celebrated with a joust and then a dance:
Auf den Abend hat man einen Tanz auf dem Rathhaus halten wollen, dabei der König, die Königin und Prinz[ess]in mit beiden ihren Frauenzimmern und alle Fürsten gewesen. […] Haben durch einander Oberländisch, Niederländisch und Walisch, ein jeder nach seiner Manier, getanzt. Ist unserm g[nädigsten] Herrn Herzog Friderichen mit der Braut der erst Tanz gegeben. Der König hat sich auch mit etlichen den Seinen vermummelt und seltsam zugericht und ist also an den Tanz kommen.[3]
(In the evening a dance was to be held at the town hall, at which the King, Queen and Princess [Margaret] with their ladies, and all princes, were present. […] There was a mixture of ‘Oberländisch’, Netherlandish and Italian dances, each in its own style. Our most gracious lord Duke Friedrich performed the first dance with the bride. The King also came to the dance with a number of his people, in disguise and dressed strangely.)
Though the accounts of Maximilian’s and Bianca Maria’s experiences in Worms and Mechelen are not particularly detailed in their descriptions of the dances performed, both reports point to the importance of dance to the political and social interactions of the urban and courtly elite. Dances were executed regularly for all kinds of representative occasions in the cities and at court, whether for major celebrations such as for Shrovetide, weddings or jousts, or for other gatherings of the citizens and nobility such as during Imperial diets. References to dances in Maximilian’s territories are therefore not uncommon, featuring in diplomatic correspondence that sought to recount the King’s activities to his political counterparts, as well as in chronicles that documented notable events in court and civic life for posterity. The reports written in Worms and Mechelen are fairly typical in their level of detail as well as in the particular aspects of dances that they describe, the noteworthiness of these specific features of dance indicating the social and political significance that each of these possessed. Both accounts, for example, remark on the social-standing of the participants, identifying by name only those who, being of particular importance, took prime position in the dances enacted that day. The references to regional dance styles – ‘Oberländisch’, Netherlandish and Italian dances in Mechelen and ‘not many German dances’ in Worms – are also not unusual and reflect the existence of a repertoire of dances that was both stylistically diverse and understood by everyone – whether nobleman or citizen – who observed or danced with the King and Queen.
[1] Unterholzner 2015, 51; Wiesflecker 1971, 372-9.
[2] Annotations on the diary of Reinhart Noltz, Mayor of Worms, in: Boos 1893, 379. Translations of this and the following citations by Helen Coffey, unless stated otherwise.
[1] Unterholzner 2015, 51; Wiesflecker 1971, 372-9.
[2] Annotations on the diary of Reinhart Noltz, Mayor of Worms, in: Boos 1893, 379. Translations of this and the following citations by Helen Coffey, unless stated otherwise.
[3] Neudecker and Preller 1851, 231.
[4] Hegel 1874, 732.
[5] Letter from Barbara Crivelli Stampi to Anna Maria Sforza, Duchess of Ferrara, 24 January 1494. Full transcript in Aigner 2005, 76-7.
[6] Guglielmo di Ebreo claimed that anyone who had studied the exercises in his treatise (1463) would be able to master the dance of any nation. See Nevile 2008, 13.
[7] See note 5.
[8] Amongst the earliest and most significant treatises of the fifteenth century are those prepared by dance masters of the Italian courts, which include Domenico da Piacenza’s De arte saltandi e choreas ducendii (c.1440-50), Antonio Cornazano’s Libro dell’arte del danzare (first version (now lost), 1455; second version, 1465) and Guglielmo Ebreo da Pesaro’s De Pratica Seu Arte Tripudii (1463). French and Burgundian dance practices and repertoire are conveyed in the basse danse manuscript associated with the Burgundian court of Maximilian’s daughter Margaret (now Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique MS 9085, c.1470-1501) and the related printed treatise L’Art et Instruction de Bien Dancer (published in Paris by Michel Toulouze, in or before 1496). For these, and later dance treatises, see Nevile 2004 and Heartz 1958-1963.
[9] See Heartz 1958-1963 and Heartz and Rader 2001a.
[10] See Heartz 1966; Heartz and Rader 2001b.
[11] Heartz 1958-1963, 290; Nevile 2004, 21.
[12] Sparti 1986, 347; Heartz and Rader 2001a.
[13] Aigner 2005, 45-54; Nevile 2004, 26-7. See also Sparti 1986 and Brainard 2001.
[14] Gombosi 1941, 294, 299-300; Heartz 1958-1963; Strohm 1993, 348, 553.
[15] Aigner 2005, 45-54; Nevile 2004, 26-7.
[16] Heartz 1966, 19. A significant use of the melody occurred in the Missa La Spagna by Henricus Isaac: see Mücke-Wiesenfeldt 2012.
[17] Nevile 2004, 2.
[18] Gombosi 1941, 298; Nevile 2004, 1-3.
[19] Gachard 1876, 305-306; for a German translation of the text, see Jungmann 2002, 65-66.
[20] Fucker 1505 (not paginated), quoted in Kelber 2018, 128.
[21] RI XIV,4,1 n. 15882, in: Regesta Imperii Online: http://www.regesta-imperii.de/id/1502-01-09_1_0_14_4_0_49_15882
[22] Kelber 2018, 124-7.
[23] Forthcoming in Regesta Imperii Online.
[24] Franke and Welzel 2013, 34-40.
[25] Leitner 1880-1882, IV.
[26] Leitner 1880-1882, LIII.
[27] Locke 2015, 115, 117-125; Franke and Welzel 2013; Welker 2013; Vignau-Wilberg 1999, 76.
[28] ‘zu frewden seinem volk und zu eren der frembden geest … ist [er] in sonderhait geren in der mumerey gegangen’. See Schultz 1888, 82-4; also Franke and Welzel 2013, 35 and Kelber 2019, 59.
[29] ‘At in aulicorum suorum nupciis conseuit frequenter conmutatis vestibus in gencium aliquarum ritum personatus coram populo saltare. Qua humanitate atque liberalitate sibi multum fauoris tum principum tum populi precipue soeminarum conciliauit.’ See Chmel 1838, 91 for a transcript of the original text; a German translation is presented in Ilgen 1891, 57-8 and quoted in Gstrein 1987, 94.
[30] Barozzi 1880, 216.
[31] Quoted in Kelber 2018, 123-4.
[32] Letter from Mercurino Arborio di Gattinara to Maximilian’s daughter Margaret, 22 November 1507, quoted in Kooperberg 1908, 363.
[33] Heartz and Rader 2001c; Sutton et al. 2001.
[34] Translation from Guthrie and Zorzi 1986, 19.
[35] See Kelber 2019, 66-67; also Schwindt 2018, 83.
[36] Meyer 1981, 64-66, Brainard 1984, Wetzel 1990; also Brinzing 1998, 133-134.
[37] Reicke and Reimann 1940, 439-440 and 496. An English translation of Dürer’s letter is in Fry 1913, 26; Beheim’s letter is translated into French in Meyer 1981, 63.
[38] See Habich 1911, 234; also Kelber 2019, 252.
[39] Translation adapted from Young 2013, 46. Also cited in » H. Kap. Eine süddeutsche Humanistenkorrespondenz (Markus Grassl), with further explanation.
[40] See Meyer 1981, 63-64, Polk 1992, 141-2.
[41] Translation adapted from Young 2013, 47.
[42] Young 2013, 46.
[43] See Heartz 1966, 19-20 and Polk 1992, 135, 139.
[44] Heartz 1966, 20-26.
[45] Habich 1911, 220. For another pictorial document of civic dancing and musicians, see » E. Kap. Musik im Dienst, und » Abb. Patrizierfest.
[46] See Polk 1992, 141; Brinzing 1998, 139-140; Kelber 2018, 136-8. Further on the MS, see » H. Kap. Schubinger und das Augsburger Liederbuch (Markus Grassl).
[47] For an overview of the restrictions see Brunner 1987.
[48] Stiefel 1949, 135.
[49] Brunner 1987, 58-63; Salmen 2001, 165.
[50] Quoted in Polk 1992, 11.
[51] Nuremberg Staatsarchiv, Rep.60a (Ratsverlässe), Nr.259, fol. 5v.
[52] Brunner 1987, 58.
[53] Salmen 1992, 23; see also Salmen 1995.
[54] Vogeleis 1979, 228.
[55] Salmen 2001, 174.
[56] Ernst 1945, 203.
[57] Schwindt 2018, 83-4.
[58] Gstrein 1987, 81.
[59] Polk 1992, 109. See also » E. Musiker in der Stadt (Reinhard Strohm).
[60] On surviving written sources related to Stadtpfeifer and their music (Maastricht fragment and others), see also Strohm 1992; Brown and Polk 2001, 127.
[61] Polk 2003, 98-104; see also, Heartz 1958-1963, 313-316; Heartz and Rader 2001b.
[62] Polk 1992, 161.
[63] Schünemann 1938, 53.
[64] See Welker 2013, 76.
[65] ‘so ließ die künigliche majestat derselben nacht ein tantz auf dem rathaus halten und mancherlei tentz auf welsche und niderlendische art üben und spil treiben, darin auch der kunig persönlich in einem schempart was.’ in: Hegel 1874, 732.
[66] Several references in the records of Nuremberg’s council refer to permission granted for use of the Stadtpfeifer, Stadtknechte and Schützen for the butchers’ annual Shrovetide dance. See, for example, Nuremberg Staatsarchiv, Rep.60b (Ratsbücher), Nr. 4, fol. 156r (1486), fol. 228v (1487), Nr. 5, fol. 4v (1488) and Nr. 6, fol. 2r (1493). For the development of and sources for the Schembartlauf, see Sumberg 1941 and Roller 1965.
[67] ‘Der ro. kinig und sein sun Philipps sind zü pfingsten 1496 hie gewessen. da hat man 10 füder holtz auff den Fronhoff gefiert, und nach ave Maria zeit ain himelsfeur gehebt, und hertzog Philipp und sein adel haben 3 mall um das feur dantzt, und sind da all trumether gewessen, und hand da ob 10000 menschen dantzt.’ in: Roth 1894, 71-72.
[68] Quoted in Kelber 2018, 128.
[69] Donauwörth Stadtarchiv, Johann Knebel, Stadtchronik (unpublished), fo.206v (cited in correspondence from Donauwörth Stadtarchiv).
[70] Quoted in Gstrein 1987, 86.
[71] Gstrein 1987, 88.
[72] ‘sunst ist noch ein Klein peucklin, das haben die frantzosen und niderlender ser zu den Schwegeln gebraucht, und sunderlich zu dantz, oder zu den hochzyten.’ (there is also a small kettledrum, which the French and Netherlanders have often used, above all for dancing or for weddings). Quoted in Gstrein 1987, 91.
[73] Gstrein 1987, 89; Schwindt 2018, 81-2.
[74] Hoffmann-Axthelm 1983, 96. See also Green 2011, 17.
[75] Sumberg 1941, 88.
[76] Translation from Sutton 1967, 39, 47. See also Brunner 1983, 54-5.