Dance, urban society and civic space
Overseeing the various kinds of dances that might occur within a city was each municipal council, whose strict supervision of all aspects of urban life was designed to ensure that everything was conducted with propriety and decency. Public dances held in the open, for example, were often subject to council restrictions as a result of the greater freedom – and possibly noise – that they entailed.[47] In Schwäbisch Gmünd these dances were banned in their entirety, although whether the citizens conformed to this ruling is questionable – the celebration of dances ‘uff der gassen’ was repeatedly forbidden.[48]
Civic dances were in themselves social markers: only particular communities were permitted to dance together, to the exclusion of others. Dancing occurred in various locations across a city, including on the streets and squares, in the homes of rich patricians and also in public buildings such as at the town hall. These venues were not only suited to the participants’ social-standing but sometimes contained rooms that had been designed or adapted with particular dances in mind. For example, many cities boasted specially built, and richly decorated, dance halls, which served the processional dances of the social elite through their great length and by having balconies from where musicians could observe the dancers and provide appropriate music. The buildings in which dance halls were constructed often served multiple purposes, also accommodating the city’s governmental, legal and economic activities.[49]
Participation in events at the cities’ dance halls was generally restricted to the elite and required prior permission from the civic council. In Nuremberg in 1521, for example, the social group regarded as having the power to vote in the city was described as comprising ‘those families who used to dance in the Rathaus in the olden days, and who still dance there’.[50] The town hall was the customary venue for the dances of Nuremberg’s elite, and so, in records of the city’s council we find numerous references to permissions granted for the use of the hall for such occasions. In 1491, for example, the council noted that the young patrician Wolf Haller von Hallerstein had been permitted the use of the rooms of the town hall together with the official musicians of the city for his wedding to Ursula, daughter of the printer Anton Koberger.[51]
The restriction of particular dances and their venues to certain members of the community was not defined exclusively by the participants’ social-standing but also by their religion. In many cities, such as Frankfurt am Main, Augsburg, Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Ulm, the Jewish population had at that time their own dance hall, entrance to which was not permitted for the Christian community.[52] As Walter Salmen notes, in 1483, several Nuremberg patricians, including the aforementioned Martin Behaim, were jailed for participating in festivities at the Jewish dance hall.[53]
[47] For an overview of the restrictions see Brunner 1987.
[48] Stiefel 1949, 135.
[49] Brunner 1987, 58-63; Salmen 2001, 165.
[51] Nuremberg Staatsarchiv, Rep.60a (Ratsverlässe), Nr.259, fol. 5v.
[52] Brunner 1987, 58.
[53] Salmen 1992, 23; see also Salmen 1995.
[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.