Review of The correspondence of Wolfgang Capito, I: 1507-1523. Edited and translated by Erika Rummel.

Authors

Amy Nelson Burnett, University of Nebraska - LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

1-12-2007

Comments

Published in The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, Volume 58, Issue 01 (January 2007), pp. 141–142; doi: 10.1017/S0022046906589882. Copyright © 2007 Cambridge University Press. Used by permission

Abstract

This is the first of a projected three volumes of the correspondence of the humanist and reformer Wolfgang Capito, covering his early career first as cathedral preacher in Basle, then as advisor to the archbishop of Mainz, Albrecht of Brandenburg, through his move to Strasbourg and his definitive break with Rome. About half of the almost 200 letters are published for the first time; the remaining letters, printed elsewhere in modern critical editions, are summarised.

The translations are colloquial and tend towards the overly literal; the early ones in particular give readers a good sense of humanist rhetorical style. The annotations identify correspondents and individuals mentioned in the letters as well as the sources of the classical quotations and allusions that pepper the texts. Erika Rummel is performing a singular service to scholars of both humanism and the Reformation with this edition.