Disquisition on the Celebrated Poetic Book Theuerdanck

...described in a flowery original German: verblühmter weiße; referring to the allegorical and metaphorical style of the poem manner, in which the master of that book, Melchior Pfintzing, partly followed the custom of the old Master Singers The Meistersinger were members of German guild-like associations for establishing and cultivating German poetry and art song. And Dr. Johann Christoph Oelhafen, Doctor of Laws, in his Inaugural Oration, delivered in the year 1623, which is found in the Record of Publication of Doctoral Privileges of the University of Altdorf, Letter K. 2, writes: "Maximilian I, in his youth—according to the description by Melchior Pfintzing, former Provost of St. Sebald in Nuremberg, under the name of the noble knight Theuerdanck—well experienced what harm Curiosity, Misfortune, and Envy The original German names are Fürwitz, Unfall, and Neidhart, representing the three allegorical antagonists who try to lead the knight astray can do."

To these we add Johann Jakob Fugger, in the Mirror of Honor of the Arch-House of Austria, Book 6, chapter 20, page 1377; Daniel Georg Morhof, in his Instruction on the German Language and Poetry, chapter 7, page 365; Simon Bornmeister, in the Theater of the Roman-German Emperors, page 920; Johann Conrad Dieterich, in his Historical Breviary, Part 2, page 97; Johannes Hallervord, in the Curious Library, page 387; Georg Pasch, in the Book on Various Ways of Teaching Morals, chapter 1, section 29, page 56; Vincent Placcius, in the Theater of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Authors, chapter 11, page 478. All of these agree with us with one voice.

The most celebrated Immanuel Weber, in the Preface to his Historical Sketch of the Learned Princes of Hesse, page 3, confirms our opinion with these words: "Maximilian I was so learned a Prince that he even applied his mind to writing books, as is apparent—though not from the work composed about his perils, the Theuerdanck, whose true author is declared to be Melchior Pfintzing, Provost of St. Alban at Mainz, in the addresses to the Spanish King Charles Charles V, Maximilian's grandson, both in the Dedication and in the Epilogue of the book, etc." And in the annexed note: "But whatever the case may be regarding the Index (namely the Viennese one, which will be mentioned immediately), credit must certainly be given to Pfintzing, who, unless he were the author, would never have dared present? the book to Charles V in his own name." He also defends