Sometimes good things take a while. In this case "the good thing" took more than 30 years. In 1965 Peter Herde began the edition of the "Brief- und Memorialbuch Albert Behaims" and with the help of Thomas Frenz finally published it last year as the first volume in the Letters of the Later Middle Ages series of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica Epistolae section. And it indeed turned out to be a "good thing" for two reasons. First it preserved the most important source for the thirteenth- century Albert Behaim's life for posterity. Only one copy of the manuscript exists and it contains a lot of texts of which no other recension is known. The original, which is the oldest paper manuscript in German archives and is kept at the Bavarian State Library in Munich (Clm 2574c), is even after restoration in such a bad condition that even the two editors had to work with microfilms and glossy photographs most of the time. In this respect this edition could also be called a rescue operation. Second, it makes an extraordinary source finally fully accessible for a wider scholarly public that would, for the reasons named, hardly have the chance to immerse in the world of Albert Behaim. [1] And that is exactly what makes the edition of the Brief- und Memorialbuch so valuable.
Not very much is known about the author of this booklet, which has come down to us in only one copy written partly by Albert himself but for the most part by different scribes who wrote down what Albert dictated or told them to copy. But the few facts we have about his life give the impression that it must have been very exciting and adventurous in the middle of "big politics": He helped depose bishops Gebhard and Ruediger of Passau, he was commissioned by Pope Gregory IX to agitate against Frederick II in Bavaria, he had to flee his enemies and he was held prisoner several times. On the other hand Albert was in financial trouble and had to deal with the ailments of advanced age just like any ordinary person. And it is all in the Brief- und Memorialbuch. Traces of this life between the papal court and the misery of everyday financial problems can be found in it, because it served Albert as a register for his letters--as the "Briefbuch" part of the title suggests--as well as a kind of notebook or journal (the "Memorialbuch" part of the title) in which he more or less randomly wrote down what was on his mind or what he considered important information. Thus it is even more interesting to study the texts on history and philosophy and even science, because they offer a glimpse into Albert's thinking, his interests, his intellectual universe. These texts range from excerpts from Petrus Comestor's Historia Scholastica, Pseudo-Aristotle's Secretum secretorum or Pseudo- Methodius' Relevationes to recipes for vinum claretum, geographical notes on Aquitaine, Normandy and Brittany and cures for hardness of hearing. A careful study of Albert's writings may not only provide insights into his personality but also into the mentality or the zeitgeist of the mid-thirteenth century.
Peter Herde and Thomas Frenz always kept that in mind when they started the onerous task of editing these texts. Everything is published in its original context. The order of the texts was not changed. The pictures, printed as facsimiles, are in the same place as they used to be about 750 years ago. Emendations were only made very carefully and incorrectly copied texts were not changed, instead the original was also printed in order to make a comparison with Albert's version easier. Thus the edition is more like a "mere" transcription, which does not destroy the impression the reader might have when studying the original manuscript--a very important factor, if one is in search of Albert's personality between the lines of his writings. Of course this edition is lifted much above the level of a "mere" transcription by its scholarly apparatus which by itself is very impressive. The reader is not only guided by hundreds of footnotes to useful background information, parallel texts and references, but is also introduced to Albert's life by a very concise introductory essay. Neither a codicological description nor the history of the manuscript are missing. Extensive indices of persons and place names as well as medical and scientific expressions facilitate direct access to persons and topics. Six maps showing all the locations mentioned in Albert's writings come in very handy.
But after all this light one should not forget about the shadow even if it is just a little shadow. First of all the general introduction to the edition--as good and detailed as it is on Albert's life--lacks a more general view of the mid-thirteenth century. A broader view of the time, the people, the church, the politics--local, as well as "international", if this word may be used--and the cultural background could make initial understanding of the Brief- und Memorialbuch easier. Instead Herde and Frenz chose to hide all this information in the references of the footnotes for the reader to discover by himself. The second drawback of this edition is related to the first one. The introductory notes to the longer texts like the Pseudo-Aristotle and Pseudo-Methodius are very insightful and useful but they suffer from the fact that they have not been printed as a real introduction, probably for the sake of not interrupting the original "flow" of the texts. Instead they have been made introductory footnotes. Thus they are loaded with references to the point of unreadability which in turn gives the reader a hard time following the editors' argument. Herde and Frenz should have resorted to a regular introduction with all the references banned to the footnotes even at the risk of interrupting the text sequence.
But these minor complaints should obscure the fact that this is an excellent and important edition of a fascinating source; an edition that was worth waiting for. Hopefully we do not have to wait for another 35 years for someone to work on or with the Brief- und Memorialbuch, but sometimes good things take a while.
Notes:
[1] The nineteenth-century edition by Hoefler is only a partial edition which does not live up to the standards of modern critical editions, cf. Constantin Hoefler, Albert von Beham und Regesten Pabst Innocenz IV, Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart 16, 2 (Stuttgart 1847).