Loading article…
Hieronymus Wilhelm Ebner von Eschenbach (born 22 June 1673, Nuremberg; died 26 January 1752, Engelthal) was a German diplomat, historian, scholar, and founder of the extensive private library Bibliotheca Ebneriana.[1]
The Ebners were one of the oldest patrician families of the imperial city of Nuremberg, first mentioned in a document in 1234.[2] They held seats in the city council since the 14th century and named themselves Eschenbach in the 16th–17th century.[2]
After completing his studies at the University of Altdorf, Ebner embarked on a four-year educational journey across Europe in 1691, visiting the Netherlands, Italy, Austria, Bohemia, and northern Germany.[3] Returning to Nuremberg in 1700, he began preparing for a political career, holding various positions before being appointed to the city council in 1708.[3] In 1718, he assumed the role of Scholarchat, overseeing the schools of the imperial city, a position he held until 1744.[3] Ebner contributed to the cataloging of Nuremberg's public library and imperial city archives, publishing selected documents he deemed of particular significance.[3]
Bibliotheca Ebneriana was built on many smaller collections he had acquired, such as the private library of his uncle Christoph Jacob Imhoff, which he had inherited in 1726.[1][4] Gottfried Christoph Ranner's five-volume catalogue of Bibliotheca Ebneriana, published in the early-19th century, lists 18,512 titles divided into 11 sections, showing the extensive range and eclectic nature of the collection: encyclopedias; books on the history of Nuremberg, of the Holy Roman Empire, and of Europe; books on Christianity, geography, war history, and fine arts; and literature of Greece and Rome in antiquity, to name a few.[1]
エブナーの死後、ヨハン・アダム・デルゼンバッハによる版画を添えた帝国宝物庫に関する著作『Wahre Abbildung der sämtlichen Reichskleinodien 』 （「すべての帝国の宝物の真の姿」と訳される）が、彼の後援のもと1790年に出版された。[ 5 ] 1110年頃に書かれたと推定されるギリシャ語の新約聖書の彩飾写本『Codex Ebnerianus』は、彼の名にちなんで名付けられている。[ 6 ]