6
while not
as exhaustive and more dated, is also very thorough.
9
Maximilian’s youth has been
the subject of a partial biography by Heinrich Fichtenau, which covers Maximilian’s life until
1482.
10
Other more recent and fairly simplistic biographical studies include works by Ernst
Wies,
Manfred Hollegger, and Sigrid-Maria Größing.
11
As this range of literature demonstrates, most scholarship on Maximilian has been
published in German. Even fewer biographies of him exist in English. Indeed, the closest to a
modern biography of Maximilian is probably Gerhard Benecke’s
Maximilian I (1459-1519): An
Analytical Biography, which does not follow the emperor’s life chronologically, but rather jumps
around thematically in an often confusing manner and is fairly slight, especially compared to
the scope of Wiesflecker.
12
Prior to this, R.W. Seton-Watson published an English language
biography of Maximilian in 1902.
13
Beyond Benecke, probably the most useful general portrait
of Maximilian may be found in Glen Waas’ study of his character.
14
Although, like Benecke,
this is not a straightforward biography but a survey of
how Maximilian was viewed in
contemporary literature, it still contains much useful information on the emperor.
9
Heinrich Ulmann,
Kaiser Maximilian I: Auf urkundlicher Grundlage dargestellt, 2 vols (Stuttgart: J.G.
Cotta, 1884-1891).
10
Heinrich Fichtenau,
Der Junge Maximilian (1459-1482) (Vienna: Verlag für Geschichte und
Politik, 1959). Fichtenau covers Maximilian’s childhood and education in Wiener Neustadt, his
marriage to Mary of Burgundy, and his time in the Netherlands.
11
Sigrid-Maria Größing,
Maximilian I.: Kaiser, Künstler, Kämpfer (Vienna: Amalthea Signum Verlag,
2002); Manfred Hollegger,
Maximilian I. (1459-1519): Herrscher und Mensch einer Zeitenwende (Stuttgart: W.
Kohlhammer GmbH, 2005); Ernst W. Wies,
Kaiser Maximilian I.: Ein Charakterbild (Munich: Bechtle
Verlag, 2003). Größing’s work is a thorough but simple biography of Maximilian, with rather
sensationalist chapter titles such as ‘Kurzer schöner Traum in Burgund’ and ‘Bianca Maria Sforza – die
arme reiche Braut’. Hollegger and Wies offer more academic but brief summaries of Maximilian’s life,
with Wies making particularly good use of letters.
12
Gerhard Benecke,
Maximilian I (1459-1519): An Analytical Biography (London: Routledge, 1982).
13
R.W. Seton-Watson,
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (London: Archibald Constable & Co.
Ltd, 1902).
14
Glenn Elwood Waas,
The Legendary Character of Kaiser Maximilian (New York: Columbia
University Press, 1941).
7
Rather than as the subject of a direct biographical study, Maximilian’s life has often
been examined in terms of what it reveals about larger historical trends. Sometimes these may
touch on tournaments, but not to any great extent. Music at Maximilian’s court, for instance,
has been the subject of select studies. Louise Cuyler, among others, has focused her work on
the music of Maximilian’s court, which would also have played
a role at tournaments, yet
Cuyler does not expand upon this connection.
15
In terms of courtly culture, tournaments are of
equal importance to both art and music, being another outlet for displaying power and wealth.
Indeed, the three are interconnected in many ways, as music would have been featured at
tournaments and art used to chronicle them. Yet the tournament has not received equal
attention to the other two. This project will expand upon current scholarship relating to both
tournaments and Maximilian’s reign, while combining the two in a way which has not
previously been done.
Studies of Maximilian’s court
culture in general, and his connection with specific cities,
especially Innsbruck, have also been conducted.
16
The recent collected volume
Kaiser
Maximilian I. (1459-1519) und die Hofkultur seiner Zeit (2009) was entirely devoted to approaching
the topic a variety of ways.
17
Additionally, Maximilian’s love of hunting – his other favoured
15
Louise Cuyler,
The Emperor Maximilian I and Music (London: Oxford University Press, 1973).
Other examples include Walter Salmen, ed.,
Musik und Tanz zur Zeit Kaiser Maximilian I (Innsbruck:
Edition Helbling, 1992), and Helen Green, ‘Meetings of City and Court: Music and Ceremony in the
Imperial Cities of Maximilian I’, in
Kaiser Maximilian I. (1459-1519) und die Hofkultur seiner Zeit, ed. by
Sieglinde Hartmann and others (Wiesbaden:
Reichert Verlag, 2009), Jahrbuch der Oswald von
Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft 17 for 2008-2009, pp. 261-74.
16
Nicole Riegel, ‘Bausteine eines Residenzprojekts. Kaiser Maximilian I. in Innsbruck’, in
The
Habsburgs and their Courts in Europe, 1400-1700: Between Cosmopolitan and Regionalism, ed. by Herbert
Karner, Ingrid Ciulisová, and Bernardo J. García García (Palatium e-Publicaion:
www.courtresidences.eu, 2014), pp. 28-45 and Inge Wiesflecker-Friedhuber, ‘Kaiser Maximilian I. und
die Stadt Innsbruck’, in
Der Innsbrucker Hof: Residenz und höfische Gesellschaft in Tirol vom 15. bis 19.
Jahrhundert, ed. by Heinz Noflatscher and Jan Paul Niederkorn (Vienna: Österreichischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften, 2005), pp. 125-58.
17
Hartmann, ed.,
Kaiser Maximilian I. (1459-1519) und die Hofkultur seiner Zeit. Topics explored
include art, religion, memorialisation, the Habsburg dynasty, and Maximilian’s marriages.