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Finding aid to the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft Collection: Manuscript
and Pictorial Material, 1592-1754
BANC MSS
98/49; BANC PIC 1998.001
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Collection Title: Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft Collection: Manuscript
and Pictorial Material,
Date (bulk): circa 1600-circa 1700
Collection Number: BANC MSS
98/49; BANC PIC 1998.001
Creator:
Bircher, Martin
Extent:
308 manuscript documents; 312 copperplate engravings, and other graphic
material.
Repository: The Bancroft Library.
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Collection of manuscript documents, engravings, and other
pictorial material chiefly from the 17th century relating to the activities and
membership of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, the earliest German learned society,
founded in 1617.
Languages Represented:
English
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection
materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley,
94720-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft Collection: Manuscript and
Pictorial Material, BANC MSS 98/49; BANC PIC 1998.001, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley.
The Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft Collection includes approximately 800 printed
books, pamphlets, and broadsides (classed together under the call number
PT1100.F7), 28 codex manuscripts (found under the call number BANC MSS 98/49
[no.]), a medallion, bas-relief, and an album of photomechanical prints (found
under the call number BANC PIC 1998.001 [no.]), chiefly from the 17th century.
These materials are cataloged separately in the on-line catalog of the Library
of the University of California, Berkeley. They cover a wide range of subjects,
in keeping with the interests and activities of the society's membership, and
include law, art, religion, theology, history, geography, hagiography, Near
Eastern philology, hieroglyptology, music, thanatology, and mathematics. They
can be found by searching the on-line catalog under author, title, or subject,
and as a group by searching under the heading: Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft
collection.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Opitz, Martin,
1597-1639
Gryphius, Andreas,
1616-1664
Harsdörffer, Georg
Philipp, 1607-1658
Schottelius, Justus
Georg, 1612-1676
Logau, Friedrich von,
1604-1655
Zesen, Philipp von,
1619-1689
Moscherosch, Johann
Michael, 1601-1669
Fruchtbringende
Gesellschaft
Societies--Germany
Acquired jointly by the Bancroft Library and the Main Library, University of
California, Berkeley, in 1996, from the noted Swiss bibliophile and German
Baroque scholar, Prof. Martin Bircher of Geneva, Switzerland.
A particularly important aspect of the German Baroque period was the emergence of
social structures which promoted literacy and the humanistics arts and sciences.
Learned societies were established throughout Europe to bring scholars and writers
together. One such society was the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (Fruitbearing
Society), known also as the Palmenorden (Order of the Palms) because its emblem was
the then-exotic coconut palm tree. Founded in 1617, it played a major role in
encouraging the use of written German, and in establishing linguistic and stylistic
norms for the language. This collection represents the early years of its activity
during the 17th and early 18th centuries.
This collection has been extensively described in German in a printed catalog of its
contents, Im Garten der Palme, by Martin Bircher, published in 2 volumes by
Harrassowitz Verlag at Wiesbaden in 1998.