64. Bilder aus der deutschen Kulturgeschichte [Scenes from German Cultural History]

Widener received this copy of Albert Richter’s Bilder aus der deutschen Kulturgeschichte on June 12, 1935, from the private library of Horatio Stevens White, Class of 1873, Professor of German, Emeritus. The title page is signed “H.S. White, Ithaca, Dec. 1887.” White was professor of German Language and Literature at Cornell from 1883 through 1902, where he also served as Dean from 1888 to 1902. He returned to Harvard to serve as Professor of German from 1902 to 1919. White edited works of canonical German authors, such as Lessing and Heine, as well as German folk songs and German grammar and language manuals, in addition to his essays on German literature. Like many scholarly works of that time, this 1882 title was interleaved with lined, blank pages, specifically for the purpose of note taking. White commented liberally throughout Bilder aus der deutschen Kulturgeschichte. This excerpt relates with some irony the history of the medieval troubadours, or “wandering students” [with “Schüler” standing for, mostly, rogue clerics], which Richter describes as little more than vagabond charlatans. Given the references to the “Commersbuch” (a students’ songbook), it is probable that White made the notes in preparation for his edition of German folk songs [HOLLIS 003765780].