Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

11
Appearance of the 3 Magi in the San Giovanni festivity 1454:
discussed at
viewtopic.php?f=11&p=15826&sid=1c16005f ... 637#p15821

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3 Magi in Florence since c. 1360
discussed at
viewtopic.php?f=11&p=15826&sid=1c16005f ... 637#p15827

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The following I detected in ...

Public Life in Renaissance Florence
Richard C. Trexler
Cornell University Press, 1991 - 591 Seiten
https://books.google.de/books?id=JxKwg_ ... hi&f=false
... at p. 401 ff.

I don't claim to understand it ... and likely you will have also difficulties. It seems to be a "organizing game" for arranging Florentine festivities. They formed "kingdoms" in Florence (date 1471) and Toscana ... just in this "organizing game".
Somehow similar to the way, how carnevalist groups organizes in Cologne with Princes here and Princes there. Or "Schützenvereine". In this text it seems to be Calcio (= old soccer), which is organized (but I might err, cause one page is missing).
Added later: No, it should have have a different context.

Image


Image


I don't remember, that we ever talked about something similar. The Medici group (whoever this is) seems to be the "3 Magi" in this game.

The following is from 1545, so much later and the situation has developed:

Florence in the Time of the Medici: Public Celebrations, Politics, and Literature in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
Michel Plaisance
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2008
https://books.google.de/books?id=yVnuNJ ... ce&f=false
p. 132/133

Image


Image


We find various "kings" there, the whole is naturally led by the new duke of Florence, Cosimo I.

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I wondered at the earlier study of the Giovanni festivity of 1454, what the mentioned 3 kings with their queens should be, as they hardly could address the 3 Magi.
Then came three kings on horses, richly adorned with great
retinues, and the queens, all adorned in the latest fashions, and behind them came an edificio on
which there were three dead kings and a hermit who was in a cell; and those dead kings talked to the
living ones and they were converted, and it was a beautiful thing
Possibly these 3 Kings were already pointers to the organization leaders of the festivity, presented in a less developed form than later.

Well, possibly that's just a further development of the already mentioned 3 Königspiel inclusive the heraldic forms, that we discussed before.

Image
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

12
The author Trexler (Public Life in Renaissance Florence) goes so far, that he coins the period 1419- c. 1480 in Florence as the "Age of the Magi". He relates this to the Florentine behavior against foreign guests. It's called a "festive period".
[The actual break between the 3rd period and 4th period should be 1478 the attack on the Medici brothers, which resulted in war and made even the Giovanni festivities disappear for some years.]

Image

page 298
https://books.google.de/books?id=JxKwg_ ... &q&f=false

Added: For the city of Cologne it's generally stated, that the 3-Kings cult beside the general tourism also caused the visits of crowned heads.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

13
Kurt Weissen
Florentiner Bankiers und Deutschland
(1275 bis 1475)
published 2001
http://kweissen.ch/docs/weissen%20-%202 ... 20ganz.pdf
(German language)

... reports bank business between Italy and Germany already during 13th century (page 6 ff.). The locations "Köln" and "Florenz" are mentioned frequently.
The documents seems to be often based only on Italian documents, a lot of details are not mentioned.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ciappo_Ubriachi
"Ciappo Ubriachi was a Florentine nobleman who lived in the late 13th century around the time of Giotto and Dante. In the Florentine Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, his family was a Ghibelline. He is best known for being a wicked usurer according to Dante in the Divine Comedy."
This seems to have been an older relative of Baldassare Ubriachi, who engaged for the 3 Magi cult in Florence. Ciappo is called an usurer, which possibly means, that he also engaged in the banking business (?).

Baldassare di Simone Ubriachi (which seems to be the man, who invented the 3 magi cult in Florence) is called at ...

Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence
William J. Connell
University of California Press, 2002 - 453 Seiten
https://books.google.de/books?id=pxe96u ... hi&f=false

... a "banker and merchant whose trade in ivory carvings made him famous".

I looked for his objects and a "Baldassare Embriachi" (the name was a little bit altered) active with a workshop in Venice had many objects.
https://www.google.de/search?q=workshop ... CAYQ_AUoAQ

MikeH noted him as the producer of a winged Temperance once, as it appears in the Marseille Tarot.
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=848&start=20#p12160

Well, on the 3 Magi exhibition in Cologne a good part of the objects were ivory carvings. Small temple for the common households.

This research has always some surprises.
This altarpiece was commissioned by Giangaleazzo Visconti. It was to stand on the high altar in close proximity to his tomb in the Certosa of Pavia. It follows a Burgundian precedent, Jean de Berry having ordered similar triptychs from the same artist for Champmol and Poissy in 1393. Ivory was a favourite medium among noble patrons, who appreciated its expense and luxury.

The Pavia triptych is extraordinarily large for a work in ivory, constructed of thousands of pieces of carved elephant tusk. The architectural frame contains fifty-four niches for saints. The panel at the left contains eighteen reliefs depicting stories from the life of the Virgin; the one on the right, an equal number from the life of Christ. In the large central panel appear scenes from the lives and legends of the Three Kings, a subject chosen by Giangaleazzo to recall the Milanese cult of the Magi and, by association, to emphasize his own princely patronage.
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/e/embriach/altarpie.html

Producer Embriachi workshop



As far I understand it, Baldassare Ubriaci relative short after 1390 (when the first activity with 3 magi march happened in Florence) left Florence for Venice, and his workshop Embriachi there. That's rather precisely the time, when Giangaleazzo Visconti bought the duke title from Prague (1395).

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In medieval times the archbishop of Cologne was responsible for "Reichsitalien" (Empire countries in Italy, usually regions in Northern Italy).

Image

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsitalien
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of ... an_Empire)

It's rather naturally, that there were some banking relations.

Trier was responsible for regions in Burgundy, and Mainz for regions in Germany.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

14
About the St. Markus tower and it's clock
The clock was inaugurated on February 1, 1497. Driven by weights, with a foliot escapement, the clock controlled both the bell-ringing shepherds on the tower, who would have rung the bell between 1 and 24 times to sound the Italian hours, and a carousel which showed the procession of the Magi, preceded by an angel blowing a trumpet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark%27s_Clock

The clock in 1949 (with 3 magi + angel)
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/san-m ... ry/streets

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Leonardo's magi (never completed) ...


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... roject.jpg
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

15
The name "Richard C. Trexler" appears constantly in the search engine, if one follows the ways of Baldassare Ubriachi.

His worldcat entry:
https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=richa ... umber_link

Here I get, that he lived 1932-2007 ..
http://www.itergateway.org/resources/po ... and-ritual

At ...

Church and Community, 1200-1600: Studies in the History of Florence and New Spain
Richard C. Trexler
Ed. di Storia e Letteratura, 1987 - 631 Seiten

https://books.google.de/books?id=YrwWmS ... gi&f=false
in chapter "The Magi enter Florence. The Ubriachi of Florence and Venice." (p. 75 -168)

... are more details to background and family. At the end of the article is a genealogical family tree.

I found this passage interesting:

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Ubriachi was travelling (as a banker likely) and he had some business with the emperor (Charles IV), who thanked him for this with a noble title. Charles IV was known for a great interest in relics. And he had done just in 1366 a great coup, by moving the relics of Sankt Sigismund to Prague. San Sigismund was a saint, who once had been king, long ago ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund_of_Burgundy

I've to study the case a little bit longer. Another surprise. Some holy kings enter the stage, that's an invasion. Another blind spot detected. .... :-)
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

16
A few days ago I wrote ...
Ubriachi was travelling (as a banker likely) and he had some business with the emperor (Charles IV), who thanked him for this with a noble title. Charles IV was known for a great interest in relics. And he had done just in 1366 a great coup, by moving the relics of Sankt Sigismund to Prague. San Sigismund was a saint, who once had been king, long ago ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund_of_Burgundy

I've to study the case a little bit longer. Another surprise. Some holy kings enter the stage, that's an invasion. Another blind spot detected. .... :-)
... and it triggered me to consider, which kings got the title saint, and if these real kings with Saint-career and a connected process, by which they got the title, might have influenced the long story, how the 3 Holy kings developed their dominant state.

I found only a few "holy kings" in the relevant time. There may be more, which I didn't notice.

A "List of Canonizations" maybe helpful in a search.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_canonizations

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Sigismund, King of Burgundy (516-524)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund_of_Burgundy
canonized (? when) likely for the reason, that he installed the abbey in St. Maurice.
St. Maurice became location of the veneration of the Thebean Legion, which were 6666 men and between them many Saints.

That's the Saint, who was honored in the church of Cremona, in which Bianca Maria Visconti anf Francesco Sforza married. Also it#s the same saint, which was honored by Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in his Tempio.
And Malatesta married "somehow synchron" Polissena Sforza (Sforza's daughter) at that opportunity.

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Stephan I of Hungary, Holy King
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_I_of_Hungary
lived c. 975 – 15 August 1038
canonized by Gregory VII in 1083, 15 August

Emeric of Hungary, son of Stephan (not really king, but intended to become king)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Emeric_of_Hungary
canonized by Gregory VII in 1083 in same context, 15 August

Gerard Sagredo, bishop of Gerard Sagredo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Sagredo
lived 23 April 980 – 24 September 1046
not a king, but canonized in same context as Stephan and Ermeric by Gregory VII in 1083, 15 August

The threefold canonization of Stephan, Emeric and Gerard Sagredo was initiated by ...
Ladislaus I, King of Hungary
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladislaus_I_of_Hungary
lived c. 1040 – 29 July 1095
canonized (possibly in same context as above) in 1192 possibly without authorisation of the Holy See, initiated by Bela III, king of Hungary

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Henry II, German Emperor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_II,_ ... an_Emperor
lived 6 May 972 – 13 July 1024, reigned 1002 - 1024 about the same time as Stephan of Hungary. It's said, that Emeric got the name "Emeric" on suggestion of Henry II in 1007
canonized by Eugen III in 1146
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Eugene_III
Henry was the last of the Ottonian kings, to which are counted:

Henry I the Fowler, King of the East Franks and Duke of Saxony, died 936
Otto I the Great, Holy Roman Emperor and Duke of Saxony, died 973
Otto II, Holy Roman Emperor, died 983
Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor, died 1002
Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor, died 1024
(The Ottonian kings were Saxons, and belonged to that population, which was fought by Charlemagne during 8th century and finally integrated to the empire)

Cunigunde of Luxemburg, empress and wife of Saint Henry II, was declared Saint in 1200.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cunigunde_of_Luxembourg

Henry moved the capital from Quedlinburg to Bamberg.
Henry arranged that Bamberg got the state of a Bistum (1007).

2nd Bishop of Bamberg (Suidger) became Pope (1046/47)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Clement_II
possibly prepared, that Henry II became saint in 1146
(he was buried in Bamberg, the only pope, who was buried north of the alps; the sarkophag was decorated with 4 remarkable cardinal virtues; we discusssed these earlier ...
viewtopic.php?f=23&t=397&p=15353&hilit= ... ues#p15349
...).

8th Bishop of Bamberg (Otto the Saint) became Saint
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_of_Bamberg
(lived 1160-1039)
possibly prepared, that Henry II became saint in 1146
canonisized in 1189 by pope Clement III (11 years before Cunigunde), in the time, when emperor Barbarossa went to a crusade and when the canonization of Charlemain was discussed.

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Charlemagne

A canonization was arranged in 1165 in Aachen by Barbarossa and anti-pope Paschalis III, one year after the 3 Holy Kings arrived in Cologne (1164).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope_Paschal_III
Pope Alexander III didn't accept the canonization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_III

A deciding role in the disrupted canonization process played the battle of Legnano (1176), which was lost by Barbarossa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Legnano
Charlemagne himself was accorded sainthood inside the Holy Roman Empire after the twelfth century. His canonisation by Antipope Paschal III, to gain the favour of Frederick Barbarossa in 1165, was never recognised by the Holy See, which annulled all of Paschal's ordinances at the Third Lateran Council in 1179. His name does not appear among the 28 saints named Charles who are listed in the Roman Martyrology. However, his beatification has been acknowledged as cultus confirmed and is celebrated on 28 January.
by Wiki
Kanonisation: Auf Kaiser Friedrich Barbarossas Veranlassung erfolgte 1165 die Heiligsprechung Karls durch Rainald von Dassel, den Erzbischof von Köln unter Billigung von Gegenpapst Paschalis III., aber gegen den Willen von Papst Alexander III. Seit 1176 wird die Verehrung als Seliger geduldet: sie ist offiziell gestattet, nicht anerkannt, er ist deshalb nicht im Martyrologium Romanum verzeichnet.
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Biographi ... Grosse.htm

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Louis IX of France, the Saint
lived 25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX_of_France
canonized by pope Bonifacius VIII in 1297
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII
... a rather disputed pope
... in the time, when Philip IV the Fair of France, had been a rather successful French king
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_IV_of_France
... who finally caused, that the papacy took its place in Avignon.


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With this the series ends ... in the time of Charles IV we've then an emperor, who is very interested in religious matters and collects relics in a strange enthusiasm, possibly in the hope to become the next saint on a throne. He shows interests in Charlemagne, perhaps speculating, that this still might become a saint and possibly he himself would become the "second Charles the great".
His preferences were otherwise Wenzel, Vitus, Ludmilla, Adalbert and Sigismund with an accent on Wenzel, but also on Sigismund, king of Burgundy, who appears on the list above and in Charles attention variously between 1354 (preparing his state as new emperor) and 1368 (naming his new born son Sigismondo, later emperor Sigismondo).

In 1354 he got from Einsiedeln a part of the skull of Sigismondo, 11 years later he was crowned in Arles and he got further parts of the skull and a fighting axe of St. Maurentius from St. Maurice (where Sigismondo was buried originally).
A researcher Rudolf Chadraba has focussed on the condition, that Charles IV had prefered relics with victory or triumph symbols, for instance in the name of the saints (so from Veit, Sigismund, Victor, Corona, Laurentius, Palmaius Nikolaus). Chadabra points to buildings in Prague with triumphal character.
Since 1362 Sigismund relics got an own chapel in the St. Vitus Dome. Before 1359 he had send Sigismund relics to Freising, which became a center of Sigismund veneration in the Empire. Another Sigismund relic went to Kasimir, king of Poland. (Kaiser Karl IV - Staatsmann und Mäzen, Prestel 1978, p. 94 ff)
[Charles' interest on triumphs is related to Petrarca's "Trionfi" poem].

Charles interest on Sigismond of Burgundy (an early "holy king") went on Sigismondo, Charles' son and the later emperor. And so it reached Sforza and Malatesta in 1433 (emperor-visit) and in October 1441, when both married, rather precisely the time, when Trionfi cards started.
And it fitted the taste of all 3, cause Sigismondo the Saint has started the soldier cult around St. Maurice and the Thebain Legion, and was a king and soldier himself. Charles, Sforza and Malatesta were also soldier commanders. And Rene d'Anjou in 1449 with his founded Crescent knight order played in the same league, with special interest on St. Maurice. Emperor Sigismondo founded another knight order of the dragon, focussing on St. George, another knight saint.

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So let's sort these all these dates a little bit:

Early time: I found two notes earlier than 10th century, that the "Magi" possibly were "Kings". The surviving old pictures show the Magi with Phrygian caps usually, not with crowns.
The oldest crowns seem to apear in Fulda c. 990, close to Quedlinburg, the caital of the Ottonian knigs. There were three kings with the name Otto and this might have triggered the idea to paint the Magi with crowns, as a new fashion. The great success of the Ottonian time is the victory against Hungarian invaders. The victory causes a Christian development in Hungary. A result of this developmen is, that 3 Hungarian Kings of 11th century (one only a king-in-spe) become Holy Kings (two in 1083 and one in 1192). As a sort of balance also a German holy king Henry II is formed (1146, in the preparation of a crusade with German participation) in the meantime, and also attempt was done to declare Charlemain a
holy king by Barbarossa (1165) and this already in relationship to the bones of the 3 magi in Cologne as "holy kings" (1164).
The stressed relationship between Empire and Papacy likely causes the 3rd Hungarian holy king, and dispute against Charlemain as saint (Hungary and France took side against the Barbarossa popes) .
With Fredrick II and the following time without clear emperor (1250-1272) the empire becomes weak and France gets strength, the Anjou expand to Southern Italy and finally also to Hungary. With some logic we see a Holy king of France, Louis IX (1297).

Generally it seems, that the idea to have holy kings in the church was operated in few cases only and was prefered only in few centuries.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

17
St. Wenzel somehow belongs to the series of the holy kings ... and actually he is earlier than the others. His saint declaration followed the general scheme, that "Holy Kings" were declared in recently christianized regions to get some saints there (but Wenzel was only a duke). Together with Wenzel also his grand-mother Ludmilla gained the rank of a saint

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenceslaus ... of_Bohemia
Wenceslas was son of Vratislaus I, Duke of Bohemia from the Přemyslid dynasty. His father was raised in a Christian milieu through his own father, Borivoj I of Bohemia, who was purportedly converted by Saints Cyril and Methodius. His mother Drahomíra was the daughter of a pagan tribal chief of Havolans and was baptized at the time of her marriage.

In 921, when Wenceslas was thirteen, his father died and he was brought up by his grandmother, Saint Ludmila, who raised him as a Christian. A dispute between the fervently Christian regent and her daughter-in-law drove Ludmila to seek sanctuary at Tetín Castle near Beroun. Drahomíra, who was trying to garner support from the nobility, was furious about losing influence on her son and arranged to have Ludmila strangled at Tetín on September 15, 921. Wenceslas is usually described as exceptionally pious and humble, and a very educated and intelligent young man for his time.

According to some legends, having regained control of her son, Drahomíra set out to convert him to the old pagan religion. According to other legends, she was a Christian herself; however, very little is known about her rule.

Reign[edit]
After the fall of Great Moravia, the rulers of the Bohemian duchy had to deal both with continuous raids by the Magyars and the forces of the Saxon duke and East Frankish king Henry the Fowler, who had started several eastern campaigns into the adjacent lands of the Polabian Slavs, homeland of Wenceslas's mother. To withstand Saxon overlordship Wenceslas's father Vratislaus had forged an alliance with the Bavarian duke Arnulf the Bad, then a fierce opponent of King Henry; however, it became worthless when Arnulf and Henry reconciled at Regensburg in 921.

In 924 or 925 Wenceslas assumed government for himself and had Drahomíra exiled.[citation needed] After gaining the throne at the age of eighteen, he defeated a rebellious duke of Kouřim named Radslav.[citation needed] He also founded a rotunda consecrated to St Vitus at Prague Castle in Prague, which exists as present-day St Vitus Cathedral.

Early in 929 the joint forces of Duke Arnulf of Bavaria and King Henry I the Fowler reached Prague in a sudden attack, which forced Wenceslas to resume the payment of a tribute which had been first imposed by the East Frankish king Arnulf of Carinthia in 895. Henry had been forced to pay a huge tribute to the Magyars in 926 and he therefore needed the Bohemian tribute which Wenceslas probably refused to pay any longer after the reconciliation between Arnulf and Henry.
Wenzel was murdered by his brother Boleslaw (935). Nonetheless Boleslaw promoted the saint cult for Wenzel around 960, when it became politically opportune to do so. The murder had caused Wenzel to be a martyr and he was rather immediately venerated in Bohemia and in England.

Wiki states:
Within a few decades of Wenceslas' death four biographies of him were in circulation.[3][4] These hagiographies had a powerful influence on the High Middle Ages conceptualization of the rex justus, or "righteous king"—that is, a monarch whose power stems mainly from his great piety, as well as from his princely vigor.

Although Wenceslas was, during his lifetime, only a duke, Holy Roman Emperor Otto I posthumously "conferred on [Wenceslas] the regal dignity and title" and that is why, in the legend and song, he is referred to as a "king".
Despite the comment of Wiki, Otto I wasn't declared holy and the Holy Roman Empire (Heiliges Römisches Reich deutscher Nation) didn't exist at this time. The name Sacrum Imperium was noted first in 1157 and the title Sacrum Romanum Imperium in 1254. The addition "deutscher Nation" developed in late 15th century.
For the title "Sancta Colonia Dei Gratia Romanae Ecclesiae Fidelis Filia", which Cologne arranged to get the rank of 4th holy City after Jerusalem, Constantinople and Rome, there's an "around 1200" given.

Image


This astonishing modern figure of Wenzel was made by a modern Czech artist ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_%C4%8Cern%C3%BD
... with a lot of other interesting ideas. From another perspective it looks like this:

Image


... :-) ... somehow it reminds me on the state of activities here in the Forum ... :-)
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

18

Vita of Wenzel, written before 1006, the picture of the murder

There seems to be agreement, that the murder was at a Monday, and at September 2, the year is not clear (either 929 or 935).
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wenzel_von_B%C3%B6hmen

The battle at the Lechfeld, won by Otto I, happened 955. Otto didn't become a saint, but got the title "pater patriae".

The "Pater Patriae" list at wiki (German wikipedia) doesn't note Otto I, but knows as a first "pater patriae after Constantine I (307 AD)" ...

Wilhelm I (Provence) or Guillaume I. le Libérateur (died 993)
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_I._(Provence)

... who did win in the battle of Tourtour (973) against the Saracens (which were driven out of the country with that). The first use of the title with documentary for him is given to 992.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tourtour.

For Otto's title "pater patriae" the writer Widukind of Corvey in his description of the battle is given as the source. The relevant text - its dating is disputed - would have existed at least in 973 (your of death of Widuking), but likely before 967.
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widukind_von_Corvey

From this it seems, that Otto I revived the title "pater patriae" together with another few great words, also formed by Widukind. That seems to have been a sort of early renaissance.

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9th and 10th century is to me foreign territory. But according, what I've read this afternoon, neither the German Empire nor the Popes in Rome were in a very glorious state before 955, and the crisis of Rome endured longer than that of the Empire. Dominant for some time were the Hungarians and the Wikingers.
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

19
As Cologne is more or less definitely the great place for the 3 holy kings, I collected a few dates, which might be of interest in my questions.

One is the Via Belgica, presented at this map ...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... Limes1.png
... which leads from Cologne just to Tournai (a playing card producing city for some time).

Image


Image


Image


Image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripuarian_ ... uction.JPG

Once I fond it of interest, that the city of Tournai had been of great interest for the Merowinger. A king's funeral place was found there during 17th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childeric_I
Childeric's tomb was discovered in 1653 not far from the 12th-century church of Saint-Brice in Tournai, Belgium. Numerous precious objects were found, including jewels of gold and garnet cloisonné, gold coins, a gold bull's head, and a ring with the king's name inscribed. Some 300 golden bees or cicadas were also found which had been placed on the king's cloak.
About 30 years later the Merowinger took Cologne ... Chlodwig, the Christian, motivated the son of Sigibert (King of Ripuarien, Ripuarien = the region around Cologne and Aachen) to kill his father, and then Chlodwig killed the son. This happened around 1511.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigobert_the_Lame
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripuarian_Franks

Cologne was then capital of Ripuarien. Soon it became the capital of Austrasien ...

Image

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... de.svg.png

... and Austrasien was the most vital region of the Frankish regions. Pipin II reigned here for the Merowingers ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepin_of_Herstal
... and his wife Plektrudis lived in Cologne. After Pipin's death (714) Karl Martell became her prisoner, but Karl managed to escape.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plectrude
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Martel

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Plektrudis had her merits for the large church "St. Maria im Capitol", build on a Roman temple at the South East corner of the Roman Cologne.

Image

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Maria_im_Kapitol

Here, so it is said, the 3 Holy Kings were first located, when they had entered the city ... a longer time later. Much later, during WWII, the church was bombed as many other churches in the city, and it had been damaged. It's reconstructed today, but rather empty with very few visitors only.
It's very close to the Dreikönigs-Pförtchen. I'm not sure, but it might be here (red circle), where the Roman temple had been.
Image


In the longer run of the Empire Cologne became often the most important metropol, and the archbishop of Cologne became the first after the emperor. This got a break with the battle of Worringen 1288 ...
Huck
http://trionfi.com

Re: Cologne exhibition: 3 Magi

20
St. Maternus is called the 3rd bishop of bishop of Trier and the first bishop of Cologne, and beside that also as bishop in Tongeren (Trier and Tongeren are presented with some skepsis). He (really) appeared 313 at a Lateransynode in Rome and 314 at a synode in Arles. He shall have been close to emperor Constantine (who had some closer relation to Trier anyway).

According "New Advent" Ireneus of Lyons shall have noted, that Cologne had already a bishop during 2nd century.
At an early date Christianity came to Cologne with the Roman soldiers and traders; according to Irenaeus of Lyons, it was a bishop's see as early as the second century. However, Saint Maternus, a contemporary of Constantine, is the first historically certain Bishop of Cologne.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04116a.htm

A German legend connects Maternus to the "Jüngling of Nain" (a dead young man, who was revived by Jesus, at a much earlier time than 4th century). This Jüngling shall have been send by Petrus to Germany accompanied by Eucharius and Valerius. But he died in the Alsace, and Eucharius and Valerius went back to Petrus. Petrus gave them his bishop's baton and they returned to the dead body of the Jüngling, and Maternus came back to life again.
The Cologne church claimed to have this original bishop's baton from Petrus. The Trier church claimed to have the bones of Maternus.
The Cologne church has a legend, how the bones of Maternus came to Trier, involving an angel and a sort of a oracle, which made a boat with the Saint's bones swimming upstream to Rodenkirchen, giving clear advice, that the dead Maternus wanted to go back to Trier. Rodenkirchen got a Maternus church for that.
Eucharius and Valerius were already buried in Trier.

https://books.google.de/books?id=uVXwAg ... us&f=false

Maternus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternus_of_Cologne
Eucharius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharius
Valerius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerius_of_Tr%C3%A8ves

The evidence ...

Image

burial place for Eucharius and Valerius
The staff of St. Peter, with which he had been raised to life, was preserved at Cologne till the end of the tenth century when the upper half was presented to Trier, and was afterwards taken to Prague by Emperor Charles IV.
... at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerius_of_Tr%C3%A8ves

That's what happened ... there was a conflict between Cologne and Trier, which of both had the first church in Germany, which is central topic of this Maternus story.

It's interesting, that these legends of 3 holy men send by Petrus have some similarity to 3 kings, which came from the East.
Added later: This happened naturally before Cologne knew, that they would get 3 holy Kings. Perhaps it triggered, that Cologne had a special evaluation for "3 persons."

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In political reality, once Cologne as Colonia Agrippina had been the capital of Germania Inferior, and Trier as Augusta Trevorum had been capital of Belgica and Mainz as Moguntiacum was capital of Germania superior (so in 117 in the reign of Trajan).
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germania_i ... trajan.png

In 259/260 an Imperium Galliarum developed ...

Image

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperium_Galliarum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallic_Empire

Cologne became capital of this large territory, after the new Northern emperor Postumus had conquered it. His reign lasted till 268, when he was assassinated by his own troops. Soon Trier was chosen as new capital, but the young empire declined and in 274 an Roman army under Aurelian crushed the experiment.

Image


Trier became larger and got more importance than Cologne during the end of 3rd and 4th century.

Another political intermezzo happened in 280 in Cologne with the usurper Bonosus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonosus_(usurper)

There were lots of emperors and usurpers during 3rd century. Things settled, when Domitian came to power and with him Maximian, Galerius and Constantin Chlorus, father of Constantine, the later great emperor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximian
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerius
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantius_Chlorus

Image

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diokletian ... archie.svg
... in the year 293

Cologne at the border of the Empire became a risky place, Trier developed. Constantine Chlorus had there his capital.
Helena, his first divorced wife (he had to marry a Maximian daughter 289/93) was baptized and became St. Helena later and she was of greater importance for the young christianity. Constantine the great was her son. She and her son stayed close to Diokletian after the new marriage of her husband.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helena_(empress)

Constantine went to his father in 305, avoiding attacks from the side of Galerius. His father died during a campaign in Britain, and Constantine was acclaimed to be his successor (July 306).
Constantine's share of the Empire consisted of Britain, Gaul, and Spain. He therefore commanded one of the largest Roman armies, stationed along the important Rhine frontier.[78] After his promotion to emperor, Constantine remained in Britain, driving back the tribes of the Picts and secured his control in the northwestern dioceses. He completed the reconstruction of military bases begun under his father's rule, and ordered the repair of the region's roadways.[79] He soon left for Augusta Treverorum (Trier) in Gaul, the Tetrarchic capital of the northwestern Roman Empire.[80] The Franks, after learning of Constantine's acclamation, invaded Gaul across the lower Rhine over the winter of 306–7.[81] Constantine drove them back beyond the Rhine and captured two of their kings, Ascaric and Merogaisus. The kings and their soldiers were fed to the beasts of Trier's amphitheater in the adventus (arrival) celebrations that followed.[82]

Public baths (thermae) built in Trier by Constantine. More than 100 metres (328 ft) wide by 200 metres (656 ft) long, and capable of serving several thousands at a time, the baths were built to rival those of Rome.[83]
Constantine began a major expansion of Trier. He strengthened the circuit wall around the city with military towers and fortified gates, and began building a palace complex in the northeastern part of the city. To the south of his palace, he ordered the construction of a large formal audience hall, and a massive imperial bathhouse.


No doubt, Trier was a favoured location for him. Well ... also Cologne is mentioned:
In 308, he raided the territory of the Bructeri, and made a bridge across the Rhine at Colonia Agrippinensium
(Cologne).
Mostly he had to fight at the Rhine.
I don't know, when Helena joined her son. One source speaks of 312, another indicates "after 306".

Diocletian had started the persecution of Christians in 303, after he and Galerius had requested the Apollo Oracle.
The death of the Thebische Legion occurred in 304 (of some importance for person in the military career) ... according the legend.
Well .... later.
Huck
http://trionfi.com