Spiezer Schilling

The Spiez Spiez Chronicle or Schilling was 1484/85 written by Diebold Schilling the Elder. The Chronicle is considered artistic highlight of Schilling's work. With it, the tradition of the Bern chronicles of the 15th century ends.

The Spiez Chronicle was commissioned by the Bern Old Schultheissen Rudolf von Erlach. As Diebold Schilling at Christmas 1483 the Bernese Council handed over his three-volume Official Bernese Chronicle, is likely to have occurred during councilors, the desire to possess such a work. A little later, Schilling was commissioned to write a chronicle and to make the drawings themselves. Diebold Schilling used to the family of von Erlach good contact; Schilling's wife Catherine was a patron of the sons of Rudolph.

In the introduction explains Schilling, he wrote the book " zuo praise pious vnnd sunderbaren sable the pre distinctive jungher Ruodolfs, ouch siner vordernn [ ...]», whose deeds he then also here and there especially emphasized. The images have been specifically tailored to the client. The type and glazed in various shades pen and ink drawings are very different from the presentation in previous chronicles.

The text is based on several templates of Konrad Just Inger and Bendicht Tschachtlan and reported in 344 illustrations on 808 pages from its beginnings in 1152 with interruptions to the 1465. Various small cuts at the end of history and the uncertain and coarsely become writing can be a presumption that the sick and weakened shilling his work still wanted to finish on time.

The Spiez Chronicle was Schilling's last work: He died in 1486, the plant was kept until 1875 in the castle library Spiez, today it is the Burgerbibliothek Bern. .

From Spiez Chronicle, a facsimile was published in a limited edition of 980 numbered copies.