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| The false equation ‘the Germani = the Germans’ | <table of contents> <previous page> <next page> page 1 of 3 |
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| Primary responsibility for this false equation lies with the scholars around 1500 who turned away from the medieval world and looked to antiquity for their model. When the single surviving copy of Tacitus’ Germania was discovered, it caused a sensation not only in Italy but also in Germany. To be sure, the German humanists gave the newly discovered text a completely peculiar interpretation. These were men, who are little known today, men like Konrad Celtis, Jakob Wimpfeling and Heinrich Bebel. Although highly educated and experts in Latin and Greek, they interpreted the descriptions in Tacitus in an extremely patriotic, even chauvinistic, way – although this is obviously a contemporary viewpoint. |
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