ABSTRACT
In many ways the sixteenth century was Augsburg’s golden age. Due to its favourable geographic location, at the meeting of both overland and water-borne trade routes from Italy to Northern Europe, the city became the economic and financial capital of the south of Germany by the 1490s. It reached the peak of its power during the first half of the sixteenth century, by then housing a population of around 45,000 within its walls.1 Its merchants, above all the Fugger family, amassed fortunes of fantastic proportions through their control of an economic empire that included textile production, mining, international trade and banking. Close financial ties with the chronically cash-strapped Habsburg dynasty made the Fuggers important political players. Indeed, it was the wealth of Jakob Fugger (1459-1525, alias Jakob Fugger ‘the Rich’) that had permitted Charles V to ‘buy’ his election as Holy Roman Emperor in 1519.2 Augsburg, the Fuggers’ hometown, was one of the Emperor’s favourite German haunts, a city of splendour, centre of the fine arts and book printing, as well as intellectual and political debate. Its impressive architecture, its lively squares and beautiful gardens attracted many visitors. A famous one was the French essayist Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), who, in the spring of 1580, spent a couple of nights in a local inn before continuing his journey to the Italian spas where he hoped to find relief from kidney and bladder stone problems.3 Judging Augsburg ‘the fairest town of Germany’, the French writer praised its outstanding cleanliness (rats and mice were nowhere to be seen, he noted with relief) and admired its sophisticated water supply system and ramparts. The latter had even attracted the interest of the Queen of England Elizabeth I (1533-1603) herself, Montaigne reported. By far the greatest impression on him, however, was made by the summer residences of the Fuggers. The French traveller was stunned by their lavishly-furnished interiors and extended gardens full of mechanical fountains and foreign plants and animals, including a pair of African ostriches. The Fuggers had acquired these animals for the Elector August
of Saxony (1526-1586), a well-known collector of natural rarities, Montaigne informed his readers.
