Weisskunig

The White King Learning to Conduct a Kitchen, woodcut by Hans Burgkmair

Der Weisskunig or The White King is a chivalric novel[1] and thinly disguised biography of the Holy Roman Emperor, Maximilian I, (1486–1519) written in German by Maximilian and his secretary between 1505 and 1516. Although not explicitly identified as such in the book, Maximilian appears as the "young" White King, with his father Frederick III represented as the "old" White King.

The book is now mainly remembered for the 251 woodcut illustrations, made in Augsburg between 1514 and 1516, the principal artists for which were Hans Burgkmair and Leonhard Beck.[2] The work was never completed, and the full published edition did not appear until 1775.

  1. ^ Koenigsberger, H. G. (22 November 2001). Monarchies, States Generals and Parliaments: The Netherlands in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries. Cambridge University Press. pp. 52–53. ISBN 978-0-521-80330-4.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).