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Back at Maximilian I’s Court

Markus Grassl

Schubinger must have returned to Germany before June 1506 to re-enter Maximilian I’s service. The Nördlingen source refers to him as a musician of the “king,” which in the context of a Swabian imperial city likely meant the Roman king, i.e., Maximilian, and not the King of Castile. Furthermore, a letter from Lorenz Behaim to Willibald Pirckheimer from June 1506 explicitly mentions the “Roman king” as Schubinger’s employer (» H. Kap. Eine süddeutsche Humanistenkorrespondenz).

As often discussed, Maximilian’s itinerant lifestyle and governance, which still adhered to the medieval “traveling kingship” tradition, required similar mobility from his musicians. However, this did not mean that the court musicians were always in the monarch’s retinue. Instead, they often travelled to his various destinations ahead of or behind him, or they made longer or shorter stops at different locations separate from the main court camp, remaining “on call” to be summoned as needed. This high degree of mobility applied not only literally but also figuratively Only on exceptional occasions such as Imperial Diets did Maximilian gather all his musicians around him. The norm was that the emperor surrounded himself with parts of his court music, that is, with specific ensembles or groups of musicians or even just individual musicians, depending on the occasion, necessity, or desire.[65]

It can not only be assumed in principle that this flexible utilisation also affected Schubinger, but can be traced in concrete terms, at least in some cases, thanks to a comparatively denser source situation. Examples include the years 1507/1508 and 1512.

[65] Cf. Schwindt Schwindt 2018c, especially 53–56.