'Key Documentation of the Early Activity of Martin Luther

This personal copy of Luther is called the “Wolfenbüttel Psalter” because of the location at which it is preserved.

Luther had a text of Psalms published which he himself had enhanced. The left page shows notes from a later owner of the copy (Eilhard Segebade).

Further entries by hand and pictures of Luther were later added to the volume.

The psalter illustrates Luther’s workstyle, which was oriented closely to the biblical text. In his careful handwriting, he wrote countless comments on the margins and between the lines.

The "Scholienheft" was a kind of notebook, crammed with notes in Luther’s hand, which contains further exegetical observations on the Psalms. Today it is found in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek – Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden.

Luther recorded in this “Scholienheft” longer thoughts on the interpretation of the Psalms, for which there was not sufficient room in the printed Psalter.

Originally, Luther had only single sheets stacked together. Binding them together came later.

Part of the sheets were lost in the course of the centuries. The comments on the last twenty-five psalms are missing.

Also for this exegetical lecture course, Luther had the text printed, so that space for extensive comments was present, as these notes from the hand of his student Sigismund Reichenbach demonstrate.

These notes document how Luther was beginning to develop his influence as an academic teacher. Universities and their students served as important disseminators of the Reformation.

The initial pages of the biblical books are decorated with calligraphic embellishments.

Luther also entered marginal notes explaining individual passages in the text.

The copy of Luther’s treatise that was accepted into the “Memory of the World Programme” comes from the printing shop of Johannes Grunenberg in Wittenberg. Luther’s manuscript has not been preserved so that normally this printed edition is cited.

Within two years more than twenty-five editions of this work appeared in print, in Wittenberg, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Augsburg, Basel, and Breslau. This alone is an indication of the unexpected breadth of the impact of Luther’s reformational ideas.

The Sermon on Indulgences and Grace stands at the beginning of Luther’s successful activity as an author.

The treatise covered only six pages, for the printing of which only a half of one sheet of paper was needed. It could be produced quickly and sold inexpensively.

Luther’s treatise on Christian freedom experienced a tremendous success in print. Just in the six weeks after printing at least ten further editions in German and Latin appeared. Translations in other European vernaculars followed. No other single writing of the Reformer is read as much as this one to the present day. In it Luther gathered, as he himself said, “the entire summary of a Christian life.”

The letter did not reach the Emperor. On the envelope Georg Spalatin, court chaplain and a trusted advisor of Elector Frederick the Wise, noted that no one in Charles’ entourage wanted to accept the letter. It was, however, translated into German, reformulated as an address to the Estates of the Empire, and immediately distributed in print. With this action – perhaps so intended by Luther – a depiction of what he had experienced in Worms from his own pen won recognition.

The original of the letter made its way through various private collections until in 1911 it reached the auction block. It was sold to the American magnate J. Pierpont Morgan for the record sum of 102,000 Gold Marks. He gave it as a gift to Emperor Wilhelm II, who in turn gave it to the Lutherhaus, called at that time Lutherhalle. Today it is in the possession of the Stiftung Luthergedenkstätten in Sachsen-Anhalt.

The volume was printed, and enhanced by twenty-one full-page woodcuts by Lucas Cranach. It was available at the Leipzig autumn fair in an edition of 3,000 copies. Therefore, it is called the “September Testament.” Within two months, it was necessary to print a new edition. We see here an illustration for Revelation 13 and 14.

The beginning of each book was adorned with a particularly elaborate initial letter. In the first letter, a “D”, the Evangelist Matthew is depicted with is symbol, an angel, who is dictating the Word of God into his pen.

The Revelation of John, chapter 17, begins with the illustration pictured here. In this chapter, the appearance of the whore of Babylon on a seven-headed animal at the end of time is predicted. Luther identified the whore of Babylon with the papacy, as it had fallen into ruin over the centuries. Therefore, she is wearing the papal tiara in Cranach’s illustration.

It was Luther’s concern that instruction should convey the necessary tools for understanding the Holy Scripture. Therefore, he repudiated streams of thought opposed to general education, both those who wanted to retain schooling only for the spiritual elite, or those who generally deprecated education. The goal of instruction should also be the education of learned people with a consciousness of their public responsibilities, for leadership in the state and society. With this appeal to those responsible for political leadership, Luther laid a foundation for a new order in the system of education.

That the Stadtbibliothek Worms is today in possession of a copy of this widely distributed publication is due to a context which is typical for the acquisition and preservation of the heritage of the Reformation. In the course of the destruction of Worms during the War of Palatinate Succession in 1689, the entire holdings of the city library were lost. In the 19th century, a financially well-off magnate collected some five hundred printings of works by Luther. With his donation he laid the foundations for the current collection of the library, in which is found a copy of Luther’ treatise.

Luther’s “German Mass” served not only to unify reformational liturgical practice, but also made it clear that reading, singing, sermon and prayer should not be limited to ritual action but should serve the active, understandable participation of individuals on what happens in worship. To this day, Lutheran spirituality is shaped by the German Mass.

The first complete Luther Bible in German was adorned with lavish woodcuts for title pages and initial letters. The edition was supplied with a copyright privilege from Elector Johann Friedrich I of Saxony on the title page. His coat of arms was depicted on banners held by little angels in armour. The Weimar copy is graced with rich coloration and golden and engraved decorations on the edge of the pages.

Table of contents of the books of the Old Testament.

Initial letters at the beginning of the story of Creation in Genesis 1.

Full-page illustration of the story of creation. In many woodcuts the several phases of a biblical story are depicted. The illustrations thus take on a narrative character.

Illustration of the Flood (Genesis 7)

Depiction of God’s covenant with Noah and Noah’s drunkenness (Genesis 9)

Depiction of the Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha: Lot is saved, Lot’s wife is turned into a pillar of salt (Genesis 19).

Abraham’s temptation: Abraham leads Isaac to a mountain in order to sacrifice him. An angel prevents the sacrifice (Genesis 22).

Repeatedly, revised editions of the translation of the Bible were published. The final that appeared before Luther’s death was the Bible of 1545. Its text was used, almost with change, into the twentieth century. Only then did newer revisions of the translation appear.
The Bible was and is a bestseller. Up to Luther’s death in 1546 the total production of his translation of the Bible may have reached a million copies in High German and Low German. It became a model for translations of the Bible in other European languages.