| Abstract | "The Zimmern Chronicle: Nobility, memory, and self-representation in sixteenth-century Germany brings the history of the Zimmern family to English readers for the first time. In it the author not only offers a new solution to the problem of the text's authorship, but examines the chronicle in the context of broader current debates, including the problem of the relationship of the early modern German nobility to the state; memory studies; and self-representation." "Bastress-Dukehart first relates the history of the chronicle and introduces the long-standing mystery surrounding the text's authorship. She then draws attention to the importance of inheritance and the obligation for ancestral memorialization that property devolution demands. Put simply, inherited land and ancestral memory together manifested the nobility's social image and demonstrated its political power. She then sets the stage for the history the chronicle tells, recounting a feud between the Zimmern family and the more powerful Werdenberg family and examining how in general feuds helped to shape the German nobility's political relationships and personal values."--Jacket.
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