Paper memory

Meer over het boek

Paper Memory narrates the journey of one man's quest to preserve the essence of everyday life in sixteenth-century Germany. Matthew Lundin immerses us in the thoughts of Hermann Weinsberg, an unremarkable German burgher whose personal writings offer a window into the significant transformations of early modernity, including the Reformation crisis, the emergence of an urban middle class, and the print revolution's information surge. This sensitive portrayal reveals Weinsberg's struggle to comprehend the upheaval reshaping his world. His decision to document his life is remarkable, given that he was merely a Catholic lawyer from Cologne, lacking any notable status. Aware that his contemporaries might view his efforts as vain, he meticulously recorded the minutiae of his existence—favorite meals, sleeping habits, neighborhood gossip, and intimate reflections on his hopes and fears. Over fifty years later, Weinsberg entrusted his Gedenkbuch, or Memory Book, to his descendants, urging them to safeguard it, for without his detailed chronicle, “it would be as if we had never been.” In his desire to secure his past from erasure, Weinsberg aimed to etch his life into history. Paper Memory brings this ordinary man’s extraordinary narrative back into focus through Lundin’s insightful and eloquent writing.