Note on Conventions
The language of many of the sources used in this book is early modern New High German, as employed in Augsburg and the region in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. In transcribing early modern German text or publication titles, I have silently changed the initial v common in both print and manuscript texts to u and i to j where deemed helpful to comprehension. Diacritical marks, of which there were a greater variety than today, have been silently converted; one exception is for the ů common in the region in the period. Otherwise, the orthography of the original has been maintained.
Titles of early modern texts have been shortened silently. VD16 and VD17 numbers have been provided where available; where there were none, the shelf mark of the copy consulted has been provided. Given the availability of many of these texts in electronic form, this approach seemed most useful to scholars.
Unless otherwise noted, all translations are my own. In my translations of texts, I have sometimes rendered impersonal nouns, pronouns, and possessives as feminine, sometimes as masculine.
Dates listed are according to the Julian Calendar (“old style”/stilo veteris) until 1583. From 1583, unless otherwise noted, dates are listed according to the Gregorian Calendar (“new style”/stilo novo).