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These two splendid individuals are Any Dumont and Catharina Margarethe, painted by Samuel Beck (1715-1778) in 1767. Amy Dumont, on the left, was a banker and iron wholesaler who evidently did well for himself financially. His ancestor Philippe Dumont was a founding member of Leipzig’s Reformed congregation in 1700, the family having settled in Leipzig as Huguenot refugees where they had been made welcome by the Germans who rather appreciated their skills. Catharina Margarethe, on the right, appears to be holding either a fan or an aggressively bound opera programme, either of which I could have done with in the city as it was far too hot. Her outfit is all muted finery and cautious lace, the clothing which must have been a nightmare to paint.

The paintings were donated to the museum in 2017 by members of the family who later became to be important figures in Leipzig in the nineteenth century, the couple’s daughters having married into the Melly and Thieriot families. The element that intrigued me the most here is just how welcome the Huguenot families were made, they were given special privileges because of their skills which were thought to bring an economic boost to the region. The same happened in Norwich, where large numbers came, with the city again offering a friendly welcome. I think it’s fair to say that migrants aren’t always treated with such reverence….

I’ve never really given much thought to this, but apparently this was once the way that books were transported about the place before thousands of Amazon Prime vans scuttled around the country. The printed sheets would be placed in barrels which would be filled with dry straw to prevent moisture getting in. Then, the lucky book buyer could get the book bound themselves in the style which they liked. The museum notes that the city was the main centre of German book trading in the eighteenth century, surpassing even Frankfurt. I can only imagine the competitive fury that must have ignited between the printers, each trying to out-barrel the other.

This Bible was printed in Leipzig in 1605 and there’s some impressive gold-working (or whatever the technical term is) undertaken here by the city’s goldsmiths. But, impressive as the Bible might be, the element that surprised and delighted me the most was knowing that generations of council members swore their solemn oath of office on this book, pledging to help everyone in the city regardless of whether they were rich or poor.

There is another Bible, published in 1597, that is near identical and was by Leipzig’s two most important goldsmiths, Hans Reinhart the Younger and Elias Geyer, and an early city chronicler, Johann Jacob Vogel (1660-1729), mentioned that they were made in quick succession, one for the judges and one for the council members. Both Bibles are hugely important as previously the council members had sworn on Catholic relics, meaning that it took them half a century for them to swear on a Lutheran Bible, making this something of a public declaration of Protestantism.

I love an old book and this is the Trostbüchlein, loosely translated as the Little Book of Comfort, that was published in Leipzig in 1571. There’s a relevance to religious books of this period to the city, as Leipzig was a centre of printing and it’s also where Martin Luther’s controversial views had been debated in 1519. The author is listed as Georg Walther, a Lutheran pastor from Halle, which suggests the content was likely a soothing blend of theological musings and gentle chastisement.  I was probably a little over-excited to visit St. Thomas Church in the city (but more on that in another post), which is where Martin Luther preached and I wonder whether the congregation realised just how large the Protestant and Catholic schism would become.