This extraordinary book of verses by Hans Sachs and engravings by Jost
Ammam offers a vivid portrait of city life in Renaissance Germany.
Covering 114 ranks (such as "king") and trades (including
"thimblemaker"), it provides a unique cross-section of the daily life
and social attitudes of the 16th century.
Through words and pictures, the reader can experience at first hand one
of the first instances of the small-town outlook that was to be an
essential part of European culture for centuries. Mixing popular
attitudes, such as the contempt for lawyers, Jews, and beggars, with
precise descriptions of occupations that range from clockmaking to
fishing, the book opens a direct window into the distant past.
Das Ständebuch was also a remarkable pioneering venture by one of the
leading publishers of the day, Sigmund Feyerabend. Its complex
publication history, as well as the implications of its contents, are
unraveled in the Introduction by Theodore K. Rabb, who in this book has
also produced the first complete translation into modern English of the
doggerel verse for which Sachs was famous.