Nicholas of Cusa: A Sketch for a Biography

Erich Meuthen: An Appreciation

xiii Erich Meuthen An Appreciation Morimichi Watanabe it would be very hard to find someone as qualified as Erich Meuthen to write a biography of Nicholas of cusa (1401–1464). The following retrospective of Meuthen’s remarkable career is offered in appreciation not only for his groundbreaking “sketch” of the fifteenth-century philosopher, theologian, lawyer, reformer, statesman, and cardinal, but in appreciation, in a much broader sense, for Meuthen’s outstanding service as scholar and historian. i was fortunate to have visited Meuthen in Germany on more than one occasion and observed his working methods, as well as the admiring circle of students and colleagues who gathered around him. on one of these visits in 1989 i asked him why there were two separate desks in his library. he told me that one desk was for preparing his university lectures and the other for his cusanus research—a system i subsequently introduced into my own library. here was a visible example of his enviable organization and diligence. Born in Mönchengladbach, near cologne, on May 31, 1929, Erich Meuthen studied history, German philology, and philosophy at the university of cologne. he was attracted to cusanus research under the influence of Josef Koch (1885–1967), known for his detailed studies of cusanus’s works and their context. Meuthen’s research took him to italian archives and libraries in the 1950s. xiv Erich Meuthen: An Appreciation Between 1966 and 1971 he served as Director of the city archives of aachen where, after completing his Habilitation in 1967, he was also active as lecturer at the Technologische Hochschule. Then, in 1971, he was called as Professor of history to the university of Bern in switzerland, and finally from 1976 to 1994 he held the position of Professor of Medieval and Modern history at his alma mater, the university of cologne. Meuthen is a corresponding member of the heidelberg academy of letters and sciences, a member of the historical commission of the Bavarian academy of letters and sciences as well as the Rhineland-Westphalian academy of letters and sciences. he has also been a member of the Board of advisors of the american cusanus society since its establishment in 1985. Meuthen retired on July 7, 1994. The Festschrift celebrating this occasion, entitled Studien zum 15. Jahrhundert. Festschrift für Erich Meuthen (2 volumes, Munich, 1994), lists eleven books and ninetyfour articles that he had published until that date. The very first book on the list, Die letzten Jahre des Nikolaus von Kues (cologne, 1958), was a product of his research in italy during the 1950s. Meuthen’s treatment of newly discovered sources, which is both detailed and enlightening, pertains to cusanus’s last years from 1458 to 1464 after he left the Tyrol and came to Rome at the invitation of Pope Pius ii. The volume in hand, Nikolaus von Kues 1401–1464. Skizze einer Biographie (Münster, 1964), is the next important book on the list, and has been so well received that it has gone through six more editions (1967, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1985, and 1992). in the preface to the third edition of the Skizze, Meuthen noted that revisions were required by the appearance of his Acta Cusana, a monumental work that included many new sources and was foreshadowed by the archival research behind his first book. in the foreword to volume i, xv Erich Meuthen: An Appreciation part l, published in hamburg in 1976, Meuthen explained that the Acta Cusana was to complement published collections of cusanus’s works, such as Opera omnia and Sermones, by compiling all existing documents, letters, contracts, and other records related to cusanus and his activities, together with numerous critical comments and annotations. The three parts of the Acta would cover his early years, from 1401 to 1452; his middle years, from april 1452 to april 1460; and his final years, from May 1460 to august 1464. altogether, thanks to Meuthen’s great industry, five volumes have appeared thus far, and constitute a remarkably comprehensive treatment of the man. i know of no other medieval philosopher or theologian whose life, ideas, writings, and activities are so minutely examined. of the many other books by Meuthen, one should mention the fundamental study of cusanus’s early career, Das Trierer Schisma von 1430 auf dem Basler Konzil (Münster, 1964), during which period—on the eve of the council of Basel (1431–1449)—cusanus established...