"Veritas evangelica per typographiam": Zur Genese der in Zürich gedruckten Berner Disputationsakten 1528

Abstract

The Bern Disputation of 1528 was both the response to the Baden Disputation of 1526 and its continuation. From a formal perspective, the Baden served as a model for the Bernese. However, with respect to the printing of the disputation acts, this model needed to be improved upon as the delayed and flawed Lucerne edition of the Baden acts had led to justified doubts about the reliability of its protocol. In Bern, the four parallel transcripts of their disputation written under the direction of city secretary Peter Cyro were first collated before being delivered to the printer Christoph Froschauer in Zurich by one of the notaries charged with supervising the production of the complete edition. As a result of close cooperation between the typesetter and two theologically educated proofreaders, and under the eyes of Zwingli, a quarto edition appeared on March 23, 1528, almost two months after the Bern disputation and in time for the Frankfurt Book Fair. It was followed exactly one month later by an octavo edition.