Bullinger: Correspondence

Heinrich Bullinger (ZB Zürich, Graphische Sammlung und Photoarchiv, Inv. 8).

Heinrich Bullinger is one of the most important reformers, whose influence reached far beyond Zurich. Born in 1504 in Bremgarten, he studied in Köln and was working in Kappel am Albis as a teacher at the Monastery school when he joined Ulrich Zwingli’s Reformation Movement. He wrote his first texts and began working as a Pastor and Preacher. After Zwingli’s death, Bullinger succeeded him as Antistes of the Zurich reformed church and held this office until his own death in 1575.

He worked together with important men such as Calvin and Myconius, wrote three historical and theological works in German and Latin (among other things he participated in the First Helvetic Confession), and significantly promoted the standing and stability of the new faith.

In addition, he maintained an active correspondence with people throughout all of Europe and left a corpus of more than 12,000 letters, which are edited online. 

This exercise provides insight into Heinrich Bullinger’s correspondence. Two letters are to be transcribed: the first is from the year 1529 in which Bullinger asks Zwingly for support for a neighbor. The second letter is from the following year and Zwingli recommends Bullinger’s care to the bearer of the letter.

Be careful! In this exercise the writing of «u» and «v» are not normalized, i.e. the customary orthography of today has not been adapted. Write the words as you see them and not as you would expect to see them in a printed text!