Theuerdank 1519

This book, *Theuerdank*, was produced in Augsburg around 1517, during the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. It’s an epic poem, an early form of propaganda, designed to promote the image of the Emperor through an allegorical romance. Maximilian commissioned the work but the authorship is credited to Melchior Pfintzing who was Provost of St. Alban's in Nuremberg. The book, of which this engraving is a page, tells the story of a knight’s perilous journey to win his bride, symbolizing Maximilian's own journey to marry Mary of Burgundy. The woodcuts provide a window into the cultural values of the time. The heroic narrative and elaborate designs reinforce the Emperor's authority and the established social order. Analyzing the text and images in *Theuerdank* can tell us a great deal about the relationship between art, power, and the construction of imperial identity in the early 16th century. Scholarly resources, such as historical archives and literary analyses, offer further insight into this fascinating historical moment.