Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/94

 82 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE rine Medeborg founded a library in connection with the Marienkirche in Dantzic, which ' was to be in- spected at least once a year by the overseers of the Church.' In Ulm as early as the year 1450 a library for public use had been started by a private family. This was probably the first of the kind in Germany. Next to the clergy, the burgher classes were the strongest pillars of learning and education. But the nobility also gave willing support to the intellectual revival ; and, indeed, many leading scholars of the day belonged to this class, such as Moritz von Spiegel- berg, Eudolph von Langen, and Johann von Dalberg. Out of the one Franconian noble family of Von Eyb seven or eight members had the ' Doctor's cap ' conferred on them at Padua or Pavia. In the re- cords of the University of Erfurt during the fifteenth century we find that twenty of its rectors belonged to the first nobility. Enthusiasm for the ' New Learning ' spread also to the women of Germany. In the Ehine Provinces and the South German towns especially the number of ardent female students was quite remarkable. Johann Butzbach, the author, in 1505, of a still unprinted history of literature, mentions, among other distinguished female contemporaries, Gertrude von Coblentz, lady superior of the Novices of the Augustinian convent of Vallendar, a young woman of great abilities, and conspicuous alike for her intellect and learning as for her piety and virtue. He also mentions Christine von der Leyen, a mem- ber of the Augustinian convent of Marienthal, and Barbara von Dalberg, niece of the Bishop of Worms, who belonged to the Benedictines of Marienberg, near Boppard, and was also active in the field of literature.