Marketing Maximilian

Larry Silver, one of the foremost scholars of our generation, offers fascinating insights into Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, one of early modern Europe's most complex and intriguing individuals. Almost all rulers dream of glory, yet few have matched either Maximilian's delusions of greatness or, as Silver shows, his successful manipulation of media. This brilliantly researched book is much needed. There is no comparable text in any language. -- Jeffrey Chipps Smith, University of Texas, Austin

Long before the photo op, political rulers were manipulating visual imagery to cultivate their authority. The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) was, this title argues, the first ruler to exploit the propaganda power of printed images and text. It explores how Maximilian used illustrations and other visual arts.Long before the photo op, political rulers were manipulating visual imagery to cultivate their authority and spread their ideology. Born just decades after Gutenberg, the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I (1459-1519) was, Larry Silver argues, the first ruler to exploit the propaganda power of printed images and text. Marketing Maximilian explores how Maximilian used illustrations and other visual arts to shape his image, achieve what Max Weber calls "the routinization of charisma," strengthen the power of the Hapsburg dynasty, and help establish the Austro-Hungarian Empire. A fascinating study of the self-fashioning of an early modern ruler who was as much image-maker as emperor, Marketing Maximilian shows why Maximilian remains one of the most remarkable, innovative, and self-aggrandizing royal art patrons in European history. Silver describes how Maximilian--lacking a real capital or court center, the ability to tax, and an easily manageable territory--undertook a vast and expensive visual-media campaign to forward his extravagant claims to imperial rank, noble blood, perfect virtues, and military success. To press these claims, Maximilian patronized and often personally supervised and collaborated with the best printers, craftsmen, and artists of his time (among them no less than Albrecht Durer) to plan and produce illustrated books, medals, heralds, armor, and an ambitious tomb monument.