Maximilian Willibald of Waldburg-Wolfegg (1604–1667) was the head of the house of Waldburg-Wolfegg, military commander and the governor of

Upper Palatinate The Upper Palatinate (german: Oberpfalz, , ) is one of the seven administrative districts of Bavaria, Germany, and is located in the east of Bavaria. Geography The Upper Palatinate is a landscape with low mountains and numerous ponds and lakes ...

for the

Electorate of Bavaria The Electorate of Bavaria (german: Kurfürstentum Bayern) was an independent hereditary electorate of the Holy Roman Empire from 1623 to 1806, when it was succeeded by the Kingdom of Bavaria. The Wittelsbach dynasty which ruled the Duchy of Ba ...

. Today however he is mostly remembered as an art collector and for having founded the Wolfegger Kabinett. At the end of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

Swedish troops under general Wrangel laid fire to Maximilian Willibald's home

Schloss Wolfegg Schloss Wolfegg is a Renaissance castle next to the town of Wolfegg in Upper Swabia (Germany). The castle is the ancestral seat of the family of Waldburg-Wolfegg, which still owns it today. Building The main building of the castle consists of f ...

in 1646. As he lacked the funds for an immediate repair, he moved to

Amberg Amberg () is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. In 2020, over 42,000 people lived in the town. History The town was first mentioned in 1034, at that time under t ...

, where he accepted the job as a governor of Upper Palatinate. In 1648 Maximilian Willibald married for the second time. His new wife was the Belgian Countess Clara Isabella of

Arenberg Arenberg, also spelled as Aremberg or Ahremberg, is a former county, principality and finally duchy that was located in what is now Germany. The Dukes of Arenberg remain a prominent Belgian noble family. History First mentioned in the 12th ...

, who possessed a keen interest in art. Their wedding celebrations saw the performance of ''armamentarium comicum amoris et honoris'' by

Bartholomäus Aich Bartholomäus Aich was a South-German organist and composer in the 17th century. Little is known about his life: originally from the village of Uttenweiler near Biberach an der Riß in Upper Swabia, he was the organist of the convent of canonesses ...

, which is considered to be one of the oldest German operatic compositions. Maximilian Willibald himself was well educated in the liberal arts and spoke aside from his native German French, Italian and Latin as well. A chronicle of the house of Waldburg-Wolfegg from 1785 describes him as a "great lover of the secret and natural sciences like

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

and

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

" who has a keen interest in "all witty writings, poems and similar things in all known languages". Waldburg Portrait Isabella Clara von Arenberg

From 1650 onwards Maximilian Willibald began to collect art systematically with a particular interest for graphics. He assembled a rather large collection over the years, in 1654 alone he acquired around 34,000 graphics from the inheritance of the

Fugger The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and vent ...

family. At the time of his death his collection comprised over 120,000 graphics among them such famous pieces as the

Kleiner Klebeband The Kleiner Klebeband ("''little glued binder''") is a collection of over 120 drawings from the 15th and 16th century, which were combined into a leathern binder in the 19th century. It considered as one of the most important reference collection ...

and the Mittelalterliches Hausbuch. In his will Maximilian Willibald ordained that his art collection was to kept as one and not to split over several heirs, therefore it remained virtually unchanged for the next 300 years. Also in his will he founded the

Loreto Chapel Loreto is Italian for laurel-wood. A town in Italy named Loreto holds an important Christian shrine, which lead to the spread of the name to many other countries. It may refer to: Places Argentina *Loreto, Santiago del Estero, Argentina * Loreto ...

in Wolfegg.

Notes

Lisa Zeitz
''Großer Kleiner Klebeband''
. Arsprototo, Ausgabe 4/2011 (German) Andrea Reidt, Werner Sonntag: ''Allgäu''. Marco Polo Reiseführer (Dumont) 2005, , S. 38 (German, ) "Armamentarium comicum amoris et honoris"
- content description of a seminar at University of Augsburg by Johannes Hoyer, Florian Mehltretter and Franz Raml (German, spring/summer 2005) {{Authority control 17th-century German people Military personnel of the Holy Roman Empire 1604 births 1667 deaths