Magdalena and Balthasar

Magdalena and Balthasar is Steve Ozment's exploration through a married couples' corresponding letters that exemplify intense mutual love and happiness between the couple. Steven Ozment unearthed these letters between Magdalena and Balthasar who were married in the 16th century in Nuremburg, Germany. It really is a great hybrid of primary sources and secondary sources that reveal happy truths about the Early Modern German family unit. Steven Ozment opposes the aforementioned historian, Lawrence Stone in his argument that the Early Modern Period was a time of familial happiness that exemplifies a moderate level of historical continuity in the household. 

Magdalena spent 6 months per year alone in Nuremburg while her husband, Balthasar, was away on business. While he was away she was responsible for his business affairs. Their letters express their loving affection for one another. 

Quote #1 Balthasar to Magdalena: 15 December 1582

The following quote is the conclusion from one of Balthasar's letters to his beloved. 

"I thank you most sincerely for the little flower you have sent me from out garden. I am carefully preserving it for your sake. May I kindly ask you to give my sincere greetings and best wishes to your brother Paul, your sister, and to Katherina Imhoff and Magdalena Held. As for you, dearest Magdale, many hundred thousand friendly and sincere greetings! I commend you in trust to the grace of the loving God" (Ozment 32). 

Your true, loving bridegroom, 

Balthasar Paumgartner the Younger. 

This excerpt clearly illustrates a generous level of marital intimacy and familial integrity. Balthasar not only adored his wife, but her family as well. 

Quote #2 Magdalena to Balthasar

This quote very much exemplifies continuity of gendered emotions revealed by Magdalena's concern. 

"It is now three weeks since I last heard from you and there may ne no letter again this Saturday, which will leave me quite dejected. I cannot help thinking of the old proverb: 'Out of sight, out of mind.' Your brother tells me that you are preoccupied with the great many business letters, for which I think I am being made to suffer. Your not writing has made me wonder whether you are well, but Jorg gives me to understand that you are doing a great deal of writing. I pointedly reminded him that in the end I have simply to believe that there is no other reason for your not writing me than that you have so much to do" (Ozment 79).

This excerpt from one of Magdalena's letters reveals her immense concern for her husband after she had not heard from him for a number of weeks. This level of apprehension justifies historical continuity considering stereotypical depictions of worried, emotional wives and mothers today. She even has to remind her husband and herself when she writes, "I have simply to believe that there is no other reason for your not writing me than that you have so much to do. " Her concern is purely out of love, which Balthasar reciprocates in his letters. 

Steven Ozment makes very competitive arguments in this compilation of primary and secondary sources from Early Modern Germany.