Die andere Enzyklopädie – Johann Fischarts Geschichtklitterung

AbstractJohann Fischart’s parody of encyclopaedic literature was first published in his German translation of Rabelais’ „Gargantua“ as „Geschichtschrift“ (1575), in later editions as „Geschichtklitterung“ (1582, 1590). The German author provides an astonishing number of catalogues, among them an exuberant list of ‚lusoria‘ (names of games and entertainments), which is with more than six hundred entries significantly larger than Rabelais’ famous catalogue of two hundred seventeen games. Within their literary and epistemical contexts, these catalogues indicate the anti-encyclopaedic character of Fischart’s novel. In their poetical excesses, they show Fischart’s efforts to obscure and transgress the rules of knowledge and knowledge-organisation, thus exposing the other side of encyclopaedic order.