Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) took over the control of the Zurich church as a young man after the early death of Zwingli (1531) and made Zurich one of the centres of Protestant Europe.
He left behind an extensive correspondence, consisting of 10,000 letters addressed to him and 2,000 letters written by himself, which is one of the most extensive correspondence of the 16th century. It represents a very rich and varied collection of sources for the documentation of European history and culture in the 16th century. Few of the preserved correspondence covers such a long period (1524-1575) and such a wide geographical area (from Scotland to Belarus and from Denmark to Italy) for such a long time in such a dense and interesting way as Bullinger's correspondence does.
It documents in a unique way Zurich's increasing impact on the neighbouring cantons and cities, even beyond the borders of present-day Switzerland. It contains information of a political, ecclesiastical, sociological, economic, climatological, astronomical, biographical, mental and cultural-historical nature. It contains a great deal of, often unknown, information on prints of the time and their origin, which is particularly revealing in the case of publications published anonymously or under a pseudonym. It also enables studies on the development of Early Modern High German and Neo-Latin. By making previously inaccessible handwritten sources accessible, this edition makes a decisive contribution not least to the reorientation of contemporary historiography, which emphasises reconstructing the networks of an epoch.
So far, 2896 letters from the years 1524 to March 1547 have been published in 20 volumes (including an additional volume 10A). Up to volume 14, all letters have been provided with a German regest, and from volume 15 on with a detailed German summary. Volume 20 with the correspondence from April to December 1547 is currently being edited.
All volumes will gradually be made freely available to the public online in an electronic version. Combined searches are thus possible.