Aegidius Tschudi

Aegidius Tschudi (Glarus, 5 February 1505Glarus, 28 February 1572) was a Swiss historian, statesman and soldier, an eminent member of the Tschudi family of Glarus, Switzerland. His best-known work is the Chronicon Helveticum, a history of the early Swiss Confederation.

Biography

Tschudi was born in Glarus on 5 February 1505 to Ludwig Tschudi the Elder, a Swiss mercenary in French service and veteran of the Swabian War, and Margaretha Kilchmatter. He studied at the Latin school of Glarus, where he had the future Protestant reformer Huldrych Zwingli, then the parish priest of Glarus, as his professor.

Originally inclined to moderation, Tschudi became later in life more and more devoted to the cause of the Counter-Reformation.

Criticism Down to the latter part of the 19th century Swiss historical writers had largely based their works on his investigations and manuscripts. The historical reputation of Tschudi has suffered after later research. His statements and documents relating to Roman times and the early history of Glarus and his own family had long roused suspicion. Detailed examination has proved that he not merely claimed to have copied Roman inscriptions that had never existed, and amended others in an arbitrary fashion, but that he deliberately forged documents to push back the origin of his family to the 10th century. He thus also entirely misrepresented the early history of Glarus, which is that of a democratic community, and not (as he pretended) that of a preserve of several aristocratic families. Tschudi's historical credit is thus low, and no document printed or historical statement made by him can be accepted without careful verification and examination.

For a summary of these discoveries see Georg von Wyss in the Jahrbuch of the Historical Society of Glarus (1895), vol. xxx., in No. i (1894), of the Anzeiger f. schweizerische Geschichte, and in his Geschichte d. Historiographie in d. Schweiz (1895), pp. 196, 201, 202. The original articles by Vogelin (Roman inscriptions) appeared in vols xi., xiv. and xv. (1886–1890) of the Jahrbuch f. schweizer Geschichte, and that by Schulte (Glarus) in vol. xviii. (1893) of the same periodical. For the defence, see a weak pamphlet, Schulte u. Tschudi (Coire, 1898), by P. C. von Planta.