Talk:Old Swiss Confederacy

Article replaced

The featured article that formerly was here has been moved to Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy; together with its talk page. Template:History of Switzerland has been updated to reflect this reorganisation. Lupo 20:31, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

Confederacy?

Isn't it more correct to translate Eidgenossenschaft and Confœderatio as "Confederation" rather than "Confederacy"? The modern nation of Switzerland goes by the same name as the old one described here, and it's called the "Swiss Confederation." -- ℜob ℂ. alias ⒶⓁⒶⓇⓄⒷ 22:59, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

Contemporary name

So it stands to reason that when the Swiss first came together as a state they didn't call themselves "old." Browsing through the Federal Charter and the Golden Bull of 1356, I can't find any reference to "Swiss Confederacy" much less "Old Swiss Confederacy." The treaty of Osnabrück uses the term "Eidgenossenschaft" but "Schweiz" seems to be the more common name there. And besides, that's less than two centuries away from the Confederacy's collapse. Anybody know what the Old Swiss Confederacy was called at the time? And is "Old Swiss Confederacy" one of those names like "Byzantine Empire" that was made up by historians to differentiate from other entities with similar names?--Lairor (talk) 07:29, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

The Federal Charter of 1291, itself a document of unclear origins, was written in Latin and did not name the entity founded: it was just a pactum, continuing earlier confederationis, and its members were the coniurati (the swearers, or "Eidgenossen"). The term "Swiss" in the modern meaning did not appear at all, which is hardly surprising, as whoever wrote it had no concept of "swissness" or "Switzerland" (or even of what is called here the "Old Swiss Confederacy" became in the late 14th and 15th century) yet; only the vallis de Switz ("valley of Schwyz") is mentioned as one of the parties to the pact.

The term "Eidgenossenschaft" is documented for the first time in the territorial sense in the Pfaffenbrief in 1370 as Eydgnoschaft. "Eidgenossen" is known from a treaty of 1351 (see Eidgenossenschaft). The Golden Bull of 1356 (written in Latin again) did not, as far as I am aware, name the Swiss in any way except subsumed under the more general conjurationes, confederationes, and conspirationes outlawed in section 15. On the term "schwyz" or "schwyzer", see here: the term came into widespread, non-derogatory use to mean "Swiss" not before the 16th century.

The Treaty of Osnabrück was also written in Latin and is known as the Instrumentum Pacis Osnabrugensis (IPO). Its article VI is about the Swiss, but of course uses the Latin terms "civitatis Basilensis et universae Helvetiae" (city of Basel and all of Helvetia) and later "Helvetiorum unitos Cantones" (Cantons allied to Helvetia). It's anyone's guess how to translate "Helvetia" into German or English.

A German translation from 1649 uses the terms "Schweitz" and later "Schweitzerische Eydgenossen";[1] a German translation from 1720 uses just "Eydgenossenschaft".[2] BTW, an English translation from 1732 uses once "Swizerland" and otherwise "Swiss Cantons".[3] An English translation of the Treaty of Münster (the second part of the Peace of Westphalia) uses in §61 the terms "Switzerland" and "Swiss Country".[4] Lupo 23:07, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

It appears clear that the Swiss themselves used the term "Eidgenossenschaft" from the end of the 14th century on, but I don't know whether they ever called themselves "Schweizer Eidgenossenschaft". The German term for "Old Swiss Confederacy" is just "Alte Eidgenossenschaft". It is also clear that the "old" or "alte" was added later to distinguish it from the modern federal state, which is also known as "Eidgenossenschaft" (officially: "Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft") in German.

Anyway, using just "Old Confederacy" appears too unspecific as there were other confederacies; see Medieval commune#Rural communes. In any case, it seems that the name "Old Swiss Confederacy" or "Old Swiss Confederation" is a common name in English for the federation described in the article (it can hardly be called a "state" or even a "nation"). See e.g. [5] and [6].

Lupo 21:37, 28 May 2009 (UTC)

Imperial vally

the imperial vally links at the bottom go to a vally in calafornia and i dont think that is right so may need to be removed (i mean the link) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.27.168.64 (talk) 01:14, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Indeed. Thanks for pointing it out; it's fixed now. Lupo 06:59, 6 July 2009 (UTC)

Potential request to move the article name to Ancient Swiss Confederacy

The official wording by the Swiss Federal Administration is Ancient Swiss Confederacy, not Old Swiss Confederacy. Where does this English term (Old Swiss Confederacy) come from, besides Wikipedia? Are there sources for this wording? -- ZH8000 (talk) 15:42, 14 October 2016 (UTC)

I'm not seeing "ancient" anywhere in the link you provided. In the pdf's attached to that link it refers to the "Old Confederacy" several times Late Middle Ages and Beyond. A quick Google books search finds 41 results for "Ancient Swiss Confederacy" in most of which it is written as "ancient Swiss Confederacy", not as a complete title. While "Old Swiss Confederacy" has 594 results almost all of which have Old capitalized as part of the title.Tobyc75 (talk) 13:06, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

I would guess that an English use of ancient occurring in this context might stem from a mistranslation of the French ancienne, which, when it precedes a noun, tends to translate as former. One example: fr:Pays_alliés_de_l'ancienne_Confédération_suisse. Eric ^talk 13:14, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

I thought the same thing, Eric.

ZH8000, for future reference: please familiarize yourself with WP:UCN. When proposing name changes, you need to research and present an actual argument based on relevant English-language sources.

Fwiiw, "Old Swiss Confederacy" as such gets only limited use in English, because nearly always "Swiss Confederacy/Confederation" or even just "the Confederacy", sometimes "the Old Confederacy" is used. E.g. this monograph uses (capitalized) "the Old Confederacy", which makes perfect sense, given that the context is the history of Switzerland, there is no need to repeat the specifier "Swiss" all the time. As the title of this article "Old Swiss Confederacy" is fine. --dab (𒁳) 20:26, 30 July 2017 (UTC)

"rmv icons"

[7] -- thanks, I guess? It takes a lot of effort to get these right. --dab (𒁳) 07:31, 23 July 2017 (UTC)

"coat of arms"

File:Early coat of arms of Switzerland.svg --- this is of some interest to the Coat of arms of Switzerland article, if it can be referenced. So far, this is just copied from http://markodehaeck.free.fr/CH.htm where the claim is made that it is

"First known depiction of both Swiss flag and coat of arms from 1748 in the Swiss Chronicle of Johann STUMPF."

(the ... seriousness of this "source" may be gauged by the fact that it uses "slavery unit" for "currency", "idiot monkeys" for "population" and "puke sects" for "religion").

I have been unable to locate a 1748 edition of Stumpf's chronicle. A "confederate coa" is certainly not found in Stumpf's original publication, where the cantonal coas are shown with the imperial one, as was standard throughout the life time of the Swiss Confederacy. https://www.e-rara.ch/zuz/content/pageview/5835609

If the origin of this design can be identified, I would be interested in including it in the Coat of arms of Switzerland, but I am afraid so far I have nothing to work with. --dab (𒁳) 11:25, 10 August 2019 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed

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German name

@Sapphorain: nowhere in your source is it stated that the Swiss Confederation was known in German as the Corpus helveticum. The translation helvetisches Corpus does appear in certain documents, apparently, but the usual name was Eidgenoss(en)schaft.

In dt. Akten entsprachen zwar Benennungen wie eidg. Corpus, helvet. Corpus oder Corpus schlechthin der franz. Ausdrucksweise, doch wurde Corps helvétique im Deutschen gewöhnlich mit Eidgnoßschaft oder Eidgnoss. Stand wiedergegeben.

In German documents, terms like eidgenössisches Corpus, helvetisches Corpus, or just Corpus did indeed correspond to the French idiom, but Corps helvétique was generally rendered Eidgnoßschaft or eidgenössischer Stand in German.

Compare the article on the German Wikipedia, which is titled Alte Eidgenossenschaft. Zacwill (talk) 14:01, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

But it is not « my » source, it is the existing source before your attempt to suppress it. And yes, it does precisely say that the Swiss Confederation was known in German as the Corpus helveticum.

In German (not in French nor in Italien), the article’s title is « Corpus helveticum » and begins thus:

"C. ist die seit dem 17. Jh. gebräuchl. Bezeichnung für die Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft …"

In French (not in German nor in Italien), the article’s title is « Corps helvétique » and begins thus:

"Désignation de la Confédération suisse, soit de l'ensemble formé par les treize cantons et leurs alliés, communément utilisée dès le XVIIe s…"

In Italian (not in German nor in French), the article’s title is « Corpo elvetico » and begins thus:

"Il termine Corpo elvetico - al pari di Confederazione, Svizzera, Confoederatio helvetica, Magna Liga, Ligues e Helvetia - designò dal XVII sec. la Confederazione Svizzera…"

They are three versions in three languages of the same article, which more or less say the same thing, which is that the respective denominations « Corpus helveticum » in the German part, «  Corps helvétique » in the French part, « Corpo elvetico » in the Italian part, are officially used since the 17th century to designate the (old) Swiss Confederacy. The sentence you cite just states that « Corps helvétique » (the French dénomination, and not « Corpus helveticum ») was commonly rendered (and not officially) in German as Eidgnoßschaft.--Sapphorain (talk) 16:39, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

It is the source you added to the article back in 2021, so yes, it is your source. It says that Corpus helveticum was used for the confederation from the 17th century onwards, but not that it was used by German-speakers. Why would they use a phrase in a foreign language to designate their own country? Zacwill (talk) 23:29, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

And if it really was the official German name for the conferation, it should be very easy for you to find primary sources which use it. Do you have any? Zacwill (talk) 23:30, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Once again, "Corpus helveticum" is the title of the sole German article. Why would they use a phrase in a foreign language to designate their own country? Well, I don't know. In the French article the title is "Corps helvétique", and it is this denomination, and not "Corpus helveticum" that the French article says was used for the confederation from the 17th century onwards.

And no, I don't have a primary source. Anyway, if I had one using a different denomination, I still would need a secondary source confirming my primary source is indeed an official document. So I am content with the secondary source of the HDS. --Sapphorain (talk) 23:58, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

The reason you don't have a primary source is that no primary source exists. The Swiss Confederation was never known as the Corpus helveticum in German. The HDS article is discussing the Latin name for the country and its translations in the Romance languages. Zacwill (talk) 00:05, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

This is leading nowhere. Why would the articles in French and Italian be titled differently, then? --Sapphorain (talk) 08:11, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

Because French and Italian have equivalents of the Latin term, while German doesn't. Zacwill (talk) 12:41, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

That’s right, the German part used the Latin term, whence the title of the German article in the HDS uses the Latin term as well. If the German part did have another official German term, it would have been the title of the German article as well. --Sapphorain (talk) 16:02, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

"The German part [of Switzerland] used the Latin term." Once again, you have adduced zero evidence of this. Zacwill (talk) 16:22, 21 November 2023 (UTC)

That's right. But the HDS does, in the first sentence of the article in German.--Sapphorain (talk) 19:29, 21 November 2023 (UTC)