NUMMI DOCENT !

Mnzen - Schtze - Funde

Festschrift fr Peter Ilisch
zum 65. Geburtstag
am 28. April 2012
Herausgegeben
im Auftrag des Vereins der Mnzfreunde
fr Westfalen und Nachbargebiete e.V.
von
Gerd Dethlefs / Arent Pol / Stefan Wittenbrink

Numismatischer Verlag der Mnzhandlung Fritz Rudolf Knker

Osnabrck 2012
3

Crossing borders. The mintmaster Johan van Tiel

by Jos Benders

An important sociological insight is that structures may both constrain and enable
people to act. In my opinion, actors are thus well advised to minimize the constraints
and to use the opportunities to the maximum. Peter Ilisch academic life contains
good examples of what this attitude may bring. The structure the contemporary
German-Dutch border turns to be an important constraint for numismatic research, certainly for the medieval period. Many researchers do not look beyond their
national borders for publications and data. Peter Ilisch, however, is a notable exception, not only as researcher but also as initiator of the Ostniederlndisch-Nordwestdeutsches Kolloquium zur mittelalterlichen Numismatik. Against this background, I
sketch the career of Johan van Tiel.
Johan van Tiel is not listed in the overview of Dutch mintmasters,1 presumably because its composer did not consult sources in German. In addition, Ilisch does not
mention him in his overview of 15th century German mintmasters.2 Van Tiel seems
to have been quite active as mintmaster, however.
To my knowledge, the first time Johan van Tiel is mentioned in this capacity is in
1420. On July 10 of that year, the city of Cologne wrote a letter about his absence.
Presumably, he was in France (Abwesenheit des Mnzmeisters Joh. V. Thiell in
Frankreich).3 It is not clear which office he held, and after the disastrous collapse
of the Cologne archive, it may never become clear. Given that Van Tiel became
Brger of Cologne on January 7, 1422,4 he probably worked for archbishop Dietrich of Mrs (reign 14141463).
Four years later, he worked for the archbishops brother, count Friedrich IV of Mrs
(r. 14171448) in Valkenburg. On December 8, 1424, the count commissioned Van
Tiel to strike guilders modelled after those of the bishop of Utrecht. A little later,
1 Henk J. van der Wiel / Hendrik Enno van Gelder / Jan J. Grolle / P. M. van der Velden: De Noorden Zuid-Nederlandse muntmeesters, in: Encyclopedie van munten en bankbiljetten, Houten 1986 and
later, pp. 187.
2 Peter Ilisch: Mnzmeister in Deutschland 14001500, in: Peter Spufford / Nicholas Mayhew (eds.):
Later Medieval Mints: Organisation, Administration and Technique. 8th Oxford Symposium on Coinage and Monetary History 1985 (BAR International Series 389), Oxford 1988, pp. 159201.
3 Hermann Keussen: Die stadtklnischen Kopienbcher. Regesten V. 14181424, in: Mitteilungen aus
dem Stadtarchiv von Kln 10 (1886) pp. 1575, at p. 37.
4 Hugo Stehkmper: Klner Neubrger 13561798, in: Mitteilungen aus dem Stadtarchiv von Kln
61 (1975) at p. 69.

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on February 28, 1425, another commission followed; this time a guilder struck in
Arnhem by the late Duke Reinald IV (r. 14021423) was to be taken as example. The
first commission was granted for one year, but it is uncertain how long he remained
active for Mrs.5 Apparently, Van Tiel was available in 1427: one September 20 of
that year, archbishop Konrad of Mainz (r. 14191434) acknowledged that Foyss von
Winterbach was to send him a mintmaster called Johann von Tiele who was to be in his
service for six years.6 A commission is not known. Van Tiel stayed in region, however: in September 1431 he was imprisoned in Koblenz, on the accusation of rape. He
was probably released in December 1431, at which time he was called mintmaster.
It is not sure whether or not he was in office at that time, and if so, where.7
Given that Van Tiel held several positions in the Lower Rhine region, and that his
family name was common in Aachen, I initially assumed that he came from this region. However, a letter of Stefan of Wittelsbach, count of Pfalz-Simmern (r. 1410
1459), shows otherwise. On June 11, 1433, he asked duke Adolf of Jlich-Berg (r.
14081437) to give free passage for Johan van Tiel Bernharts sone burtig // u dem Lande
und hertzogtum von gelre (born in the country and duchy of Gelre). Van Tiel had been
in the counts service and gave him advice on many topics including his current coinage [in etlichen unseren sachen sonderlich // zu unser mntz die wir dn slahen].8 His father
Bernhard may have been living in Tiel, but Nijmegen is another possibility. This
suggestion is informed by the fact that one Heinrich von Tiel, who was mintmaster
in Bingen the period 14201434, was apparently Brger of and had possessions
in the city of Nijmegen. Given that Heinrich worked in the same period and region
as Johan, it seems likely that they were related. Another indication is that Johans
sister Lisa was, via her marriage, related to the Von Winterbach family with whom
Heinrich had done business.9
In sum, Johan van Tiel held several appointments as mintmaster in the period 1420
1431. The sources do not always allow to tell where he worked. With certainty, he
was active for the count of Mrs in 14241425. It is very likely that he worked for
the archbishop of Mainz as of 1427. He may also have served the archbishops of
Cologne and Trier, and he was advisor to Stefan of Wittelsbach as count of PfalzSimmern (r. 14101459). Van Tiel came from the Duchy of Gelre, probably from
Nijmegen, but his last name indicates that his family originates from the city of
5 Hermann Keussen: Urkundenbuch der Stadt Krefeld und der alten Grafschaft Mrs, Bd. 1 (799
1430), Krefeld 1938, p. 325 and p. 327.
6 Stephan Alexander Wrdtwein: Diplomataria Maguntina pagos Rheni, Mogani, Navaeque Wetteraviae, Hassiae, Thuringiae, Eichsfeldiae, Saxoniae etc., Mainz 17881789, Tomus 2, pp. 288290; Albert
Schlegel: Die kurmainzische Mnzsttte Hchst 1377 bis 1461/63, Frankfurt am Main 1991, p. 135.
7 Adolf Ulrich / Leonard Korth: Die stadtklnischen Kopienbcher VII. 14311434, in: Mitteilungen
aus dem Stadtarchiv von Kln 15 (1888) pp. 5588, at p. 62 and p. 64.
8 Dsseldorf, Landesarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen, Jlich-Berg, Findbuch (102.08.01), Inventar 650.
9 Walter Zlch: Frankfurter Knstler 12331700, Frankfurt am Main 1935, pp. 8081 and p. 97.

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Tiel. He was Brger of Cologne and later Frankfurt, and related to the prominent
Frankfurt family Becker.
Van Tiel frequently crossed state borders, as was not unusual for medieval mintmasters. To study their careers and lives, researchers have to follow. Evidently the
contemporary national borders should not constrain the researcher of medieval
mintmasters. Furthermore, many data about Johan van Tiel have been published
in historical publications, one even as early as the 18th century. In addition, beyond
doubt archives contain many hitherto unknown data. Numismatists are thus well
advised to look beyond their own discipline and to engage with both published and
unpublished sources. It seems more than likely that more archival data about Johan
van Tiel and other mintmasters will be disclosed in the future.
The broader relevance of writing a mini-biography such as the one of Johan van
Tiel lies in contributing to prosopographic studies of medieval mintmasters: what
professional and family backgrounds did they have, and how did these influence
their positions as mintmasters? Overviews such as Ilisch list of German mintmasters provide a useful starting point for such studies, and a platform like the Kolloquium fosters the cross-national exchange needed for such work.

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