Attribution and anonymity

Meaning

The governing 1619 title page does not supply an author. “Anonymous” therefore describes the printed witness; “attributed to Johann Siebmacher” describes a different, historical argument about authorship. Neither formula should silently replace the other. The bracketed name in a catalogue is supplied metadata, not a signature in the text.

The supplied introduction follows Mike A. Zuber’s argument for a Nuremberg chymist named Johann Siebmacher, distinguishing him from the similarly named heraldic engraver and questioning the added name Ambrosius. Zuber’s discussion has been checked as a statement of his research, not independently reconstructed from its manuscript evidence. This lexicon consequently attributes that identification to him and does not build an unverified biography around the anonymous speaker’s claims to experience, citizenship or private status.

Zuber, authorship discussion (2017)

e-rara title record