Matthäus Schwarz

Matthäus Schwarz (19 February 1497 - c.1574) was a German accountant, best known for compiling his Klaidungsbüchlein or Trachtenbuch (usually translated as "Book of Clothes"), a book cataloguing the clothing that he wore between 1520 and 1560. The book has been described as "the world's first fashion book".

Schwarz was born in Augsburg, the son of Ulrich Schwartz the Younger, a wine merchant. His family were originally carpenters from Rettenbergen in Bavaria, but moved to Augsburg in the 15th century. His grandfather, also Ulrich Schwarz, became master of the carpenters' guild in Augsburg, and served as mayor of Augsburg from 1469 to 1477, but fell from power after disputes with the leading families in the city and was executed in 1478.

Schwartz was educated in Augsburg and Heidenheim. His mother died in 1502. His Latin was not good enough for him to emulate his brother by becoming a monk, so he worked for this father and then became a merchant's apprentice in Milan and Venice, where learned accounting techniques.

He began to work for the wealthy Augsburg merchant Jakob Fugger in 1516, and wrote manuscript on accounting entitled Dreierlay Buchhaltung (three-fold bookkeeping) in 1518. The work remained unpublished but was rewritten by Schwartz in 1550 and eventually published in the early 20th century. Fugger, known as Fugger of the Lily or Fugger the Rich, was a member of the Fugger family of bankers and merchants, who accumulated great wealth as banker for the Habsburg dynasty before his death in 1525. Fugger bequeathed assets worth over 2 million guilders to his nephew, Anton Fugger, for whom Schwartz also worked.

Schwartz's father died in 1519. The same year, Schwartz started an autobiography, De Wellt lauff ("The way of the world"), which has not survived.

Schwarz was fascinated by clothing, spent a large part of his income on clothes, and documented his appearance and outfits throughout his adult life. He would have needed a servant to enable him to dress. This was from a time in history when it was in recent times generally thought that interest in fashion and sumptuous dressing was for the high ranks of society and only, and when sumptuary laws stipulated the dress and jewellery appropriate for a person's social rank and station; Schwarz dressed carefully not to break the law, for example wearing fancy sleeves if fancy hose were forbidden.

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