MAGDEBURG, a city of Germany, in a duchy of the same name, of which it is not only the capital, but that of all Lower Saxony, and formerly even of all Germany. It stands on the Elbe, in E. Long. 12. 9. N. Lat. 52. 16. It is a city of great trade, strongly fortified, and very ancient. Its name signifies the maiden city; which, some imagine, took its rise from the temple of Venus, which is said to have stood here anciently, and to have been destroyed by
Charlemagne. The founder of the city is supposed to have been Otho I. or his empress Editha, daughter to Edmund the Saxon king of England. The same emperor founded a Benedictine convent here, which he afterwards converted into an archbishopric, of which the archbishop was a count-palatine, and had very great privileges, particularly that of wearing the archiepiscopal pallium, and having the cross borne before him, besides many others. The first tournament in Germany is said to have been appointed near this city, by the emperor Henry the Fowler; but these pastimes were afterwards abolished, because they occasioned such envy and animosity among the nobility, that several of them killed one another upon the spot. The situation of the city is very convenient and pleasant, upon the banks of the Elbe, amidst spacious fruitful plains, and on the road betwixt High and Low Germany. It has been a great sufferer by fires and sieges; but by none so much as that in 1631, when the emperor's general, count Tilly, took it by storm, plundered and set it on fire, by which it was entirely reduced to ashes, except the cathedral, the convent of our Lady, and a few cottages belonging to fishermen; of 40,000 burghers not above 400 escaping. The soldiers spared neither age nor sex; but ripped up women with child, murdered sucking infants in sight of their parents, and ravished young women in the streets; to prevent which violation, many of them flung themselves into the Elbe, and others into the fire. The city is now populous, large, and well built, particularly the broad street and cathedral-square. The principal buildings are the king's palace, the governor's house, the armoury, guild-hall, and cathedral. The last is a superb structure in the antique taste, dedicated to St Maurice, which has a fine organ, the master-pipe of which is so big, that a man can scarce clasp it with both arms; it also contains the tombs of the emperor Otho, and the empress Editha; a fine marble statue of St Maurice, a porphyry font, an altar in the choir of one stone of divers colours, curiously wrought, and many other curiosities. They shew here a bedstead and table which belonged to Martin Luther, when he was an Augustine friar in a cloister of this city before the Reformation. Among the relics, they pretend to have the basin in which Pilate washed his hands after his condemnation of our Saviour; the lantern which Judas made use of when he apprehended him; and the ladder on which the cock crowed after St Peter denied him. The chapter consists of a provost, 16 major, and seven minor canons; besides which, there are four other Lutheran collegiate foundations, and a Lutheran convent dedicated to our Lady, in which is a school or seminary. Here is also a gymnasium, with an academy, in which young gentlemen are instructed in the art of war. The canons of the chapter, which, except the change of religion, is upon the same footing as before the Reformation, must make proof of their nobility. The prebends and dignities are all in the gift of the elector; and the revenue of the provost is computed at 12,000 crowns a-year. Here is a great trade, and a variety of manufactures. The chief are those of woollen cloths and stuffs, silks, cottons, linen, stockings, hats, gloves, tobacco and snuff. The city was formerly one of the Hanse and
Magellan. imperial towns. Edilla, consort to Otho I. on whom it was conferred as a dowry, among many other privileges and advantages, procured it the grant of a yearly fair. The bargravate of this city was anciently an office of great power; having the civil and criminal jurisdiction, the office of hereditary cup-bearer being annexed to it; and was long held as a fief of the archbishopric, but afterwards became an imperial fief, which was again conferred on the archbishopric by the elector of Saxony, upon certain conditions.