Maximilian Willibald of Waldburg-Wolfegg

At the end of the Thirty Years' War Swedish troops under general Wrangel laid fire to Maximilian Willibald's home Schloss Wolfegg in 1646.

Their wedding celebrations saw the performance of armamentarium comicum amoris et honoris by Bartholomäus Aich, which is considered to be one of the oldest German operatic compositions.

A chronicle of the house of Waldburg-Wolfegg from 1785 describes him as a "great lover of the secret and natural sciences like medicine, chemistry and alchemy" who has a keen interest in "all witty writings, poems and similar things in all known languages".

At the time of his death his collection comprised over 120,000 graphics among them such famous pieces as the Kleiner Klebeband and the Mittelalterliches Hausbuch.

[1] In his will Maximilian Willibald ordained that his art collection was to kept as one and not to split over several heirs, therefore it remained virtually unchanged for the next 300 years.