EN
The present article is part one of a three-piece study on the remarkable career and the social advancement of Kaspar Schlick (c. 1400–1449) who subsequently served as an imperial chancellor to the rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, Sigismund, Albrecht II and Frederick III. The authors aim at a comprehensive juxtaposition of Schlick’s “real” curriculum vitae as suggested by the evidence of genuine contemporary sources with the outlines of a merely “virtual” process of climbing in official functions and social status designed and expressed by Schlick himself in a chain of diplomatic forgeries.