Antonius Liber

Antonius Liber , actually Anton Vrije or Vrye , (* before 1470 in Soest ; † around 1507) was a German humanist of the 15th century.

Life

Together with the later humanists Rudolf Agricola , Rudolf von Langen (Rodolphus Langius) and Alexander Hegius, Antonius Liber received lessons in Groningen from the order of the Brothers of Common Life ( Aduard Monastery ), studied in Pavia (financed by the monastery brothers in Aduard) and was a starter the 1470s teacher at the Martinsschule and notary in Groningen, where he also married his wife Bertha. At the invitation of Count Moritz von Spiegelberg , who was provost in Emmerich am Rhein , he became head of the chapter school there, but due to the resistance of the other canons against a staunch humanist like him, he was probably dismissed in 1473 (his successor was Alexander Hegius). He devoted himself to humanistic studies in Cologne (1475/76) and published three works printed by Johann Koelhoff to promote the Latin language (Aurora grammatices (a grammar), writings by Tito Livio Frulovisi , in which only one epigram comes from him, and a collection of letters Familiarum epistolarum compendium for study purposes), which he wanted to sell on a subsequent trip through Germany and its neighboring countries. Due to the campaigns of Charles the Bold of Burgundy, he broke off the trip that was to take him to southern Germany near Koblenz . He was later a teacher in the Netherlands again: in 1482 he was a notary in Kampen and was visited there by Rudolf Agricola. He stayed there until 1499, then was a teacher in Amsterdam and in Alkmaar until his death around 1507. According to Crecelius, he was confronted with similar problems in the Netherlands as before in Emmerich. The resistance that met the staunch humanist here too prevented permanent employment.

In addition to the works mentioned, he left four short poems and a commentary on a hymn by Prudentius . He was a contributor to the Latin-German vocabulary Gemma gemmarum vocabularius .

literature

• Wilhelm Crecelius :  Liber, Antonius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 532.
• Wilhelm Crecelius: De Antonii Liberi Susatensis vita et scriptis commentatiuncula, in: Festschrift for the 34th Assembly of German Philologists in Trier, Bonn 1879, pp. 139–150
• Franz Josef Worstbrock : Liber, Antonius, in K. Ruh (Ed.) The German Literature of the Middle Ages: Author's Lexicon , Volume 5, 1985, Col. 748
• Adrie van der Laan: The Latin letters of Antonius Liber and Rodolphus Langius, in: Jos. MM Hermans, Robert Peters, Humanist Book Culture: German-Dutch Contacts in the Late Middle Ages (1450–1520), Netherlands Studies 14, LIT, Münster 1997, pp. 144f
• Adrie van der Laan: Anatomie van een Taal: Rodolphus Agricola en Antonius Liber aan de wieg van het humanistic Latijn in de Lage Landen (1469–1485) (Dissertation Groningen 1998)
• Adrie van der Laan: Antonius Liber Susatensis — Familiarium Epistolarum Compendium, in: Humanistica Lovaniensia, Volume 44, 1995, pp. 137-167

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Crecelius, ADB, not mentioned in van der Laan
2. ↑ At the request of Arnold von Bevelen, who came from Hildesheim and directed the Martinsschule in Groningen, compiled for his pupils to learn New Latin. In addition to letters from many ancient, medieval and humanist authors, it also contains six letters from himself, from Rudolf Agricola and Rudolf von Langen. A dedication letter speaks out in favor of the neo-Latin of the humanists and against the medieval Latin, which was still widespread at that time and felt to be barbaric.
3. ^ According to Worstbrock until 1496
4. ↑ cf. for the dictionary group of the Gemma vocabularies the investigation by Nina Pleuger, Der Vocabularius rerum by Wenzeslaus Brack: investigation and edition of a late medieval compendium. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005 (Studia linguistica Germanica; 76). Zugl .: Münster, Univ., Diss., 2004.