Anthony Niger

Antonius Niger , also Nigrinus, Melas or Mela (* around 1500 in Breslau ; † June 5, 1555 in Braunschweig ) was a humanist , scientist and doctor.

Life

Antonius Niger studied probably before 1516 at the University of Erfurt where he joined the so-called "Erfurt Humanist Circle" around Helius Eobanus Hessus . With Hessus, he joined in 1516 with epigrams against Edward Lee , the later Archbishop of York, for Erasmus of Rotterdam . From 1517 to 1521 he worked as a sub-teacher at the Marienschule in Erfurt, which was directed by Euricius Cordus . He also became close friends with Joachim Camerarius the Elder . He was refused a master's degree in Erfurt for unknown reasons. There is a presumption that he did his master's degree in Wittenberggot. He then moved to Breslau and worked there as a teacher. In 1524 he took part in the Breslau disputation of Johann Hess as a representative of the Greek text of the Holy Scriptures. He also took part in the spring war that broke out between Wroclaw and Cracow scholars over the Reformation movement.

After he could not gain a foothold at any university, he began studying medicine in Vienna around 1527 . He interrupted his studies for a teaching position in Poznan at the Lubranski'schen Athenaeum . In 1533 he became the first professor of natural sciences at the University of Marburg . In 1536 he completed his medical studies in Padua under the name Antonius Melas with a doctoral hat and in 1537 became a city doctor in Braunschweig. At the same time he taught Greek at times.

He died on June 5, 1555 in Braunschweig.

Works (selection)

• Ovid's Tristias. Krakow 1529.
• Disputatio doctoris Wenceslai Bayer Cubitensis, de principatu cordis . 1550 (Latin, online ).
• Exhortatio ad liberalium artia studia solidam erudiendae adolescentiae rationem complectens . 1550 (Latin, online ).
• Psalmi aliquot Davidis graecis versibus compositi. Leipzig 1552.
• Revision of the Greek grammar by Johannes Metzler
• About the ten main errors and abuses which medicine has disregarded. Consilium de tuenda valetudine. Leipzig 1554.

literature

• Gustav Bauch :  Niger, Antonius . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 695.
• Gustav Bauch: Journal of the Association for History and Antiquity of Silesia . Ed .: Colmar Grünhagen . tape XVI , 1882, The Life of the Humanist Antonius Niger, p. 180 ff . ( DJVU ).
• Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Dieter Lent et al. (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 8th to 18th century . Appelhans Verlag, Braunschweig 2006, ISBN 3-937664-46-7 , p. 524-525 .