Augustin Schurff

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Augustin Schurff (born January 6, 1495 in St. Gallen ; † May 9, 1548 in Wittenberg ; also Augustin Schurpff ) was a German natural scientist and physician.

Life

As the younger brother of Hieronymus Schurff , Augustin came from a respected family in the city of St. Gallen; his father Johann was a doctor there. At the age of 14 he went to Wittenberg in 1509 , where he enrolled at the University of Wittenberg in the winter semester . On March 18, 1512, he acquired the Baccalaureate and on January 30, 1516 the master's degree in the seven liberal arts at the artist faculty. On May 28, 1517, he was accepted into the senate of the philosophical artist faculty, became its dean in the winter semester of 1518 and was appointed professor of logic and physics in the same year .

Schurff had already started medical studies and received his doctorate in medicine in the summer semester of 1518. After Peter Burckhard lost his medical chair, Schurff applied for this position - as did Stephan Wild . The chair was divided into practical and theoretical medicine, and Schurff took over the theoretical professorship for an annual salary of 50 guilders. In order to be able to meet the academic requirements, he received his doctorate on June 3, 1521 as a licentiate and on June 12, 1521 as a doctor of medicine. Schurff's first years in Wittenberg were marked by material concerns.

For the previous way of teaching medicine, which was based only on ancient Greek and Roman classics, it was downright revolutionary that Schurff dissected a human head in the presence of all lecturers and students of the medical faculty in 1526. Schurff later carried out similar dissections of the human body.

From his practicing activities it is known that leading men in Wittenberg, such as Martin Luther , Philipp Melanchthon and Johannes Bugenhagen , were advised and treated by him as a doctor. Melanchthon praised it as an “ornament of Leucorea”. Because of his reputation, he was appointed personal physician at the court of the Electorate of Saxony on August 27, 1529 and accompanied the then Elector Prince Johann Friedrich on his travels. After this elector had become, he appointed him on January 26, 1533 as elector's personal physician and personal physician at the Anhalt court in Dessau, which was renewed and extended on May 18, 1537.

These tasks prevented him from giving full lectures at the university. Nevertheless, he took over the deanery of the philosophical faculty in the winter semester 1518/19, in the winter semesters 1524, 1526, 1530, 1535, 1536 and in the summer semester 1533 the deanery of the medical faculty. He also headed the university in the summer semester of 1525 and in the winter semesters of 1537, 1545 as rector of the alma mater and as vice- rector in the summer semester of 1527 and winter semester of 1527. Although Schurff's time was limited, he also devoted himself to writing, in which he mainly dealt with the plague.

His little book on the beginnings of medicine was still used as a guide for lectures after his death. In the course of his official activity Schurff had achieved such a leading position in medical science as his brother among the lawyers had. The exercise of his practice, as well as his professorship (200 guilders annual salary), brought him increasing prosperity, so that he was able to acquire several considerable properties in Wittenberg. During the Schmalkaldic War , Schurff fled Wittenberg. He died in 1548 after returning to the city. He was buried in the cemetery at the Wittenberg town church , opposite the entrance to the superintendent's office.

family

Schurff married Anna (Agnes), the daughter of the Torgau mayor, Matthäus Moschwitz (Muschwitz), in autumn 1522, but she died on January 27, 1540. Through this marriage he was related to Jakob Milich . He then married Anna Krapp († 1547), a daughter of the Wittenberg dressmaker and mayor Hieronymus Krapp (1469-1515). Her sister Katharina Melanchthon , née Krapp, was married to Melanchthons . However, she died in July 1547.

Schurff had several daughters. Of them we know: His eldest daughter Magdalena (born August 19, 1531 in Wittenberg; † January 3, 1606) - she married the widowed Lucas Cranach the Younger in 1551 ; his daughter Margarethe married the student Michael Dobergatz from Berlin on September 25, 1565; On February 5, 1566 Anna married the Magister Balthasar Rhau I from Naumburg, who would later become professor of theology in Greifswald .

literature

personal data
SURNAME Schurff, Augustin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schurpff, Augustin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and physician
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1495
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1548
Place of death Wittenberg