Bartholomäus Schönborn

Bartholomäus Schönborn (born June 7, 1530 in Wittenberg , † June 27, 1585 in Zerbst ) was a German mathematician, astronomer, philologist, physicist and doctor.

Life

Schönborn attended school in his hometown and was enrolled at the University of Wittenberg on April 30, 1543. There he acquired skills under Erasmus Reinhold that qualified him for an academic career. On August 3, 1553, he acquired the academic degree of a master's degree in the seven liberal arts and was admitted to the Senate of the Faculty of Philosophy on May 1, 1555. For Caspar Peucer he had already taken over his mathematical lectures. After he moved to the medical faculty in 1561, there was a gap in the teaching staff at the Wittenberg University, which made it necessary to accept a third teacher.

This teacher should continue courses in optics, geography and metrology and explain the second book of Pliny , Hesiod and the scientific writings of Aratus and Pomponius Mela . Schönborn was chosen for this, who was hired by the Saxon court for an annual salary of 40 guilders on April 8, 1561 as an extraordinary professor for the mathematical and scientific teaching of Pliny. In doing so, he developed a broad spectrum in his lectures that went beyond the normal range of courses. Above all, he had in mind that young people should be taught how to learn the Greek language , that natural phenomena should be explainable and that astronomical teaching should also be applied.

When the professor for lower mathematics at the time, Matthäus Blöchinger, was given the chair for the Hebrew language, Schönborn took over the full professorship in 1565, as he seemed suitable for this task at the Saxon court. It was precisely his turn to the Greek language that brought him back into the limelight when Esrom Rüdinger's chair was temporarily replaced . In order to avoid an interruption of teaching, Schönborn was given his chair in 1574. However, it soon became apparent that the physics professorship at the Wittenberg University was becoming vacant. After Salomon Alberti moved to the medical faculty in 1576, Schönborn received his chair for physics. With such a foundation in the natural sciences, Schönborn believed he would also find a professorship at the medical faculty.

As early as April 14, 1572, he had obtained his licentiate in medicine with the dissertation De asthmate under Peucer. With the support of Kaspar Eberhard , he had already applied for the medical teaching post in 1574. In order to meet the necessary requirements for this desired teaching post, he received his doctorate in medicine under Johannes Mathesius the Younger on June 5, 1576 and, after Abraham Werner's departure , despite the concerns of the representatives of the Wittenberg University, became in admitted to the medical faculty as a second professor of medicine. Schönborn also performed organizational tasks at the Wittenberg University during his academic time. In the winter semesters of 1563 and 1572 he was dean of the philosophical faculty and in the winter semester of 1572, along with Count Johannes von Starrenberg , he was the academic representative as prorector of the Wittenberg Alma Mater .

In the disputes of that time, the Gnesiolutherans over the Philippists gained more and more importance. Schönborn, who had grown up in the time of Philipp Melanchthon , had found a sponsor in Peucer, among others. By establishing Lutheran orthodoxy in Saxony, attempts were also made to oblige the Wittenberg university professors to use the concord formula . Since Schönborn refused, he was dismissed from his employment and branded as a cryptocalvinist . Therefore he moved back with his family to the friendlier Anhalt , where he found a position as a city doctor and as a professor at the local grammar school in Zerbst . This was his last place of work until his death, where he was buried on June 28, 1585.

family

He married Elisabeth Warbeck on August 21, 1559 († May 16, 1589 in Wittenberg). After the funeral sermon, twelve children are said to have resulted from this marriage. One knows:

• Anna (born October 2, 1560 in Wittenberg)
• Bartholomäus (born August 24, 1562 in Wittenberg)
• Elisabeth (born January 18, 1564; † July 31, 1564 in Wittenberg)
• Johannes (born July 6, 1565 in Wittenberg)
• Maria (born January 1, 1569 in Wittenberg), married on September 23, 1588 M. Johann Dürr von Öttingen
• Dorothea (born February 6, 1572 in Wittenberg), married the student Justin Jakob Reiser from Nuremberg on November 4, 1589
• Elisabeth II (born March 22, 1574 in Wittenberg)
• Helene (born November 21, 1576 in Wittenberg)
• Sabina (born January 6, 1579 in Wittenberg, † March 26, 1579 in Wittenberg)

Works (selection)

• Oratio de studiis astronomicis . Wittenberg 1564 (speech from the deanery; digitized version )
• Gnomai Poeiton (Versus sententiosi) , Wittenberg 1565, 1570, 1572, 1583, 1586, 1593, 1597; 1602, 1605, 1613
• Computus vel Calendarium astronomicum . Wittenberg 1567, 1579
• Hymn in natalem filii Dei autore Georgio Sabino [1508–1560] nunc denuo editus et scholio auctus . Wittenberg 1571
• C. Plinii liber secundus de mundi historia cum comm. J. Milichii ... aucto . Leipzig 1573
• Anatomical folding board pictures . Wittenberg 1573 [for anatomy lessons in the physics lecture according to Melanchthon's De anima ; Reprints 1601, 1613, 1625];
• Oratio de inclyto oppido Vitebergae . Wittenberg 1575
• Kurtzer report on the use and usability of Artzney now ordered by Newem in the above risk of death . 1582, Zerbst, single sheet print,
• Dialogus de peste , ed. v. Balthasar Kiswetter (1544–1616), manuscript from 1582. 1613. The manuscript of an “Art of Death” written by S. is missing.

literature

• Walter Friedensburg : History of the University of Wittenberg. Max Niemeyer, Halle (Saale) 1917
• Heinz Kathe : The Wittenberg Philosophical Faculty 1502–1817 (= Central German Research. Volume 117). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-412-04402-4 .
• Hans Theodor Koch: The Wittenberg Medical Faculty (1502–1652). A biobibliographical overview. In: Stefan Oehmig: Medicine and social affairs in Central Germany during the Reformation. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02437-7
• August Hirsch : Biographical lexicon of the outstanding doctors of all times and peoples. (BEL), Volume 5, pp. 266-267
• Fritz Roth : Complete evaluations of funeral sermons and personal documents for genealogical and cultural-historical purposes . Volume 10, p. 510, R 9849
• Theodor Wotschke: From Wittenberg church registers. In: Archive for Reformation History (ARG). Volume 29, 1930, No. 115/116 XXIX Volume 3–4, pp. 169–223. from the years 1560–1590
• Helmar Junghans: Directory of the rectors, vice-rectors, deans, professors and castle church preachers of Leucorea from the summer semester 1536 to the winter semester 1574/75. In: Irene Dingel and Günther Wartenberg : Georg Major (1502–1574). A theologian of the Wittenberg Reformation. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-374-02332-0
• Schönborn, Bartholomew. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 35, Leipzig 1743, column 763.

Web links

• Works by and about Bartholomäus Schönborn  in the German Digital Library