Bernhard Varenius

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Memorial plaque on Varenius birth house, the parish hall of the St. Johannis Church in Hitzacker
Title page of the Descriptio Regni Japoniae
Special geography describes regions and their topography schematically.
According to Varenius, the Geographia Generalis describes the earth systematically.

Bernhard Varen , lat. Bernhardus Varenius (* 1622 in Hitzacker , Hanover ; † 1650/51 in Leiden , Netherlands ) is of great importance in collecting geographical knowledge in Europe in the 17th century . His teaching of general geography set the accepted scientific standard for over a century.

Life

Bernhard Varen was the son of the Brunswick-Lüneburg court preacher Heinrich Varenius (1595-1635) and his wife Anna Freder († 1623). His brother August Varenius (1620–1684) was a professor and later rector of the University of Rostock.

Varen first studied medicine before coming to geography through contacts with geographers. In 1649 he published his work Descriptio Regni Japoniae ("Description of the Kingdom of Japan"), which also contains the Latin translation of a description of Siams by the Dutch navigator Willem Corneliszoon Schouten and excerpts from the Arab traveler and geographer Leo Africanus on religion in Africa . The work is the first attempt, based on source studies, to provide a comprehensive description of Japan in a European language. Varen used materials from both the Catholic Japan Mission and the Protestant merchants of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In addition, he indicated the sources he used and at the same time pointed out which sources he could not use. Among other things, he mentions the Kuroshio ocean current, which is important for the archipelago .

His most important work, Geographia generalis , was published in 1650. It explains the basic principles of geography on a broad scientific basis using the latest knowledge at the time. The systematic geography is described in a previously unknown framework; the previously unknown special regional geography is also introduced. The work has been revised and improved many times; the 1672 edition contains additions and entries by Isaac Newton .

Works

  • Descriptio Regni Japoniae Cum quibusdam affinis materiae, ex variis autoris collecta et in ordinem redacta per Bernhardvm Varenivm Med. D. , Elezevir, Amsterdam 1649
  • Geographia Generalis. In qua affectiones generales Telluris explicantur Autore Berh. Varenio, Med. D. , Elzevir, Amsterdam 1650. Latin editions: 1650, 1664, 1671, 1672, 1681, 1693, 1712 ( digitized ), 1715. English editions: 1682, 1683, 1693, 1733, 1734, 1736, 1765 Dutch edition: 1750. French edition: 1755. Russian edition: 1718, 1790.

Revisions

  • Descriptio regni Japoniae = Description of the Japanese Empire, Amsterdam 1649 . In Dt. transfer v. Ernst-Christian Volkmann, ed. u. commented by Martin Schwind , Darmstadt 1974. An unchanged reprint of this translation was published in 2000 by iudicium Verlag, Munich, ISBN 978-3-89129-723-0 .

literature

  • Wolfgang Griep (Ed.): Bernhard Varenius (1622-1650). The beginning of modern geography. Accompanying volume for the exhibition of the same name in the Eutin State Library from November 26 to December 22, 2001 (= publications by the Eutin State Library; 5). Eutin State Library, Eutin 2nd edition 2003, ISBN 3-9808529-2-X
  • Siegmund Günther : Varenius. (= Classic of the natural sciences; 4). Thomas, Leipzig 1905
  • Alfred Kahn: The didacticians in the field of physical geography in the XVIII. Century in her relations with Kircher, Riccioli and Varenius. Boegler, Würzburg 1906.
  • Rainer Kastrop: Ideas about geography and starting points for modern geography at Varenius, taking into account the dependence of Varenius on the ideas of his time. Dissertation, Saarbrücken University 1972.
  • Friedrich RatzelVarenius, Bernhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 39, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1895, pp. 487-490.
  • Jozef Schmithüsen: History of Geographical Science from the First Beginnings to the End of the 18th Century . Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim u. a. 1970.
  • Margret Schuchard (ed), Bernhard Varenius (1622-1650) (Leiden, Brill, 2007), xxiv, 346 pp. (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, 159).

Web links

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