Caspar Hofmann

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Portrait of Caspar Hofmann. Wellcome M0011992.jpg

Caspar Hofmann (born November 9, 1572 in Gotha , † November 3, 1648 in Altdorf ) was a professor of medicine at the University of Altdorf in Nuremberg .

Hofmann was the son of a blacksmith. He studied philosophy and medicine in Leipzig, Strasbourg, Altdorf, Padua and Basel with Matthäus Dresser , Philipp Scherbius , Nicolaus Taurellus , Hieronymus Fabricius from Aquapendente , Andrea Cesalpino , Felix Platter and Caspar Bauhin . 1605 he was in Basel for MD PhD .

In the same year he received a call to Altdorf as a plague doctor. In 1606 he was appointed professor of theoretical medicine by the University of Altdorf as successor to Nicolaus Taurellus, and took up the position in April 1607. His teaching was similar to that of Scherbius. He believed that medical truth could only be ascertained through the philosophical analysis of ancient medical writings. From around 1625 he worked on a critical text edition of Galen , which, however, remained a manuscript. In 1629 he rejected the theories of Mundinus Mundinius about the origin of man, drawing on Aristotelian arguments. He wrote pamphlets against the modern theories of Fernelius and Argenterius about the causes of disease.

Hofmann developed his own theory of blood flow. The discoverer of the double circulation, William Harvey , tried in 1636 in vain to convince him of the correctness of his teaching.

literature

  • Georg König : Programma in funere… Dn. Caspari Hofmanni . In: Henning Witte : Memoriae medicorum nostri seculi clarissimorum renovatae , Vol. I. Martin Hallervord, Frankfurt am Main 1676, pp. 132-138 ( Google Books )
  • Ralf Bröer: Antiparacelsism and Trinity. Medical antitrinitarianism from Thomas Erastus (1524–1583) to Ernst Soner (1572–1605) . In: Reports on the history of science . Vol. 29, No. 2, 2006, pp. 137-154 doi: 10.1002 / bewi.200601135 .
  • Wolfgang Mährle: Academia Norica: Science and education at the Nuremberg High School in Altdorf (1575–1623) . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000. ISBN 3-515-07515-1
  • August Hirsch :  Hofmann, Kaspar . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 12, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1880, p. 635.
  • August Hirsch (founder); Wilhelm Haberling , Franz Huebotter , H. Vierordt: Biographical lexicon of outstanding doctors of all times and peoples. 2nd edition, Volume 3, Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin [among others] 1931
  • Erika Bosl: Hofmann, Kaspar. In: Karl Bosl (ed.): Bosls Bavarian biography. Pustet, Regensburg 1983, ISBN 3-7917-0792-2 , p. 363 ( digitized version ).
  • Udo Roth: "ut ars nostra sine philosophia doceri non possit" - the Altdorf physician Kaspar Hofmann (1572–1648), in: Nürnbergs Hochschule in Altdorf, ed. by Hanspeter Marti and Karin Marti-Weissenbach, Cologne a. a. 2014, pp. 67–97.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Caspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1572
PLACE OF BIRTH Gotha
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1648
Place of death Altdorf