Conrad Lycosthenes

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Conrad Lycosthenes, woodcut by Tobias Stimmer (1539–1584), printed in 1590

Conrad Lycosthenes (actually Conrad Wolffhart , born August 8, 1518 in Rufach (today: Rouffach , Upper Alsace ), † March 25, 1561 in Basel ) was a humanist and encyclopaedist . He belongs to the ranks of the great universal scholars of the 16th century.

Life

Conrad Wolffhart, who later took the Greek name Lycosthenes, was the son of the consul Theobald Wolffhart and his wife Elisabeth Kürschner, a sister of Conrad Pellican . At the age of 17 he was sent to Heidelberg, where he completed his undergraduate studies with a Magister Artium in 1539, before turning to studying theology and history under the influence of his friend, Heidelberg pastor Heinrich Stoll.

In 1542 he moved to Basel accompanied by his college friend Heinrich Pantaleon . There he taught grammar and dialectics for three years and was appointed deacon of St. Leonhard's Church in 1545 , an office that he retained until his death.

A permanent paralysis of the right side of the body in 1554 forced him to use his left hand from then on.

Conrad Lycosthenes died in Basel in 1561 at the age of 43. He was buried there in St. Leonhard's Church. The epitaph reads: Siste gradum Viator: si bonnus es, morere victurus; sin malus, vive moriturus. Hocce Conradus ego Lycosthenes Rubeacensis, Philosophia perennis compendium, aterni luminum datoris benig. per 42nd valetudinaria aetatis annos. M.7.D.7. ferio seduloque commentatus, 8th cal.Aprilis non improviso apoplexia turbine ad certam immortalitatem anno ejusdem Repar. 1561. praeter votum metumque abreptus, sortis literariae multam saltem, si non magnam, reliqui usuram posteris. Qui potes meliora, debes; atque ut praestes, in rem tuam abi.

The scholar had married the widowed Christine Herbster, the sister of the printer Johannes Oporinus (Oporin), who was first married to Leonhard Zwinger, father of Theodor Zwinger the Elder .

plant

Allegedly portrayal of Conrad Lycosthenes; actually probably Josua Opitz (around 1542–1585)

His work can be characterized as: collecting, adding to and commenting on what has been handed down.

It encompasses two major subject areas: (a) the encyclopedic provision of the treasure trove of sentences from antiquity and humanism and (b) the compilation of wonderful omens.

(a) Inspired by the pioneering collections of Erasmus von Rotterdam , he publishes several collections of sentences: Stobaeus , Enea Silvio , Ravisius Textor , Erasmus Parabolae, and finally, in 1555, his own collection of Apophthegmata . The handwritten notes were inherited by his stepson Theodor Zwinger , who then published them several times in increasingly extensive editions. Lycosthenes thus laid the foundations for the encyclopedia Theatrum Vitae Humanae ( scene of human life ). - The Theatrum of Laurentius Beyerlinck (1631 etc.) represents a transformation of this taxonomically and systematically laid out work into an alphabetical one.

(b) The sixteenth century has been banned from the idea that God's intervention in omens - natural disasters, freak births, comets - is heralding; a contingency management strategy typical of the time. In 1552 Lycosthenes edited and supplemented the Prodigienbuch of the late antique author Julius Obsequens and presented his own collection in 1557:

Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon: quae praeter naturae ordinem, motum, et operationem, et in superioribus et his inferioribus mundi regionibus, from exordio mundi usque ad haec nostra tempora, acciderunt…, conscriptum per Conradum Lycosthenem; Basileae, per Henricum Petri 1557 - and in the same year in German: Wunderwerck or God's unfathomable model, which he let appear in all his creations, so celestial, so vital ... from the beginning of the world, bit at this time ...: Everything with us beautiful illustrations adorned ..., by Johann Herold ... Verteütscht , Basel: Petri, 1557

Selection of works

  • Commentarius in Plinium Juniorem de viris illustribus, Basel 1547, also 1552 and 1576
  • Compendium Bibliothecae Gesnerianae, Basel 1551, also 1555
  • Gnomologia ex Aenea Sylvii Piccolominei… omnibus operibus collecta, Basel 1551
  • Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon = Wunderwerck or God's unfathomable model, Basel 1557
  • Illustrium virorum apophthegmata, Bern 1557, also Cologne 1618
  • Apophthegmata ex probatis Graecae Latinaeque Linguae Scriptoribus. A Conrado Lycosthene authore collecta et per locos communes iuxta Alphabeti seriem digesta, Paris: Gorbinus, 1560 and many other editions
  • Theatrum vitae humanae ("scene of human life"), considerably expanded edition, ed. by Theodor Zwinger , 1565

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See other pictures of both in the “ Digital Portrait Index ” of the Photo Archive Photo Marburg.
personal data
SURNAME Lycosthenes, Conrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolffhart, Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Humanist and encyclopedist
DATE OF BIRTH August 8, 1518
PLACE OF BIRTH Ruffach , Upper Alsace
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 1561
Place of death Basel