Theodor Kerckring

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Theodor Kerckring by Jürgen Ovens (1660)

Theodor Kerckring , also: Dirk , Dirck , Kerckeringh , Kerckerinck (baptized July 22, 1638 in Amsterdam , † November 2, 1693 in Hamburg ) was a Dutch anatomist and alchemist .

Life

Kerckring was the son of the Amsterdam merchant and captain of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Dirck Kerckring (1605–1661) and his wife Margaretha (1607–1670), née. Bas, the daughter of Amsterdam Mayor Dirck Bas. His father came from the Lübeck patrician family Kerkring .

Theodor Kerckring grew up in Amsterdam and was a pupil of the Latin school of Franciscus van den Enden in Amsterdam in the second half of the 1650s , at the same time as the later philosopher Baruch Spinoza . In 1659 he enrolled at the University of Leiden and studied medicine, especially with Franciscus Sylvius , without completing this course with an academic degree. He was portrayed by Jürgen Ovens around 1660 . In 1667 Cosimo III visited him . de 'Medici , who was interested in his scientific findings and wanted to see the Kerckring's anatomical study collection. For his studies, Kerckring used a microscope that Spinoza had made for him.

Kerckring married Clara Maria in 1671, the daughter of his teacher Franciscus van den Emden. In order to be able to marry her, he converted to the Roman Catholic Church.

He initially practiced as a doctor in Amsterdam am Singel , studied drinking water and worked with Frederik Ruysch . From 1675 he went on a long journey through Europe, especially Italy, and in 1678 he settled in Hamburg again. In the same year he was accepted as a Fellow in the Royal Society . At Neuer Wandrahm 17 he had the Dutch architect Philipp Vingboons build a city palace with its own chapel, which was one of the most impressive baroque houses in the Hanseatic city . He also owned the houses Neuer Wandrahm 5 and probably also 6. Like all houses on Wandrahm, they were demolished in 1880 for the Speicherstadt . In 1683 he invited his old friend Niels Stensen to live with him. He provided Stensen with financial means for his activities in northern Germany, and Stensen helped him, from Cosimo III. de 'Medici, who had meanwhile become Grand Duke of Tuscany , to be appointed his envoy in Hamburg before 1685 . After Stensen's death in 1686, Kerckring had his body transported to Livorno at the request of the Grand Duke - allegedly in a box that had been declared as books .

After Kerckring's death, his son succeeded him as a Tuscan resident; his anatomical collection went to the doctor Anthon Verborcht (1658-1724), who moved from Utrecht to Hamburg in 1693, and in 1724 was offered for sale by his heirs.

Work and aftermath

Fetal skeleton; Illustration from the Spicilegium

Kerckring's main work with lasting effects was the Spicilegium anatomicum , an atlas-like compilation of the most diverse clinical observations, medical peculiarities and insights gained through autopsy . It is not always clear to what extent they are based on Kerckring's own observations or whether he reflects the findings of others.

He has in important observations for osteogenesis of fetus graphed and the first Kerckringschen ossification (ger .: Kerckrings ossicles described), a 4th-5th Bony nucleus appearing in the posterior margin of the foramen magnum in the fetal month . He also named the folds in the small intestine that he described (already known to Gabriele Falloppio in the 16th century) as plicae Kerckringii or valvulae Kerckringii ( Kerckring folds ). He was the first to discover the vasa vasorum , the small vessels that supply the wall of a large vessel, on the horse's portal vein . The term polydactyly for multifingering goes back to Kerckring .

In addition to his anatomical writings, Kerckring published a Commentarius in currum triumphalem antimonii Basilii Valentini . In it he described the extraction of potassium antimonyl tartrate from antimony potash, which is why the preparation used as an emetic was known for a long time under the name materia perlata Kerckringii .

Fonts

Title page of the Spicilegium
  • Spicilegium Anatomicum, continens Observationum Anatomicarum rariorum centuriam unam: Nec Non Osteogeniam Foetuum, in qua Quid cuique oßicula singulis accedat mensibus, quidve decedat & in eo per varia immutetur tempora, accuratißimè oculis subjicitur. Frisius, Amsterdam 1670
Digital copy of the copy in the Herzog August Library
  • Opera Omnia Anatomica. Continentia Spicilegium Anatomicum, Osteogeniam Foetuum Nec Non Anthropogeniæ Ichnographiam; Accuratissimis Figuris æri incisis illustrata. Haak, Leiden 1729.
Digital copy of the copy in the Herzog August Library
  • Commentarius in currum triumphalem Antimonii Basilii Valentini, a se latinitate donatum. Andreas Frisius, Amsterdam 1671.
Digitized copy of the Getty Center copy at Internet Archive
(English) Basil Valentine his Triumphant chariot of antimony with annotations of Theodore Kirkringius, MD Printed for Dorman Newman, London 1678.
Digitized copy of the Getty Center copy at Internet Archive
(German) Comments on Basilii Valentini's Triumph-Wagen des Antimonii and a preliminary report ... Felßecker, Nuremberg 1724.

literature

  • Kerckring (Theodor). In: Hans Schröder (Hrsg.): Lexicon of Hamburg writers to the present. Volume 3, Hamburg 1857, p. 564.
  • August Hirsch:  Kerckring, Theodor . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, p. 626.
  • Hans Gerhard Lenz (ed.): Triumphal chariot of Antimons. Text - Comments - Studies. Humberg, Wuppertal 2004, ISBN 3-9802788-7-5 .

Web links

Commons : Theodor Kerckring  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stadsarchief Amsterdam: Baptism entry  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; This means that the earlier view (as in ADB and others) that he was born in Hamburg is no longer valid.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl  
  2. ↑ Margaret Gullan-Whur, Jabic Veenbaas: Spinoza: een leven volgens de rede. Lemniscaat Publishers, 2000, p. 100.
  3. ^ Norbert Middelkoop: Een Amsterdammer in Hamburg, een Noord-Duitser in Amsterdam In: Maandblad Amstelodamum. 79 (2010), No. 4, pp. 163-169. Ferdinand Bol or Godfrey Kneller were previously suspected to be the painter of the portrait .
  4. ↑ L. Kooymans: Gevaarlijke kennis. 2007, pp. 325-326.
  5. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Kerckring, Theodorus. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 732.
  6. ^ A b Thomas Ketelsen In: The eighteenth century. 2, 1997, ISBN 3-89244-273-8 , p. 160.
  7. ↑ Hans Kermit: Niels Steensen. Gracewing, Leominster 2003, p. 77.
  8. ^ Albert G. Nicholls: Kerckring and the Spicilegium anatomicum. In: Can Med Assoc J. 42 (5), 1940 May, pp. 480-483. PMC 537930 (free full text) (English).
  9. ↑ Barbara I. Tshisuaka: Kerckring, Theodorus. 2005, p. 732.
  10. ↑ L. Zichner et al. (Ed.): History of conservative procedures on the locomotor organs . Steinkopff, Darmstadt 2001, ISBN 3-7985-1267-1 , p. 71 .
  11. ↑ One copy was auctioned off at Christie's in 2007 for US $ 15,000 .
personal data
SURNAME Kerckring, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch anatomist and alchemist
DATE OF BIRTH baptized July 22, 1638
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1693
Place of death Hamburg