Hermann Nicephorus

Mag. Hermann Nicephorus (name variants: 1595 Dominus Hermannus Nicephorus, 1608 Hermannus Nicephorus) (* around 1555 in Stromberg near Oelde in the Münsterland in Westphalia ; † October 6, 1625 in Soest ) was a schoolboy in Braunschweig and Soest, playwright and baroque philosopher .

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He matriculated in 1581 in Helmstedt , which was strict and militant Lutheran at that time. “Before 1595” he had already been in school for 20 years (see Dürre 1869, p. 13); "According to his own testimony" he was cantor and vice rector at various locations for ten years (i.e. approx. 1575 to 1585), and then another ten years before his appointment in Braunschweig he was already rector "not without fame" twice (ibid., P. 13) (i.e. 1585 to 1595): u. a. In 1591 he was rector at the Martinsschule in Minden , which was apparently his first rectorate, and then held his second rectorate in Lemgo for a few months until the summer of 1595 (he was also probably earlier in Bielefeld ). Then after his appointment he was around "Johannis" (ibid., P. 13, so in the middle of the year) after skillful salary negotiations and four inaugural lectures by Michaelis from 1595 to 1604 rector at the Martineum in Braunschweig, until his dismissal. From August 27, 1604 until his death in 1625 he was rector at the Archigymnasium in Soest (1608 he asked the Soest council in Lemgo for payment from the inheritance of his parents-in-law, the Soest council called him “vnser schools rector”, the “ Erenhracht vnd ​​Wollgelartte Hermannus Nicephorus ”; in 1611 he repeated the request to the Lemgo council, with an unknown outcome).

Act

He was the author of numerous learned writings and translator from Latin .

Jöchers Schehrtenlexikon calls him "a successor of Rami" (ie. A "Ramist", follower of Petrus Ramus or Pierre de la Ramée, 1515-1572, author of important textbooks, a Calvinist-minded opponent of the ruling Aristotelian-scholastic philosophy, who in exile to 1571 migrated through Germany, among others).

The Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie added in 1886: “Following Petrus Ramus, he made many efforts to simplify the Aristotelian-scholastic teaching method of logic and rhetoric, for which public disputations seemed to him the most suitable means, although he was interested in these efforts as in the performances of School comedies met resistance. His translation of Buchanan's Latin tragedy 'Jephtes', published 50 years earlier ... shows greater formal dexterity than that of his predecessor Bitner from 1569. He sensibly abbreviates scholarly allusions and rhetorical passages of his original by dispensing with verbatim rendering that leads to proliferation. He has the choir songs declaimed by various choristers. "

Jöcher / Adelung writes: “... published the Rhetoricam Talaei in 1602, and in the preface attacked some members of the Ministerii, about which he was deposed and went to Soest as rector. ... He was a learned and well-read man, as his many disputations held at Soest and printed from 1605 to 1624 show ... He also took part in the efforts of the scholars of his time, which were modeled on Ramus and Melanchthon sought to introduce a clearer presentation of world wisdom and denied the deification of Aristotle . "

General German biography: “In Braunschweig, where he was appointed head of the Martineum in 1595, he came into conflict with the rugged coadjutor Kaufmann while attempting to detach the school of scholars from the influence of the clergy and in 1604 had to escape to Soest. "

family

His parents' names are unknown. According to a custom of the time, he changed his name (not handed down) and replaced it with an antique one (based on the model of the Byzantine emperor Nikephorus I , who fell in the battle against the Bulgarians in 811; his German name is probably related to the term "victory") , e.g. "Winner"). He married Catharina Hoyer in 1586 (probably in Lemgo), who came from the strictly Lutheran Lemgo (daughter of the blacksmith Tönis Hoyer and Elisabeth Cruse). His son-in-law was Henricus Schnabelius, clerical inspector of the Homburg domain and pastor in Marienhagen (died there in 1651, ancestor of the "pastor dynasty" Schnabel).

Works

• [Ode to the inauguration of the new school in 1595], in: Joann. Lud. Vivis: introductio ad veram sapientiam , Braunschweig 1657, 12th encore (reprinted in: Dürre 1869, Appendix 1)
• Rhetorica Talaei , 1602
• George Buchanan : Jephtes. A Christian Tragœdia ... through Hermannum Nicephorum ... with lovely rhymes for the common man to benefit and please ... Germanized ... Braunschweig 1604 (translation from Latin)
• several disputations on Soest, printed 1605–1624
• Disputation for the celebration of the Reformation, 1617
• Hermannus Nicephorus, Rectore Scholæ Susatensis: Scholastica sive Scholae descriptio nova novandis scholis & conservandis aptata, Susati [Soest]: Typis Iohannis Zeise 1620; Analysin logicam [pamphlet against Corn. Martini], Frankfurt 1624.

Biographies

• Hermann Dürre : Program of the Martino-Catharineum grammar school before the Braunschweig high school and Progymnasium . Braunschweig 1869, p. 13f. (including: Hermann Nicephorus, Rector of the Martineum in Braunschweig 1595–1604)
• Article in Christian Gottlieb Jöcher : Allgemeines Schehrten-Lexikons . Volume 3, Gleditsch, Leipzig 1751, p. 896
• Johann Christoph Adelung (founder), Heinrich Wilhelm Rotermund (continuation): continuation and additions to Christian Gottlieb Jöcher's general scholarly lexico. Volume 5, 1816, p. 615
• Johannes Bolte :  Nicephorus, Hermann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1886, p. 568.
• Braunschweig church history . P. 212f.
• Lehmann: Second jubilee of the Archigymnasium in Soest . 1770.
• Wilhelm Kosch : German Theater Lexicon . Volume 2, 1960