Hieronymus Bock

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Hieronymus Bock

Hieronymus Bock (* 1498 , probably in Heidelsheim , now part of Bruchsal , near Bretten ; † February 21, 1554 in Hornbach , Pfalz ), called Tragus ( ancient Greek τράγος trágos '(goat) goat'), was a German Botanist , doctor and Lutheran preacher. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " H.Bock ". Together with Otto Brunfels and Leonhart Fuchs, he is one of the " fathers of botany ".

Life

Apart from studying in Heidelberg , where he matriculated in 1519, little is known about Hieronymus Bock's youth . It is possible that he came into contact with Martin Luther's reform ideas as early as the spring of 1518 in the context of the Heidelberg disputation . Melchior Adam passed on the names of the parents as Heinrich and Margaretha, Bock himself mentioned in an edition of his herb book that the nettle was included in the family coat of arms.

In addition to Heidelsheim ( Bruchsal ), several places in the Palatinate or North Baden are possible as Hieronymus' birthplace . The Heidelberg matriculation entry 1519 calls him “Iheronymus Bock de Schifferrstat dioc. Spir. ", Translated:" Hieronymus Bock from Schifferstadt, Diocese of Speyer ". In typical humanistic manner he graced his family name: τράγος  = Greek (goat) buck.

In 1522 he got a job as a teacher and botanist in Zweibrücken , the residence of Duke Ludwig II , Duke Wolfgang 's father .

Melchior Adam reports that on January 14, 1523 Bock got engaged to Eva Victor, daughter of the citizens Margaretha and Heinrich Victor from Zweibrücken. The two married on January 25 and had five girls and five boys in the following years, but most of them died early, only one girl and their son Heinrich lived longer. The eldest son, Oseas (* approx. 1524, † approx. 1541), was born on April 8, 1532 by the Speyer cathedral provost Johann v. Erenberg accepted as a "cleric" for the community of Frankweiler and thus received the early mass benefice.

The leading theological head in Zweibrücken at that time was Johann Schwebel , who later became the reformer of Zweibrücken. This encounter shaped Bock's further life. In March 1532 Bock became Ludwig's personal physician , but could not do anything for the prince, who probably suffered from the consequences of severe alcohol abuse , who died in the course of the year.

In 1533, as a married layperson, Bock received a benefice in the Hornbach Fabiansstift and became a preacher at the former Benedictine church of St. Fabian. It is very likely that this construction was chosen in order to provide the renowned scientist with an adequate livelihood and to be able to keep him in Zweibrücken. The pressure for reform of the Zweibrücker court was the part of the Horn Abbot Johann Bacher Kintheuser that even in concubinage hardly opposed lived and probably this woman also married during the 1530s, something.

Sharp buttercup Figure in: Hieronymus Bock. Herbal Book 1551
Ordinary boxwood Figure in: Hieronymus Bock. Herbal Book 1551

In 1533 Otto Brunfels traveled from Strasbourg to Hornbach to see Hieronymus Bock. He urged him to write down his knowledge of herbs.

Bock did not take his duties as a canon very seriously, and so there was a dispute with the other canons, which was settled in 1536 in a settlement that was favorable to Bock: Although he had to pay part of the foundation contribution, he was relieved of his teaching duties at the School exempted and only had to take part in choral prayer ( hourly prayer ) and chapter meetings if his medical duties or botanical studies allowed it.

In 1536, or at the latest in 1538, the transition from monastery and monastery to the Reformation was also completed in public: the conventuals left the monastery or married, and Bock took over the parish of the Hornbach community. At the first official synod of the new “ regional church ” in 1539, to which Schwebel's “12 articles” (the first church ordinance of the county from 1533) were expanded and signed by the pastors present, Bock was named “Pastor of Hornbach”. He is mentioned in the same capacity in the visitation protocol of 1544: "Iheronimuss Bock, pastor of Hornbach, is his senior and otherwise asked about everything, the lere half answered the answer, compares himself."

Nevertheless, it is undisputed that his botanical, medical and pharmacological studies constitute the focus of his work and life's work. On extensive journeys that took him from the Ardennes to the Swiss Alps , he was one of the first scientists of his time to attempt a comprehensive recording and description of Central European (medicinal) plants. The result of these studies is his main work, a herbal book , which the most famous botanist of his time, Otto Brunfels , urged him to publish : The Kreütter Buch of 1539 (for details see below under writings ).

On June 10, 1548, Hieronymus' son Heinrich enrolled at the University of Heidelberg as "Heinricus Bock de Zweybruck dioc. Metensis ".

In 1548 the Augsburg Interim brought a major setback for the Reformation, the Protestant princes and imperial cities got into serious distress after the Schmalkaldic War . In many places the evangelical preachers were dismissed; it was not successful everywhere, e.g. B. in Württemberg to keep them under control in the country with the help of teaching positions.

In Palatinate-Zweibrücken, the interim provisions were counteracted for a particularly long and cunning time, an official implementation of the interim was delayed so long that it could not be carried out nationwide. What is certain, however, is that the four monasteries in the country experienced a kind of final rebellion; in Hornbach, for example, Abbot Kintheuser, who was friends with Bock, had to give up and give way to the strict Catholic Johann Bonn von Wachenheim. This blocked Bock and the other Lutheran canons of the income and ultimately urged them on January 26, 1550 to renounce either the Lutheran doctrine or its canonicals. Thus Bock's position had become untenable, and Duke Wolfgang could not help him either.

In any case, at the end of July 1550 we find him as personal physician to Count Philip II in Saarbrücken . Bock did not stay long at the Saarbrücker Hof , but the most important company is the creation of a herb garden . From here he wrote a long and urgent letter to his old community in Hornbach (see below under works ).

As early as 1552, probably immediately after the Passau Treaty , which put an end to the interim provisions, Bock returned to Hornbach - Abbot Johann Bonn had meanwhile died, so that Bock could continue his work as a preacher unhindered. He still saw how his son Heinrich was appointed schoolmaster in Hornbach by Abbot Sebastian on January 25, 1553.

Hieronymus Bock died on February 21, 1554 and was buried in the collegiate church of St. Fabian.

Its epitaph was lost; the epitaph read:

"Anno domini M.DLIV. XXI. Februararii Hieronymus Tragos animae corporisque quondam medicus et canonicus huius aedis in domino Jesu obdormivit, cuius anima in consortio beatorum quiescat. Amen."

“On February 21st in the year of the Lord, 1554, the soul and body of Hieronymus Bock, the doctor and canon of this house, fell asleep in the Lord Jesus; let his soul rest in the company of the blessed. Amen."

Heinrich Fabricius , rector of the grammar school in Hornbach from 1577 to 1600, wrote a Vita Hieronymi Tragi .

Taxa named after Bock

Charles Plumier named the genus Tragia of the plant family of milkweed plants (Euphorbiaceae) in his honor . Carl von Linné later took over this name. The generic names Tragiella Pax & K.Hoffm. , Agirta Baill. and Tragiopsis H.Karst. from the milkweed family were named in his honor.

Also the genera Tragus Haller from the plant family of the sweet grasses (Poaceae) and Boca Vell. from the willow family (Salicaceae) are named after him.

Fonts (selection)

  • The Kreütter Buch, Darinn Underscheidt, names vnnd Würckung der Kreutter, perennials, hedges vnnd Beumen, sampt their fruits, so grow in German lands Described by H. Hieronymum Bock as a long-lasting and certain experience , published in the first, unillustrated , edition in Strasbourg 1539 (with Wendel Rihel). A second edition followed in 1546 (also by Rihel), this time with numerous illustrations by the illustrator David Kandel .
  • Various reprints and other, improved editions are published up into the 17th century; posthumous editions are revised by Melchior Sebizius (also Sebisch and Sebitz), for example:
  • Kreütterbuch in it underscheidt Nammen und Würkung der Kreutter, perennials, hedges and Beumen sampt their fruits […]: Item of the 3 elements, zamen and wild animals […] / Now and now overlooked with all diligence and with many useful experiments - improved and increased by Melchiorem Sebician Silesium. (Reprint of the edition by Josias Rihel), Strasbourg 1577. Munich 1964.
  • The first Latin translation appears in 1552 under the title De stirpium [...] commentariorum libri tres with a foreword by Conrad Gessner . The modern version of the Riesling grape is described for the first time in the Latin version of the herb book translated by David Kyber .
  • The great success of the work is based on Bock's careful observations and descriptions of around 700 plants, as well as his many years of experience as a doctor. His plant descriptions are far more accurate and accurate than all previous works of a similar kind. His systematizations, however, suffer from the attempt to reconcile his own experiences and observations with the traditional scientific works of antiquity - a hopeless undertaking: his taxonomy was still related on the vegetative characteristics of the plants and not on the flowers .

Further medical works in German:

  • Bader order [...]. Wendel Rihel, Strasbourg 1550, a kind of handbook for the bather;
  • the Teutsche Speißkammer or what should be given to healthy and sick people for body food from 1550: not a cookbook, but in a sense the first modern nutrition guide .
  • Artzney booklet. Ordinary, common cur and help for the stinging and side ulcer, called pleurisy [...]. Augsburg 1551.
  • What man should keep for himself during the four times through the year and every month with special attention / Apart from the fifth and nineteenth chapter Sorani des Ephesians drawn is the title of a small work by Bock, that by Johann Dryander was first published in 1557 in his book New Artznei und Practicierbüchlin zu allen Leibs ailing and Kranckheyten, printed to Franckfort am Myen with Christian Egenolff's heirs.
  • His only theological work is the letter to the congregation in Hornbach (only preserved in handwritten form) , in which Bock warns his former congregation members from exile in Saarbrücken to adhere to the truth of Lutheran doctrine once they have been recognized, despite all the abbot's efforts to recatholize. In the typical controversial style of the time, the letter is a living example of Bock's pastoral efforts. In a language reminiscent of Martin Luther , trained in the Pauline letter style (and also with countless biblical expressions incorporated into the text), Bock primarily interprets the two Reformation basic insights of "solus Christ" and "sola fide" against those of Lutheran theology The grievances of pre-Indian Catholicism denounced in the 16th century : work justice, saints and masses. The third cornerstone of Lutheran teaching, the “sola scriptura”, is also briefly mentioned by Bock, but not discussed to the same extent.

literature

  • Melchior Adam: Vitae Germanorum Medicorum. Heidelberg 1620, p. 67ff.
  • Thomas Bergholz: That I have recited nothing but the holy, divine scriptures. - Hieronymus Bock's letter to the community in Hornbach and the position of the Saarbrücken counts towards the Reformation . In: Monthly books for evgl. Church history of the Rhineland . Volume 54, 2005.
  • Thomas Bergholz:  Bock, Hieronymus. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 25, Bautz, Nordhausen 2005, ISBN 3-88309-332-7 , Sp. 81-86.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Johann Heinrich Dierbach (1788-1845). Contributions to Germany's flora, collected from the works of the oldest German plant researchers. Heidelberg 1825-1833.
  • Adolf Engler:  Bock, Hieronymus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 766.
  • Stefan Flesch: The monastic writing culture of the Saar region in the Middle Ages . VKSLV 20, Saarbrücken 1991.
  • Paul Freher: D. Pauli Freheri Med. Norib. Theatrum Virorum Eruditione Clarorum . Nuremberg (Johann Hofmann) 1688, p. 1235.
  • Brigitte Hoppe. Hieronymus Bock's herbal book. Scientific historical investigation. With a list of all plants in the work, the literary sources of the medicinal indications and the uses of the plants. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1969.
  • Fritz Krafft (Ed.): Advance into the unknown. Lexicon of great natural scientists . Wiley-VCH, Weinheim / New York (1st edition. Düsseldorf 1986: Große Naturwissenschaftler. Biographisches Lexikon ) 1999, p. 57 f. ISBN 3-527-29656-5 .
  • J. Leyser: A Palatinate naturalist of the 16th century. 37-39 Annual report Pollichia, page 53-66 from year 1881.
  • Johann Mayerhofer: Contributions to the life story of Hieronymus Bock called tragus . In: Historical yearbook . Volume 17, 1896.
  • FWE Roth: Hieronymus Bock, called tragus. Preacher, doctor and botanist 1498 to 1554, shown after his life and work. In: Communications of the Historical Association of the Palatinate. Volume 23, 1899, pp. 25-74. Speier 1898, pp. 46–70.
  • Gerhard State: The most famous botanist from Baden-Palatinate, Hieronymus Bock . In: Yearbook of the district of Kaiserslautern . Volume 6, 1968, pp. 155-119.
  • Hermann goat bacon :  buck (tragus), Hieronymus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 343 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Commons : Hieronymus Bock  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Hieronymus Bock  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Renate Seitz: From the life of the botanist Hieronymus Bock. In: Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung . 34/2010, August 26, 2010, p. 74 , accessed July 7, 2019 .
  2. ↑ However, he also names the parents of Bock's bride Eva as Heinrich and Margaretha. In: Melchior Adam: Vitae Germanorum medicorum. Frankfurt am Main 1620, p. 68
  3. ↑ Wolf-Dieter Müller-Jahncke : Hieronymus Bock. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte . De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 196 f., Here: p. 196.
  4. ↑ According to Bock's oldest biography "Heidesbach" (more precisely: "Heidespachii pago Bretta, Philippi Melnachthonis patriae vicino" (Heidespach near Bretten, near the hometown of Philipp Melanchthon)) - such a place is not known. Therefore, u. a. Heidersbach (today part of Limbach / Odenwald) according to Encyclopedia Britannica: Queidersbach by G. Staat or Heidelsheim (near Bruchsal). Jacob Theodor , student and friend of Bocks, writes in the foreword of his herbal book with the date Sept. 10, 1588, "Hieronymus Tragus Brettanus [...] a child born in the electoral palace in Bretten", and Melchior Adam also expressly mentions the proximity to Bretten , Melanchthon's birthplace.
  5. ^ Toepke, Heidelberger Matrikel, entry Hieronymus Bock
  6. ^ FWE Roth: Hieronymus Bock, called tragus, preacher, doctor and botanist 1498 to 1554.
  7. ↑ Hieronymus Bock. Kreüter Bůch. Darinn Vnderscheidt / Nammen vnnd Würckung and the Kreüter / Stauden / Hecken vnnd Beumen / sampt their fruits / so grow in Deütschen Landen ..., Wendel Rihel, Strasbourg 1551, foreword: ... “The emptied D. Otto von Brunnenfelfs happier than he of many My Kreütter learns / and has experienced applied work on the plants / he was on foot / and from Strasbourg on to Hornbach in the rough Waßgaw / and see my diverse workable collection of many plants / ſampt the same record in gardens and writings / iſt it after me ſtets / ſampt others with a lot of writings / icho I still hinder myself / have a tough job / I ſol but put the big laborious work in order / and once again serve the little Vatterlandt with it. And how I disregard this kind of trade too much / and deny it with good honors / I have no place for my apology. So, for my sake, I have to take even more effort and work / even greater effort from me. On the one hand set off and on the other hand willing to please honest people. " (Digitized version )
  8. ↑ cf. Toepke, Heidelberg register . Retrieved July 6, 2013.
  9. ↑ Roth: Hieronymus Bock ...
  10. ↑ Bokius, Hieronymus. In: Title page catalog of funeral sermons and other funeral pamphlets in the University Library of Wrocław / Breslau. # 93; = 2156 (online at cgi-host.uni-marburg.de ) ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / cgi-host.uni-marburg.de
  11. ^ Charles Plumier: Nova Plantarum Americanarum Genera . Leiden 1703, p. 14.
  12. ^ Carl von Linné: Critica Botanica . Leiden 1737, p. 94.
  13. ↑ Carl von Linné: Genera Plantarum . Leiden 1742, p. 448.
  14. ↑ a b Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic plant names - extended edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
  15. ↑ Lucie Kountíková transcribed the text Archive link ( Memento of the original from November 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.koutnikova.eu
personal data
SURNAME Bock, Hieronymus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tragus, Hieronymus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist, doctor and Lutheran preacher
DATE OF BIRTH 1498
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1554
Place of death Hornbach (Palatinate)