Hieronymus Froben

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Hieronymus Froben, 1557 or 1558 (Kunstmuseum Basel)

Hieronymus Froben (born August 6, 1501 in Basel ; † March 13, 1563 there ; also Hieronymus Frobenius , Jeronimus Frobenius ) was a Swiss printer and publisher .

Life

Hieronymus Froben was the oldest child of the book printer Johann Froben , who founded the Swiss Frobenius family of publishers and officials . Shortly before his birth, Basel had joined the Swiss Confederation, which is why his grave inscription reports that he was born "inter initia foederis Helvetiae" (at the beginning of the Swiss Confederation), yes, it was said of him that he was "the first Confederation Heylig Thauff has been asked how the Eydtgnosssch Works, instead of Basel, came about in 1501 ". Hieronymus entered his father's office early on. In 1515 he enrolled at the Basel University , towards the end of 1518 he stayed at the same time as Erasmus in Leuven. In 1520 he received his master's degree and, unlike his father, could be considered a learned man. In 1521 he joined the saffron guild. In 1525 he married Anna Lachner, daughter of the bookseller and publisher Wolfgang Lachner . In the summer of 1526 he traveled to northern Italy and acquired Chrysostom manuscripts there, which Erasmus wanted to use for his complete Latin edition of this church father.

After his father's death in 1527, Hieronymus Froben continued to run the shop together with his stepfather Johannes Herwagen the elder. When his sister Justina married the printer Nicolaus Episcopius (actually Niklaus Bischoff, but he is known by his Latinized name) in 1529 or 1530 , he too joined the company. After Herwagen left in 1531, Froben and his brother-in-law Episcopius merged the business. In the first few years they mostly continued to produce as "Officina Frobeniana", later mostly under their two names. While the printing shop in the Haus zum Stuhl, where Johann Froben had already worked, was apparently headed by Episcopius, Hieronymus Froben ran a second office in the Haus zum Lufft on Bäumleingasse, which he bought in 1531. When his first wife died around 1544, he married Barbara Brand, daughter of the mayor Theodor Brand and sister of the law professor and councilor Bernhard Brand. In November of the same year he was accepted into the distinguished key guild. The sons Ambrosius and Aurelius Froben joined his company.

After Hieronymus Froben's death in 1563, his sons Ambrosius and Aurelius inherited the Haus zum Lufft , while the "armchair" passed into the possession of the Episcopius family. The widow Barbara married the printer Heinrich Petri .

Create

Hippocrates: Libri omnes . Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel 1538

Like his father, Hieronymus Froben was on friendly terms with Erasmus of Rotterdam , who also valued him as an educated man. Erasmus died in 1536 while staying in Basel in Hieronymus' Haus zum Lufft. He and his partner Nicolaus Episcopius were his executors and ensured that the works of Erasmus remained accessible, not least through a large complete edition. They also published numerous Church Fathers and other Greek and Latin authors, for example Pliny the Elder's scientific encyclopedia in two volumes in 1530 , following on from the success of the Pliny edition of Erasmus of Rotterdam, which Father Froben had printed five years earlier. In 1535 Froben published another Pliny edition together with Herwagen and Episcopius, obtained from the philologist Sigismund Gelenius from Prague . The Saxon scholar Georg Agricola was one of the most important authors of the shop : he published Bermannus sive de re metallica (2nd edition 1546) in 1530 , De ortu et causis subterraneorum (2nd edition 1558) in 1546, and De re in particular in 1556 metallica (2nd edition 1561, German Vom Bergkwerck 1557 and Italian Opera de l'arte de metalli 1563).

Like his father, Hieronymus Froben employed Hans Holbein the younger for the artistic arrangement of his books. In the Adagia edition of Erasmus from March 1533, Holbein's round portrait of the scholar appears for the first time as a woodcut - the very similar small Erasmus portrait of Holbein, which now hangs in the Kunstmuseum Basel, comes from Hieronymus Froben's possession - and later, around 1538 his "Erasmus in the Housing".

literature

  • Rudolf Wackernagel (Ed.): Account book of Froben and Episcopius, printer and bookseller in Basel, 1557-1564 . Benno Schwabe, Basel 1881. Digitized .
  • Carl Roth: Froben . In: Wilhelm Richard Staehelin: Wappenbuch der Stadt Basel . Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1917–1929, 1st part.
  • Arnold Pfister:  Froben, Hieronymus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 637 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Peter G. Bietenholz: Hieronymus Froben . In: Peter G. Bietenholz, Thomas B. Deutscher (Ed.): Contemporaries of Erasmus . University of Toronto Press, Toronto / Buffalo / London 2003, ISBN 0-8020-8577-6 , volume 2, pp. 58-60 (by far the most extensive biography).
  • Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area . 2nd revised and expanded edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-447-10416-6 , p. 76.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ For example, his epitaph preserved in the cloister of Basel Minster, the text of which was first printed by Christian Wurstisen: Epitome historiae Basiliensis . Sebastian Henricpetri, Basel 1577, p. 117.
  2. ^ Meyer family chronicle . In: August Bernoulli (Ed.): Basler Chroniken . Volume 6, S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1902, p. 418.
  3. ↑ John Chrysostom: Opera, quae hactenus versa sunt omnia . 4 volumes. Hieronymus Froben, Johannes Herwagen, Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel 1530–1531. Frank Hieronymus: Greek spirit from Basel presses . Basel University Library, Basel 1993, ISBN 3-85953-024-0 , p. 632 No. 399.
  4. ↑ Desiderius Erasmus: Omnia opera ... novem tomis distincta . Hieronymus Froben and Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel 1540.
  5. ↑ The Greek authors are dealt with by Frank Hieronymus: Greek Spirit from Basler Presses . University Library, Basel 1992, ISBN 3-85953-024-0 (see there the printer register p. 833).
  6. ↑ C. Plinii Secundi historia mundi , Officina Frobeniana (in the colophon: ex officina Hieronymi Frobenii, Io. Hervagii & Nicolai Episcopii), Basel 1530.
  7. ↑ C. Plinii Secundi historia mundi denuo emendata. Hieronymus Froben, Jo. Herwagen and Nicolaus Episcopius, Basel 1535. Digitized .
  8. ↑ digitized version .
  9. ↑ digitized version .
  10. ↑ digitized version .
  11. ↑ digitized version .
  12. ↑ digitized version .
  13. ↑ digitized version .
  14. ↑ digitized version .
  15. ^ Frank Hieronymus: Upper Rhine Book Illustration 2. Basel Book Illustration 1500-1545 . Basel University Library, Basel 1984, ISBN 3-85953-012-7 , pp. 525f. No. 455.
  16. ↑ Hans Holbein the Elder J .: Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam "in the round" , around 1532.
  17. ↑ Frank Hieronymus: Upper Rhine Book Illustration 2. Basel Book Illustration 1500-1545 . Basel University Library, Basel 1984, ISBN 3-85953-012-7 , pp. 526-528 No. 456.
personal data
SURNAME Froben, Hieronymus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frobenius, Hieronymus; Frobenius, Jeronimus; Froben, Hieronymus the Elder
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss printer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1501
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1563
Place of death Basel