Johannes Honterus

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Woodcut by Johannes Honterus around 1550

Johannes Honterus (* around 1498 in Kronstadt , Transylvania ; † January 23, 1549 ibid) was a Transylvanian-Saxon humanist and polymath . As a church reformer , he played a decisive role in the introduction of the Reformation in Transylvania . He was also a school man , picture carver, paper miller and, from 1539, founder and operator of the second, but first permanent and most productive printing company in Transylvania.

Surname

The name Honterus is the Latinized form of Hontert , the Transylvanian-Saxon name for elderberry (Holler, Holder). His printer's mark was the city arms of Kronstadt , a crown with a root .

Life

Honterus statue by Harro Magnussen in front of the Black Church in Kronstadt , Romania

The father Georg Austen (or Aust), a Lederer, belonged to the wealthy middle class of Kronstadt. In addition to the house, he also owned a tannery and a farm.

Johannes received a thorough school education in Kronstadt, presumably from the Dominicans . Thanks to his wealthy father, he enrolled at the University of Vienna as Johannes Aust ex Corona in 1520 and received his master's degree as Johannes Holler Coronensis there in early 1525 .

When Vienna was besieged by the Turks in 1529, Honterus fled to Regensburg , where he already had the Latinized name Johannes Hynter-Hunterus . In the spring of 1530 he was at the University of Cracow , where he wrote a Greek and Latin grammar . Here he also had the first edition of his cosmography with the title " Rudimentorum Cosmographicae libri duo " printed. This consisted of two print sheets, so only 16 sheets. In the following year, Honterus stayed in Nuremberg for a few months . He stayed in Basel as a publisher's editor and wood cutter and returned to Kronstadt in January 1533, where he set up a printing house in 1539 to enable his own works to be distributed. In 1541, Honterus reissued "Kosmographie" in this printing house under the title " Rudimenta Cosmographica cum vocabulis rerum ". In the meantime he had repackaged the text in 1260 hexameters and changed its content considerably. One copy of this version came to the Weißenburg provost Anton Verantius via the Kronstadt city physicist Paulus Kyr , and another to Breslau. The completed version of the cosmography was published in Kronstadt in 1542 without any indication of the author in 1366 hexameters under the abbreviated title " Rudimenta cosmographica ".

The field of preventive medicine as well as sick and poor welfare was also considered by Honterus in his "Church Ordinance of All Germans in Sybembürgen" from 1547. In the 11th chapter he spoke about the sick, the elderly and the poor, "those who live in celts and rain in alleys" and set it as a work of the mercy of the parish that the sick are accommodated in hospitals and specially appointed senators and Hundreds of men who were to distribute sums intended for charity weekly among those in need.

After his return to Kronstadt, Honterus left his hometown only once to meet Luther in Wittenberg .

April 22, 1544: Election of the Kronstadt parish priest
1546 Foundation of the Kronstadt paper mill
1547 Establishment of a library in Kronstadt

Johannes Honterus founded the famous student association Coetus Honteri , which existed from 1544 to 1941. In 1543 he founded the Coronense course in Kronstadt , which still exists today as the German-speaking Honterus grammar school .

Publications

Honterus' map of Transylvania (1532)
Honterus' Universalis Cosmographia (1546)
  • 1532 two star maps and the first map of Transylvania (published in Basel)
  • 1541 a description of the world in verses and maps
  • 1543 Reformation booklet about the implementation of the Reformation in Transylvania (reprinted in Wittenberg in the same year with a foreword by Philipp Melanchthon ), as well as the first Transylvanian school regulations
  • 1544 Handbook of Civil Law ( compendium iuris civilis in usum civitatum ac sedium Saxonicarum in Transylvania - summary of civil law for the use of Saxon citizens and residents in Transylvania)
  • 1547 Church regulations for all Germans in Transylvania
  • 1548 addition to the description of Transylvania for Sebastian Münster

literature

  • Honterus, Joann. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 13, Leipzig 1735, column 796.
  • Georg Daniel Teutsch :  Honter, Johannes . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, pp. 78-83.
  • Hans Gerch Philippi:  Honter (us), Johannes. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 603 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Gernot Nussbächer: Johannes Honterus. His life and work in the picture. Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest 1974.
  • Arnold Huttmann : Medicine in the Latin Cosmography of the humanist Johannes Honterus (1498–1549) , from: Humanistica Lovaniensia , Univ. Press Leuven Vol. 23 (1974) pp. 128-144.
  • Arnold Huttmann: Johannes Honterus and medicine , in: Arnold Huttmann: Medicine in old Transylvania. Contributions to the history of medicine in Transylvania. Edited by Robert Offner. Hermannstadt (Sibiu) 2000.
  • Gernot Nussbächer, Astrid Philippi: Odae cum harmoniis 1548 . Facsimilia and transcriptions. Editura Muzical, Bucharest 1983.
  • Gernot Nussbächer: Johannes Honterus (1498–1549). In: Hans Barth (Ed.): From Honterus to Oberth. Eminent Transylvanian-German natural scientists, technicians and doctors. Kriterion, Bucharest 1980.
  • Gedeon Borsa: Johannes Honterus as a book illustrator ; in: Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 61, 1986, pp. 35–56, ill.
  • Gernot Nussbächer: The school reform of Honterus and the appearance of the Honterus school in the 16th century. In: Walter König (Ed.): Schola seminarium rei publicae. Essays on the past and present of the school system in Transylvania and Romania (= Transylvanian Archive. 38), Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1996.
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Bautz :  HONTER (US), Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 1035-1040.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Publication , Gruber : General Encyclopedia of Sciences and Arts Sect 2 T. 10 P. 381
  • Peter Hauptmann , in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE) Vol. 15, pp. 578-580.
  • Walter König: Johannes Honterus - praeceptor Saxonum. In: Walter König: Schola seminarium rei publicae. Essays on the past and present of the school system in Transylvania and Romania (= Transylvanian Archive. 38), Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1996.
  • Gernot Nussbächer: Contributions to Honterus research 1966–1989 . Working group for Transylvanian cultural studies e. V., Heidelberg 2003, ISBN 3-929848-33-3 , 271 pages.
  • Heinz Scheible: Melanchthon's correspondence persons 12, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 2005, ISBN 3-7728-2258-4
  • Robert Offner, Harald Roth, Thomas Şindliariu, Ulrich Andreas (eds.): Johannes Honterus. Rudimenta Cosmographica. Basics of the description of the world (Corona / Kronstadt 1542), translated and commented facsimile edition into German, Romanian and Hungarian , on behalf of the Democratic Forum of Germans in Kronstadt in cooperation with the Working Group for Transylvanian Cultural Studies eV Heidelberg, Schiller-Verlag Hermannstadt and Bonn, 1st edition 2015, 2nd edition 2017. (with financial support from Peter Maffay ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Offner et al. 2017, pp. 74 + 75.
  2. ↑ Arnold Huttmann : John Honterus and medicine , in Arnold Huttmann: Medicine in Ancient Transylvania, Sibiu / Sibiu f 2000 S. 145th
  3. ^ Heinrich Zeidner: Chronicles and Diaries, Sources for the History of the City of Kronstadt, Vol. 4 . Kronstadt 1903, p. 504–505 : “ Ditto on April 22nd with the common choice of the learned and godly man Mr. Johannes Honterus as parish priest in Cronstadt.” According to: Emese Sarkadi: Produced for Transylvania - Local Workshops and Foreign Connections. Studies of Late Medieval Altarpieces in Transylvania. PhD dissertation in Medieval Studies . Central European University , Budapest 2008 ( ceu.hu [PDF; accessed October 29, 2017]).

Web links

Commons : Johannes Honterus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Honterus, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Transylvanian scholar, reformer and humanist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1498
PLACE OF BIRTH Kronstadt (now Brașov), Transylvania
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1549
Place of death Kronstadt (now Brașov), Transylvania