Jakob Omphal

Jakob Opmhal and Elisabeth Bellinghausen ( Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder , 1538/39)

De elocutionis imitatione 1537 by Jakob Omphal

Jakob Omphal , Latin Iacobus Omphalius Andernacus (born February 11, 1500 in Andernach , † October 25, 1567 in Wiesdorf ) was a German lawyer and Chancellor of Cologne .

Live and act

Jakob Omphal was born on February 11, 1500 as the son of Bernd von Omphal and Hermine von Büren in Andernach in the Electorate of Cologne. The father's family belonged to the patriciate in Andernach. “Omphalius” as a Graeco - Latinized form of the name was first used by Jakob Omphal himself, a sign of his time and his humanistic education; the German family name is not known, from the Greek word meaning (ὀμφαλός - omphalós) it could have been “navel”, “nabe” or “nave”. In the city's records from the 14th and 15th centuries, the names "Speychnaven" and "Speychennaefe" are mentioned several times.

Omphal visited the Andernacher Latin School, studied at the Universities of Cologne and Utrecht jurisprudence and continued his studies probably lions continue. 1529 and 1530 he received his doctorate at the University of Sorbonne in Paris for Master of jurisprudence. In 1532 he represented the German nation in Paris as procurator and had a lively correspondence with the humanists of the time such as Erasmus of Rotterdam , Joseph Justus Scaliger , Bonifacius Amerbach and Ulrich Zasius . Three years later he received his doctorate in Toulouse.

After a total of seven years in France, he returned to Germany in 1537 to take up an assessor position at the Imperial Court of Justice in Speyer , where he met the later Imperial Vice Chancellor Georg Sigmund Seld . On February 8, 1539, Jakob Omphal married Elisabeth von Bellinghausen in Cologne, whose father was a Cologne city councilor and with whom he has six surviving children. As early as the next year, with the help of his father-in-law, he was accepted into the Kurköln Councilor.

During this time he came into close contact with Hermann Graf von Wied , who was both elector and archbishop of Cologne and who in 1543 unsuccessfully introduced reformatory innovations in the archbishopric of Cologne . Jakob Omphal therefore represented Kurköln at the Reichstag in 1544 and later his elector and archbishop when he was excommunicated in 1546 and forced to abdicate by Charles V in 1547 .

Doktorsburg in the 19th century

Jakob Omphal had meanwhile become Chancellor of Cologne in 1545 and entered the service of Duke Wilhelm V of Jülich-Kleve-Berg in 1551 . As his council, he took part in the days of the Reich and Deputation in 1556 and 1557/58. Since 1500 it was Holy Roman Empire in the original six Reichskreise divided, later came another four to including at the instance of Duke in 1559 the Circle Lower Rhine-Westphalia , for Jacob Omphal the Office of General Counsel held and therefore ennobled still in the same year ( ennoblement in the imperial nobility ) had to be in order to avoid label and ceremony disputes because of his person.

After a riding accident in 1562, Jakob von Omphal retired from politics to Haus Büchel in Wiesdorf, which he had acquired as an estate in 1540. There he died at the age of 67 on October 25, 1567 and was buried in the Wiesdorfer church. The property, which is called Doktorsburg after him , remained in the possession of his family for over a hundred years; the manor house still exists today after it was rebuilt in 1682 by Baron von Merode, Commander of the Teutonic Order . In 1910 it went to the Wiesdorf community. A portrait medal by Jakob von Omphal can be found in the Cologne City Museum .

Works (selection)

• Prolegomena in nobilem illam MT Ciceronis per Aulo Caecina orationem , 1535 - Preliminary remarks on that noble speech by MT Cicero for Aulus Caecina
• T. Maccii Plauti Comoediae aliquot selectiores ex multis exemplaribus collatis , Paris 1537 - Some comedies by T. Maccius Plautus selected from many collected copies
• De elocutionis imitatione ac apparatu , Simon Colinaeus, Paris 1537; Joh. Birckmann & Theo. Baum, Cologne 1567, 1580 - On diction, imitation and expenditure (rhetoric)
• De suspicienda reipublicae propugnatione , 1538 - On the highly respected defense of the state
• Epistolae de dissidiis religionis , 1539 - Letters on the divided religions
• De usurpatione legum et eorum studiis, qui iurisprudentiae professionem sibi sumunt , 1550 - On the use of the laws and their studies, which are reflected in the subject of law.
• De officio et potestate principis in republica bene ac sancte gerenda , Basel 1550 - On the office and power of the prince in a well-and-holy state
• De civili politia libri III , Cologne 1563 - Three books on the bourgeois state
• Nomologia, qua eloquendi ac disserendi ratio ad vsum forensem ciuiliumque causarum procurationem, pergrata studiorum omnium utilitate , Paris 1579

literature

• Literature by and about Jakob Omphal in the catalog of the German National Library
• Ingmar Ahl: Humanist Politics between Reformation and Counter Reformation. The prince mirror of Jakob Omphalius . Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-515-07969-6 (also dissertation, University of Frankfurt am Main 2001)
• Günter Bers: Notes on the dedication speeches by a Cologne humanist. On the literary activity of Jacobus Omphalius , in: James V. Mehl (ed.): Humanism in Cologne / Humanism in Cologne (= studies on the history of the University of Cologne 10). Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1991, ISBN 3-412-06490-4 , pp. 175-208
• Stefan Honorary Award:  Omphal (ius), Jakob (Jakobus) v .. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 533 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Kaspar von Greyerz: Short biographies by Peter Falck, Guillaume Farel, Aegidius Hasebart, Werner Huyn, Jacobus Omphalius, Leonhard Priccard, Matthäus Schiner, Johann Schönraid and Johann Sudermann, in: Peter G. Bietenholz, Thomas B. Deutscher (eds.): Contemporaries of Erasmus. A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation . 3 volumes. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1985–1987 (Reprint: Toronto 2003, ISBN 0-8020-8577-6 )
• Johann Joseph Höveler: Iacobus Omphalius Andernacus, a famous humanist and statesman of the 16th century . (= Annual report of the Progymnasium in Andernach; 1899/1900). Weigt, Andernach 1900 ( digitized version )
• Bruno Singer: The Fürstenspiegel in Germany in the age of humanism and the Reformation . Wilhelm Fink, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7705-1782-2 (plus dissertation, University of Freiburg i. Br. 1976/77)
• Albert Teichmann :  Omphalius, Jakob von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 352 f.

Web links

• Jacobus Omphalius Andernacus, Rector Dr. Johann Joseph Höveler, 1900
• Acquisition of the country estate in Wiesdorf (Doktorsburg) ( Memento from October 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
• Brief CV of Dr. Jakob von Omphal
• Portrait medal of Dr. Jakob von Omphal