Jan Šlechta ze Všehrd

Jan Šlechta ze Všehrd (also Johannes Slechta , Iohannes Sslechta ; born January 24, 1466 probably in Blevice , † August 29, 1525 in Kostelec nad Labem ) was a Czech humanist, philosopher and diplomat.

Life

Jan Šlechta ze Všehrd came from an old Bohemian Vladiken family , the ze Všehrd (from Tschern), who settled not far from Mašťov . Viktorin Kornel ze Všehrd was his uncle. After studying at Prague University , including under Master ehoř Pražský , Šlechta passed his bachelor's degree in 1484 and, at the age of twenty, entered the service of the Bohemian King Vladislav at the court in Budapest . Here he exercised political influence as a privy councilor of the royal chancellery with the undecided ruler. As a Catholic, he was a staunch opponent of the Brothers' Union and a skilled orator who was often compared to Cicero . He maintained numerous contacts with important humanists of his time, including Bohuslaus Lobkowicz von Hassenstein , who also worked in Budapest for a year in 1502, or Augustin Olomoucký , the German Conrad Celtis and the Italian Girolamo Balbi .

In 1504 he left the royal court and settled on his own farms. He administered his Rothenhausen estate, including in 1508 acquired the Drahobudice fortress from Nikolaus Popel von Lobkowitz . However, his main interest was literature. He built an extensive library, which was sold again after his death. Only fragments remained of his own works, mostly poems or parts of his correspondence with Erasmus of Rotterdam , Řehoř Hrubý z Jelení , Viktorin Kornel ze Všehrd. His most important philosophical work, Microcosmus , was lost. In this book, based on the work of Marsilio Ficino , he expressed the view that the small human world was created analogously to the great world of God.

The tomb of the humanist is at the church of St. Martin in Kostelec.

literature

• Adelmannus, Hieronymus Balbus, Ioannes Sslechta de Wssehrd, ed. J. Martinek et D. Martinkova, 1980
• Vladimír Mikule : Genealogy rodu Šlechtů ze Všehrd