Janus Gulielmus

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Janus Gulielmus , Latinized from Johannes Wilhelms / Ioannes Wilhelmi , (* 1555 in Lübeck , † 1584 in Bourges ) was a German philologist and poet.

Live and act

Janus Gulielmus' parents are unknown. They died when their son was young. He had a brother named Hermann Wilhelms. After the early death of his parents, he was supported and promoted by Arnold Bonnus , the son of the Lübeck superintendent Hermann Bonnus . His brother-in-law was the scholar Henricus Gerdovius.

Gulielmus probably attended the Lübeck Latin School . His teachers are not documented, but they probably included Hermann Wippermann and the headmaster Hiob Magdeburg . In January 1575 he enrolled as Johannes Wilhelmus at the University of Rostock . He first studied medicine and law, but after a short time clearly focused on Roman literature. His teachers included Johannes Caselius , Friedrich Brucaeus, David Chytraeus and his brother Nathan . Here he wrote a Latin treatise De magistratibus reipublicae Romanae, dum in libertate urbs fuit, libellus (On the statesmen of the Roman Republic during the time when the city was free). The work dedicated to the Hanseatic city went to print in Rostock in 1577.

Gulielmus then probably lived in Lübeck for a while and continued his studies in 1579 at the University of Cologne , where he belonged to the Kronenburse (Tricoronatum) . Their Preses Suffridus Petri had a strong influence on Gulielmus and encouraged him to deal with Cicero . His supporter Arnold Bonnus brought Gulielmus back to Lübeck for personal reasons. During his stay there, he translated the Phoenicians of Euripides into Latin verse and published them in Rostock in 1579. The same office printed the collection of poems Rosae, dedicated to Heinrich Rantzau , in 1580 . Epigrammata.

Between 1579 and 1581 Gulielmus converted in Cologne, where he lived again from 1580 at the latest, from the Protestant to the Catholic faith. His change of faith obviously met with incomprehension in Lübeck. This could be related to the fact that he did not comply with Arnold Bonnus' request to return to Lübeck and instead continued his philological studies in Cologne. The first work that emerged was the Verisimilium libri tres , which Christoffel Plantijn printed in Antwerp in 1582 . Gulielmus corrected and explained complicated texts by numerous Roman authors, including by Plautus , Terence , Statius Caecilius , Pompeius Festus or Aulus Gellius .

In the spring of 1583 Gulielmus went from Cologne to Paris to Jacobus Cuiacius . Here he dealt with Cicero and later with Plautus. In 1583 he published works on the history of tradition and textual criticism on Plautus' comedies. In 1584 he examined the authenticity of the Consolatio, which presumably came from Cicero, and received praise from Justus Lipsius for it . In the summer of 1584 he wanted to visit the library at Bourges University . On arrival he developed a high fever, perhaps due to tuberculosis, and died.

meaning

Gulielmus made important philological studies intended as lore and textual criticism. He wanted historical texts that had been badly judged to be reassessed and to present their original literal meaning. This included in particular the three books Verisimilia and the treatise Plautinae Quaestiones with more than 300 pages. Janus Gruterus and Friedrich Taubmann included this in their Plautus edition.

In addition to Plautus' entire comedies, Gulielmus dealt with other Latin authors and Cicero, who particularly interested him, in the Quaestiones . He planned an edition of his works, studied extensively manuscripts and visited libraries, but could not finish the work. Johannes Moller and Johann Henrich von Seelen documented what happened to this preliminary work, which Guilemus handed over to his longtime friend Augustin Kockert on his deathbed in France : they experienced a little odyssey and reached Gruterus, who used them in his Cicero edition of 1618, which was published in appeared several editions. Guliemus' collection of material was also included in the edition of Cicero's works by Jacobus Gronovius from 1692.

Gulielmus' poems were shaped by his philological work. Contemporaries valued him not only as a scholar but also as a poet. A sign of this is that Caspar Conrad tried to get a collective edition of Gulielmus' poems, which was printed in Liegnitz in 1603 .

Johannes Moller described Gulielmus as the "choicest head" ever born in Lübeck. Von Seelen placed him and Johannes Kirchmann in the group of the most important classical philologists who came from the Hanseatic city. He judged that it was more foreigners than citizens of the city itself who had praised him. With the exception of the change of faith, he can only be given recognition. In his short notes, referring largely to Moller, he quoted numerous scholars, including from Flanders and France, who had written acclaiming obituaries for Guliemus.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartmut Freytag: Janus, Gulielmus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 146.
  2. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
  3. ↑ Hartmut Freytag: Janus, Gulielmus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , pages 146-147.
  4. ↑ a b c d Hartmut Freytag: Janus, Gulielmus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 147.
  5. ↑ a b c Hartmut Freytag: Janus, Gulielmus . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1982–2011. Vol. 12 - 2006. ISBN 3-529-02560-7 , page 148.
personal data
SURNAME Gulielmus, Janus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gulielmus, Ioannes; Gulielmus, Johannes; Wilhelms, Janus; Wilhelmi, Janus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philologist and poet
DATE OF BIRTH 1555
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH 1584
Place of death Bourges