Johann Peschel

Johann Peschel (* around 1535 in Ried im Innkreis ; † 1599 in Orlishausen ), Latinized Johannes Peschelius , was a Lutheran pastor in Thuringia and a garden designer. He wrote a garden book, which for the first time was not devoted to the pure cultivation of plants, but exclusively dealt with the design of gardens. Johann Peschel can be described as such an early landscape architect .

Life

Peschel studied theology at the University of Wittenberg from March 21, 1559 , there acquired the academic degree of Magister in Philosophy on October 8, 1562 and was ordained as pastor in Balgstädt on September 16, 1562 in Querfurt . In addition to his parish activities, he designed gardens for civil and princely clients. He was married in first marriage with Magdalena Kalkhoff († 30 August 1568), daughter of the provost of Schlieben , John Kalckofen. From 1580 Peschel was pastor in Orlishausen (near Sömmerda , Thuringia). In 1597 his only book appeared in Eisleben , the garden order , printed by the then well-known publisher Henning Grosse (1553–1621) in Leipzig . After the death of his wife, he married a woman named Anna. Both marriages produced nine sons and two daughters. 1579 he signed the Concord (Formula of Concord) and pleaded with it to Lutheran orthodoxy .

Working as a garden designer

Peschel's sphere of activity was limited regionally due to his duties as a pastor. None of the gardens he designed have survived. This is attributable to the Thirty Years War and its consequences. However, some of Peschel's clients and their places of work are known.

Peschel's written work has come down to us, the: Garden Order. In it a neat and real description / how to make a useful and graceful garden for a right reason of the Geometria / with artificial division and order of the bed / as much for lakes [sowing] as for plants: also vines and rose walks / and especially some graceful and amusing labyrinths large and small should be arranged according to the occasion of each place and place [...]. The book consists of 138 sheets, printed with text and numerous woodcuts . It is divided into three parts; the first part deals with the design of flower beds, the second is devoted to the design of mazes , the third deals in brief with the planting of orchards and was taken from the little fruit book of Elector August von Sachsen . The book is not a splendid volume, the production of which would have exceeded Peschel's ability, but rather an understandable, practical guide, written throughout in German. Only ten copies are still detectable; Almost all of them are in the possession of German university or state libraries, including the Bavarian State Library in Munich; one copy is in the Aargau canton library in Switzerland.

The garden designs show the typical rows of beds in Renaissance gardens. What is remarkable is the detail with which Peschel treated the creation of mazes. Peschel himself had created six mazes for four clients. They were probably made of green wooden trellises and not, as is usually the case today, of cut hedges . Peschel's construction methods appear very modern. Most of the floor plans show facilities with eleven aisles, many square, some round. In Peschel's book there is also the original draft of the maze in Altjeßnitz, which was only realized with changes around 1735 .

literature

• Clemens Alexander Wimmer : History of the garden theory. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-01314-X , pages 67-78.
• Garden order, in it neat, true description [...] . Edited by Clemens Alexander Wimmer (reprint of the Leipzig edition 1597, with explanations). Nördlingen: Uhl, 2000, ISBN 3-921503-97-3 .
• Veronika Albrecht-Birkner [and a.]: Pastors' book of the ecclesiastical province of Saxony. Volume 6. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02138-3 , page 458.

Web links

• Brief analysis of the work of Peschel by Clemens Alexander Wimmer

Individual evidence

1. ↑ AAV 356a, 8.
2. ^ Deanery book phil. Fac. UWB.