Johannes Faber (anatomist)

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Johannes Faber (also Giovanni Faber; * 1574 in Bamberg as Johann Schmidt ; † September 29, 1629 in Rome ) was a German anatomist , botanist and papal personal physician . He lived in Rome from 1598. As Chancellor of the Accademia dei Lincei , he was known to several scholars and artists of his time. One ascribes the name of the microscope to him.

Signature of Johannes Faber (October 26, 1611)

Live and act

Youth in Franconia

Johannes Faber was born in Bamberg in 1574 as Johann Schmidt to Protestant parents. At the age of one, he was orphaned by a plague outbreak . He was taken in and raised by his cousin Philipp Schmitt, who had him baptized Catholic. After completing his training at Bamberg High School, he went to the University of Würzburg , where he studied medicine under the direction of Adriaan van Roomen . In 1597 he received his doctorate .

Further life in Rome

In 1598 Johannes Faber moved to Rome to continue his studies there and worked as a doctor in the Santo Spirito Hospital in Sassia . He became an assistant to Andrea Cesalpino and Andrea Bacci . In addition to medicine, he was also enthusiastic about botany, where he worked with Bacci and Cesare Cesalpino. In 1600 he was appointed to the chair of botany and anatomy at La Sapienza University in Rome. In addition, he became director of the papal garden Orto Botanico di Roma . In this high position he often had to do directly with the Pope and was entrusted with both scientific and political assignments. In 1608 Johannes Faber received Roman citizenship. Faber regularly attended the Santa Maria dell'Anima Church , which was frequently visited by the Germans who lived in Rome. He was elected several times as the “provisional” of this community of citizens of the Holy Roman Empire. As director of the papal gardens, he worked with five different popes: Clement VIII , Leo XI. , Paul V. , Gregory XV. and Urban VIII. , who appointed him as personal physician . In 1608 Faber was sent to Naples by Paul V. The official reason for this order was to acquire some unusual botanical specimens, but Faber was also asked to inquire about the prison conditions of prisoner Tommaso Campanella . In October 1611 Faber was accepted into the Accademia dei Lincei ; from April 1612 he was Chancellor of the Accademia.

Johannes Faber also had frequent dealings with several cardinals, including Cinzio Aldobrandini , Scipione Caffarelli Borghese , Francesco Barberini , Scipione Cobelluzzi and Eitel Friedrich von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen . Beyond the Alps, Faber's letter correspondents were often princes such as Philip III of Hessen-Butzbach , Friedrich I of Hessen-Homburg , Ludwig V of Hessen-Darmstadt , Friedrich von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg , Maximilian III. and Leopold V von Habsburg or members of influential families of the Holy Roman Empire such as the Fuggers from Augsburg .

On August 19, 1612 he married Maria Anna Hyrler. Several children were born from this marriage, but only three of them survived childhood: Maria Vittoria, Maria Maddalena and Giano Domenico. Johannes Faber died on September 29, 1629 and was buried in the church of Santa Maria dell'Anima next to his wife, who had died two years earlier.

Art lover and friend of the artist

In his house in Rome, not far from the Pantheon , Faber collected an impressive number of minerals, plants and animal skeletons. He also became an avid collector of paintings. Among the Germans living in Rome at the time, there were also artists with whom Faber became friends, for example Adam Elsheimer and Johann Rottenhammer . In 1606, Faber took care of the seriously ill Peter Paul Rubens for a while . As a thank you, he gave him a painting of a rooster.

The name of the microscope

Just as Cesi called Galileo's telescope “ telescope ”, Johannes Faber was the first to use the word “ microscope ” for Galileo's occhialino .

Works

  • De Nardo Et Epithymo Aduersus Iosephvm Scaligervm Dispvtatio: Qva Plantarvm Istarvm Vera descriptio continetur; Dioscoridis, propertij & Ouidij loca declarantur. Facciotti, Rome 1607 (digitized version )
  • In Imagines Illustrium ex Fulvii Ursini Bibliotheca, Antverpiae a Theodoro Gallaeo expressas, Commentarius . Plantin, Antwerp 1606 (digitized version)
  • Oratio qua ignis et metallorum exemplo quam parum sciamus demonstratur.
  • Short and necessary undermining. How every, less intelligent, poisonous Pestilenzian fever or Ungerian disease… should show and behave. Hänlin, Ingolstadt 1621 (digitized version)
  • De animalibus indicis Apud Mexicum. 1628, annotated and illustrated

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Gabriella Belloni speciale, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani , Volume 43, 1993 online , accessed on June 26, 2018 (Italian).
  2. ^ Joannes Faber: Theses medicae de febre putrida et febre pestilentiali. Georgius Fleischmann, Würzburg 1597. Google books
  3. ↑ Alessandra Mercatini: Inventory del Fondo John Faber della Biblioteca dell'Accademia dei Lincei e Corsiniana. 2013. Link .
  4. ^ Accademia dei Lincei, Faber-Schmidt, online .
  5. ^ An offering of thanks by Peter Paul Rubens for his doctor Johannes Faber. Hans Ost, Sudhoffs Archiv Vol. 93, H. 2 (2009), pp. 223-229.
  6. ↑ Where did the microscope get its name from? | Light microscope. Accessed June 25, 2018 (German).
  7. ^ Letter from Faber to Federico Cesi, dated April 13, 13. In: William B. Carpenter et WH Dallinger, The Microscope and Its Revelations , 8th Ed. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1901), pp. 124-125 (English).
  8. ↑ Biblioteca Nazionale Napoli, VIII D13, ff. Kk-v.
personal data
SURNAME Faber, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Faber, Giovanni; Schmidt, Johann (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anatomist, botanist and papal personal physician
DATE OF BIRTH 1574
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1629
Place of death Rome