Johannes Scheffer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johannes Scheffer

Johannes Scheffer (born February 2, 1621 in Strasbourg , † March 26, 1679 in Uppsala ) was a German - Swedish humanist and scholar.

education

Johannes Scheffer ( Latinized Johannes Schefferus ) was born as the son of the wealthy businessman Johann Scheffer and his wife Elisabeth Kraschel. He traced his ancestry back to the first bookseller and publisher in the age of book printing, Peter Schöffer . Johannes Scheffer studied philology at the University of Strasbourg from 1637 under Johan Henrik Boeclerus . Then he went on trips to Holland , Switzerland and Leiden . In 1643 he published his first work, De varietate navium , in Strasbourg .

Uppsala University

In 1648 Scheffer was called to Sweden by Queen Christina . In Uppsala he took over the famous Skyttean Professorship for Politics and Rhetoric ( Skytteanska professuren i statskunskap och vältalighet ), which he held until his death. In 1665 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in law ( natural law and international law ). In 1658 and 1664 he was rector . In 1667 he was one of the first members of the antiquity college (Swedish Antikvitetskollegium ), which was to deal with ancient Nordic history and literature at the royal request . From 1677 Scheffer was also a librarian at Uppsala University .

scientist

During his time in Uppsala, Scheffer concentrated on classical philology . Among other things, he was the editor of a text-critical edition of the works of the Roman fable poet Phaedrus (1663). In addition, he was also very interested in other branches of science. Scheffer's rhetoric book De stylo (1653) and in 1671 the book Memorabilium sueticæ gentis exemplorum , a nationally oriented textbook about Sweden, became particularly famous . Among other things, he wrote the first Swedish work on archeology ( De orbibus tribus aureis ) and the first complete bibliography of literature printed in Sweden, Suecia literata , which appeared posthumously in 1680. Johannes Scheffer also published under his pseudonym Constantinus Opelius.

Lapland

Pioneering was Scheffer's volume Lapponia , one of the first and most important descriptions of Lapland and the Sami peoples of its time. In 1671, he was commissioned by statesman Magnus Gabriel de la Gardie to develop a realistic book on the customs and traditions of the Sami .

The Latin edition was published in Frankfurt am Main in 1673 . The book had great success in Europe and became a standard work. The English translation appeared in Oxford as early as 1674, a German edition in Frankfurt am Main and Leipzig in 1675 ( Joannis Schefferi von Strassburg: Lappland, That is: New and True Description of Lapland and its Inhabitants ) and in Paris in 1678 in the translation by Augustin Lubin (1624–1695) the work in French.

Private life

In 1648 Johannes Scheffer married Regina Loccenia, the daughter of the lawyer and historian Johannes Loccenius , who was Scheffer's predecessor from 1628 to 1642. The couple had two sons.

Most important works

  • De varietate navium (1643)
  • De stylo illiusque exercitiis ad veterum consuetudinem disputatio prima-sexta (1652/53)
  • De militia navali veterum libri quatuor. Ad historiam græcam latinamque vtiles (1654)
  • De antiquorum torqvibus. Syntagma (1656)
  • Argentoratensis de stylo illiusque exercitiis ad veterum consvetudinem liber (1657)
  • Phædri Aug. Lib.Fabularum æsopiarum libri qvinqve (1663)
  • Arriani Tactica: & Mauricii Artis militaris libri duodecim (1664)
  • Memorabilium sueticæ gentis exemplorum liber singularis (1671)
  • De re vehiculari veterum libri duo (1671)
  • Lapponia: id est, regionis Lapponum et gentis nova et verissima descriptio (1673)
  • Svecia literata seu de scriptis & scriptoribus gentis Sveciæ (1680, posthumous)

literature

  • Eric Michael Fant: Minne öfver Joh. Schefferus, Eloq. och Polit. Professor Skyttianus ... i Upsala . Carlbohm, Stockholm 1782 ( Google Books )
  • Ewert H. G. Wrangel: Sveriges litterära förbindelser med Holland särdeles under 1600-talet . In: Lunds universitets årsskrift 33, VI (1897), pp. 1–208 = De betrekkingen tusschen Zweden en de Nederlanden op het gebied van letteren en wetenschap, voornamelijk gedurende de zeventiende eeuw . E. J. Brill, Leiden 1901, pp. 190–232 ( digitized version of the Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren)
  • H [ans] Lindkjølen: Johannes Schefferus og bokverket "Lapponia" utgitt 1673 , in: Festskrift til Ørnulv Vorren. Tromsø 1994 (= Tromsø museums series 25), p. 23ff.
  • Richard Hoche :  Scheffer, Johannes Gerhard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 30, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 680 f.
  • Johannes Scheffer . In: Herman Hofberg, Frithiof Heurlin, Viktor Millqvist, Olof Rubenson (eds.): Svenskt biografiskt handlexikon . 2nd Edition. tape 2 : L – Z, including supplement . Albert Bonniers Verlag, Stockholm 1906, p. 425 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).
  • Johannes Scheffer . In: Theodor Westrin, Ruben Gustafsson Berg (eds.): Nordisk familjebok konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi . 2nd Edition. tape 24 : Ryssläder secretary . Nordisk familjeboks förlag, Stockholm 1916, Sp. 996 (Swedish, runeberg.org ).

Web links

Commons : Johannes Scheffer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Johannes Scheffer: Ioannis Schefferi Argentoratensis vita . (Äldre Svenska biography 1. Uppsala universitets årsskrift 1915, volume 2). Almqvist & Wiksell, Uppsala 1915, pp. 3-36, especially p. 7 ( digitized version in the Internet Archive); Carl Christoffer Gjörrwell: Om Pet. Schöffer, Schefferska Ättens Stamfader, och om samma Ätts Utgrenande . In: Eric Michael Fant: Minne öfver Joh. Schefferus, Eloq. och Polit. Professor Skyttianus ... i Upsala . Carlbohm, Stockholm 1782, pp. 71-89.
personal data
SURNAME Scheffer, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schefferus, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swedish scholar
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1621
PLACE OF BIRTH Strasbourg
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1679
Place of death Uppsala