Johannes Scultetus Montanus

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Memorial plaque to Montanus in Striegau (Polish)

Johannes Scultetus Montanus (* 1531 in Striegau ; † June 3, 1604 in Hirschberg (?)) Was a Silesian doctor and central figure of Paracelsism in Silesia.

Also Montanus Strige, Johannes Scultetus, Johannes Montanus, Trimontanus and instead of Johannes Johan or Johann. In Polish also Jan Montanus.

biography

Montanus was the son of a surgeon and studied at the University of Bologna , where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1557. He worked as a doctor in his hometown Striegau and in Hirschberg. He enjoyed a high reputation among the supporters of iatrochemistry and among the Paracelsists (for example Oswald Croll ). Several of his recipes were in circulation. He became particularly known as the discoverer of the Silesian seal earth ( Terra Sigillata Strigonensis), which made his hometown rich and was considered a miracle cure for many diseases. He wrote a book about it and received a patent from Rudolf II for its use.

He went on trips on which he met Conrad Gessner in Zurich by 1560 at the latest and collected numerous Paracelsus writings, which he later made available to others. The collection has been lost since the 17th century. In the older Paracelsus research (for example Karl Sudhoff ) it is considered to be an invaluable collection , which was assumed to be the basis of many printed editions. What is certain, however, is that he promoted the editing of works by Paracelsus by Georg Forberger (who visited Montanus in Striegau at the latest in 1571) and Johann Huser (according to the Paracelsus book From the diseases so rob people of reason , Strasbourg 1576, publisher Michael Toxites , with the assistance of J. Huser). Huser also generally names Montanus, his beloved praeceptor , as his main source for Paracelsus writings. Huser published a basic Paracelsus edition in Basel from 1589 to 1591. The print of Paracelsus Modus pharmacandi (Cologne 1562) was also based on a handwriting that Montanus made available to A. Rinck from Cologne.

According to Joachim Telle, his Paracelsism was shaped by end-time expectations and the associated hope for social reform. A conversation with an anonymous Englishman PS (Patrick Saunders?) In 1597 in which he hopes for a renewal of all sciences and arts through an Elias artista is evidence of this. Prince August von Anhalt reported in a letter from 1614 that old Montanus had described the Confessio Augustana as an apocalyptic beast.

His circle of friends included the mountain master Andreas Berthold in Kupferberg near Hirschberg, the doctor Johannes Franke and the doctor in Würzburg Johannes Posthius , the theologian Jakob Coler and the Paracelsists Georg Forberger, Johann Huser ( Glogau ), Leonhard Thurneysser , Franz Kretschmer in Goldkronach and Zacharias Wechinger in Sagan .

According to the poet Daniel von Czepko , he was a master of alchemy who could do the fifth of things and thereby rejuvenate himself .

His grave is in the parish church of St. Peter and Paul in Striegau.

Fonts

  • Judicium de terra sigillata, in A. Berthold: Terra sigillatae ... vires atque virtutes, Frankfurt am Main 1583 (first edition, Latin)
    • also as a single print in Nuremberg 1585, Breslau 1597, 1610 (with poems of praise by Johannes Posthius and others)
    • German version by Johann Wittich: Report from the ... Beozardic stones, Leipzig 1589

literature

  • Wilhelm Kühlmann, Joachim Telle: Corpus Paracelsisticum, Volume 1 to 3, The early Paracelsism. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 2001–2004, and Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2013. Volume 2 (Niemeyer 2004), p. 239ff (volume 3 contains two letters from Montanus to Leonhard Thurneisser from 1574 and 1576)
  • Joachim Telle: Scultetus, Johannes, also: JS Montanus, J. Montanus, Trimontanus , in: Walter Killy (Ed.), Literaturlexikon , Volume Ros-Se, De Gruyter, from 2008, p. 706
  • Joachim Telle: Johann Huser in his letters , in: Telle (Ed.), Parerga Paracelsica, Stuttgart 1992, pp. 216-219
  • Karl H. Dannenfeldt: The introduction of a new sixteenth-century drug: Terra Silesiaca , Medical History, Volume 28, 1984, pp. 174-188
  • Karl Sudhoff: Attempt to Critique the Authenticity of the Paracelsian Writings , Part 1, Berlin 1894

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data according to Kühlmann, Telle, Frühparacelsismus, Volume 2, p. 239. Then the question mark in Hirschberg.
  2. ↑ Kühlmann, Telle, Frühparacelsismus, Volume 2, pp. 239f. Karl Sudhoff therefore assumed that the center of early Paracelsism was not in Basel, but in Silesia. Telle / Kühlmann consider this only partially certain.
  3. ↑ Robert Burton , who mentions Montanus in his De Melancholia , had his knowledge of this through this PS .
  4. ↑ Joachim Telle, Killy Literaturlexikon, he quotes from Sexcenta Monodisticha Sapientum 1653
personal data
SURNAME Montanus, Johannes Scultetus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Montanus Strige; Johannes Scultetus; Johannes Montanus; Trimontanus; Johannes Montanus; Jan Montanus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German medic and Paracelsist
DATE OF BIRTH 1531
PLACE OF BIRTH Striegau
DATE OF DEATH June 3, 1604
Place of death uncertain: Hirschberg