Johannes Trithemius

Johannes Trithemius
(portrait 15th or 16th century )

Johannes Trithemius (relief by Tilman Riemenschneider , ca.1516, photo 2009)

Detail of the relief

Johannes Trithemius , Latinized from Johann (es) Tritheim , also called Johannes von Trittenheim , Johann Heidenberg and Johannes Zeller (born February 1, 1462 in Trittenheim , † December 13, 1516 in Würzburg ), was abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Sponheim and from 1506 of the Schottenkloster Würzburg , versatile scholar and humanist .

Life

Johann (es) Heidenberg latinized his name "Ioannes Tritemius" (the spellings with "J" and "h" are later).

Before he was a year old, his father, Johann von Heidenburg , died . His stepfather, whom his mother Elisabeth married seven years later, was an opponent of education and put numerous obstacles in the way of the young Trithemius. Only in secret and with great difficulty could he learn Greek and Latin , and later Hebrew as well . At the age of 17 he fled his parents' house and went in search of outstanding teachers. He traveled via Trier , Cologne , the Netherlands and Heidelberg and at the end of January 1482 came to the Benedictine abbey in Sponheim near Bad Kreuznach , which he entered. On July 29, 1483, only a year and a half after joining the monastery, he was elected the 25th abbot of the monastery as the youngest member of the convent . On November 9, he received through the Mainzer Bishop Berthold von Oberg the benediction .

Trithemius emphatically eliminated the previously easy-going habits of the monks and brought a new seriousness into monastic life through numerous theological and educational activities. Through these disciplines and a new regulation of the monastic rights, he also succeeded in an economic consolidation of the run-down finances. In 1491, a register of the monastery was created on his behalf, and he also had two wisdoms created. His unusual activity and assertiveness did not go unnoticed for long. He was soon used as a visitor to the surrounding sister monasteries and finally appointed co-president of the general chapter of the Bursfeld congregation .

In the exercise of his official activities and as a sought-after preacher and speaker, Trithemius toured large parts of Germany, much to the advantage of his great passion, the library of the monastery. When he entered the monastery there were 48 books there, a quite common number for a monastery library at the time . In 1505, when Trithemius left Sponheim, the collection had grown to more than 2000 copies, one of the largest, if not the largest, library in Germany. The majority of the monastery income was used for this. The fame of this treasure trove of knowledge shone across Europe, made Trithemius known with it and drew a large stream of learned visitors to Sponheim. In addition to the leading humanists of his time, Johannes Reuchlin , Conrad Celtis , Johann XX. von Dalberg , Dietrich Gresemund or Jakob Wimpheling he was in contact with bishops , electors and even Emperor Maximilian I. The emperor commissioned him with a genealogical study of the Habsburg dynasty.

The numerous high-ranking guests brought unrest and extensive work for the monks. Trithemius saw himself as a monastery reformer who was striving for a stricter agenda, increased fasting days and monastic discipline. The tension between the abbot and the convent grew. In 1506 Trithemius found a new home in the Schottenkloster Sankt Jakob in Würzburg on the call of humanistic ideas towards the open-minded Prince-Bishop Lorenz von Bibra . There he was also elected abbot in the same year; he held this position until his death in 1516. In Sankt Jakob he was respected for his learning, but the loss of his library overshadowed and embittered his old age.

He was buried in the Würzburg Schottenkloster (from 1825 Neumünster collegiate monastery ). His grave epitaph , which shows him in pontifical garb with miter and staff, comes from the school of Tilman Riemenschneider .

Effect and work

The Polygraphiae of Johannes Trithemius is the first printed book on the subject of cryptography and contains its tabula recta

Trithemius is considered to be one of the most versatile and important German scholars of his time, even though he had never attended university. In addition to his active lecturing activities, he was a sought-after teacher and advisor in intellectual and court circles. Friends Johannes Reuchlin and Conrad Celtis praised his erudition. Alexander Hegius reported on his visit with the words: "I have seen the great, shining light of the world". The young Elector Joachim I of Brandenburg called Trithemius the "splendor of our age".

Trithemius wrote over 90 works of theological, historical, bibliographical and secret language nature. His work Liber de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis , first printed in Basel in 1494 , a directory of 962 ecclesiastical writers, together with the opening words of their works, is considered one of the first bibliographies . Trithemius dealt with languages and secret languages for over 20 years; These interests found their most lasting expression in two cryptological works: first in the Steganographia (1499/1500), which was conceived in two versions and not published by the author, and then in the repeatedly revised Polygraphia (1508/1515). The latter work, in Trithemius 'final editing, introduced a series of collected works in separate editions immediately after Trithemius' death .

Although he rejected vulgar alchemy , his ideas, especially his interpretation of the Tabula Smaragdina , influenced alchemical thought. One of his students was Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim , who was in Sponheim in 1510 and was working on his main work De Occulta Philosophia there in the library .

Controversy

In 1494 Trithemius got into a theological conflict when he claimed in De laudibus sanctissimae matris Annae ('In Praise of Saint Anne') that she had received her daughter Mary immaculate. Towards the end of his life Trithemius was overtaken by the reputation of a history forger when he invented the chroniclers “Meginfried” and “Hunibald” in order to be able to meet the genealogical research efforts of Emperor Maximilian. Trithemius' Annales Hirsaugienses as well as his information on the early history of the Sponheim monastery and the genealogy of the Spanheimers occasionally turn out to be unreliable.

Since 1503, Trithemius came under suspicion of black magic because of the misunderstood steganographia , which was not explained to his visitor Bo [u] velles . In the Antipalus maleficiorum ('opponent of witchcraft') Trithemius turns against alleged wizards and witches , whereby the bibliographer also creates a detailed list based on their theological content of permitted and prohibited writings. In the De septem secund [da] eis ('Of the seven [auxiliary] spirits') Trithemius reports a third time about the planetary spirits that appeared for the first time in Steganographia III, then also in Polygraphia , who ruled the world on God's behalf, and ends this Excursus with a cautious "Whoever believes these things."

reception

Trithemius' Steganographia (as well as Heidel's reprint and explanations, 1676 and 1721) were on the index of banned books until the end of the 19th century .

A bust of Johannes Trithemius is in the Hall of Fame in Munich. A statue was erected in his honor in Trittenheim on the Moselle .

Works (selection)

Catalogus illustrium virorum Germaniae , 1495

Liber octo quaestionum, quas illi dissoluendas proposuit Maximilanus , 1534

Annales Hirsaugienses , 1509-1514
Antipalus maleficiorum , 1508
Cathalogus illustrium virorum germaniam suis ingenijs et lucubrationibus omnifariam exornantium , 1491–1495 ( digitized version ) - reference work on German writers of the Middle Ages, is considered the first German literary history

Chronicon Hirsaugiense , 1495-1503

Chronicon Sponheimense , approx. 1495–1509 - Chronicle of the Sponheim Monastery, 1024-1509 ; Self-published by Carl Velten, Bad Kreuznach 1969 (German)

Chronicon successionis ducum Bavariae et comitum Palatinorum , approx. 1500–1506. Übers .: Chronicon Des highly praiseworthy house of the Pfaltzgraffschaff near the Rhine / and Hertzogthum in Beyern, 1616 ( digitized version )

Compendium sive breviarium primi voluminis chronicarum sive annalium de origine regum et gentis Francorum , ca.1514

De cura pastorali , 1496

De duodecim excidiis oberservantiae regularis , 1496

De institutione vitae sacerdotalis , 1486

De laude scriptorum manualium , 1492 ( digitized version ) - In praise of the writers ; Friends of Mainfränkischer Kunst und Geschichte e. V., Würzburg 1973 (Latin / German).

De laudibus sanctissimae matris Annae , 1494 ( digitized version )

De origine gentis Francorum compendium , 1514 - An abridged history of the Franks / Johannes Trithemius . AQ-Verlag , Dudweiler 1987, ISBN 978-3-922441-52-6 (Latin / English)

De origine, progressu et laudibus ordinis fratrum Carmelitarum , 1492

De proprietate monachorum , 1495 ( digitized version )

De regimine claustralium , 1486

De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis , 1494 ( digitized version )

De septem secundeis id est intelligentiis sive spiritibus orbes post deum moventibus , ca.1508

De triplici regione claustralium et spirituali exercitio monachorum , 1497

De vanitate et miseria humanae vitae , 1495 ( digitized version )

De visitatione monachorum , around 1490

De viris illustribus ordinis sancti Benedicti , 1492

Exhortationes ad monachos , 1486

In laudem et commendatione Ruperti quondam abbatis Tuitiensis , 1492

Liber octo quaestionum , 1515

Liber penthicus seu lugubris de statu et ruina ordinis monastici , 1493 ( digitized version )

Nepiachus , 1507

Polygraphiae libri sex , 1508 ( digitized version )

Steganographia , ca.1500

expenditure

17th century

Marquard Freher : Opera historica . Frankfurt 1601 (reprint: Minerva, Frankfurt / Main, 1966)
Johannes Busaeus: Opera pia et spiritualia . 1604 and 1605 ( digitized version )
Johannes Busaeus: Paralipomena opuscolorum . 1605 and 1624

Modern times

Klaus Arnold: Johannes Trithemius: De laude scriptorum - To praise the writer . Introduced, edited and translated, Würzburg 1973 ( Mainfränkische Hefte , H. 60)

literature

Klaus Arnold: Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516) (= sources and research on the history of the diocese and bishopric of Würzburg , vol. 23). 2nd, revised edition. Schöningh, Würzburg 1991, ISBN 3-87717-045-5
Noel L. Brann: The abbot Trithemius (1462-1516), The Renaissance of Monastic Humanism (= Studies in the History of Christian Thought 24). Brill, Leiden 1981, ISBN 90-04-06468-0
Noel L. Brann: Trithemius and magical theology, a chapter in the controversy over occult studies in early modern Europe . State University of New York Press, Albany NY 1999, ISBN 0-7914-3962-3
Thomas Ernst: Black and white magic: The key to the third book of the Steganographia of Trithemius . In: Daphnis. Zeitschrift für Mittlere Deutsche Literatur 25/1, 1996, pp. 1–205.
Thomas Ernst: Anatomy of a forgery: "Johannis Trithemij [...] Steganographiæ Lib · 3. cum Clave, tàm generalj, quàm specialj [...] MDXXI." In: Daphnis. Journal for Middle German Literature and Culture of the Early Modern Age (1400–1750) , 30 / 3–4, 2001, pp. 513–595.
Maximilian Gamer: The Polygraphia of Johannes Trithemius. Two versions of an early modern manual on secret writing . In: Thomas Baier (Ed.): Würzburger Humanismus. Narr Verlag, Tübingen 2015, pp. 121–141, ISBN 978-3-8233-6898-4 .
Michael Kuper: Johann Trithemius, the black abbot . Zerling, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-88468-065-X
Paul Lehmann: peculiarities of the abbot Johannes Trithemius . Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 1961
Schlechter, Armin : Johannes Trithemius (1462–1516). Benedictine, humanist and church reformer. (Publications of the State Library Center Rhineland-Palatinate; 14) Koblenz, 2016. 100 p., ISSN 1861-6224
Christoph Schmitt: Trit (h) emius, Johannes. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 19, Bautz, Nordhausen 2001, ISBN 3-88309-089-1 , Sp. 1446-1454. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )

Web links

Wikisource: Johannes Trithemius - Sources and full texts

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

Literature by and about Johannes Trithemius in the catalog of the German National Library
Works by and about Johannes Trithemius in the German Digital Library
Johannes Trithemius in the repertory "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages"
Latin works in the Analytic Bibliography of On-Line Neo-Latin Texts
De septem secundeis in German translation (About the seven archangels who, according to God's will, move the planets and guide the fate of the world)
Johannes Trithemius parish Trittenheim

Remarks

↑ For further variants see DNB .
↑ Cf. the self-report on his literary work in Johannes Trithemius: Cathalogus illustrium viro [rum] germania [m] suis ingenijs et lucubrationibus omnifariam exornantium . s. l. [Mainz], s. n. [Friedberg] 1495. Bl. 75f ( digitized version ).
^ William R. Newman, Johannes Trithemius, in Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998, p. 362.
^ Isidor Silbernagl : Johannes Trithemius . Landshut 1868, pp. 160-186.
^ Josef Heinzelmann : Spanheimer-Späne: chess coat of arms and Konradinererbe . In: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte , 25, 1999, pp. 7–68.

personal data
SURNAME	Trithemius, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Heidenberg, Johannes; Zeller, Johannes; Trittenheim, Johannes von; Tritheim, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Abbot at Sponheim Monastery, versatile scholar and humanist
DATE OF BIRTH	February 1, 1462
PLACE OF BIRTH	Trittenheim
DATE OF DEATH	December 13, 1516
Place of death	Wurzburg

[1] For further variants see DNB .

[2] Cf. the self-report on his literary work in Johannes Trithemius: Cathalogus illustrium viro [rum] germania [m] suis ingenijs et lucubrationibus omnifariam exornantium . s. l. [Mainz], s. n. [Friedberg] 1495. Bl. 75f ( digitized version ).

[3] William R. Newman, Johannes Trithemius, in Claus Priesner , Karin Figala : Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998, p. 362.

[Silbernagl-4] Isidor Silbernagl : Johannes Trithemius . Landshut 1868, pp. 160-186.

[Heinzelmann-5] Josef Heinzelmann : Spanheimer-Späne: chess coat of arms and Konradinererbe . In: Jahrbuch für Westdeutsche Landesgeschichte , 25, 1999, pp. 7–68.