Caspar Peucer

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Caspar Peucer

Caspar Peucer (also Kaspar Peucer, Peucker ; born January 6, 1525 in Budissin , † September 25, 1602 in Dessau ) was a church reformer, mathematician, astronomer, doctor, diplomat and writer and an important representative of late German humanism .

Live and act

Born as the son of the wealthy Sorbian craftsman Gregor Peucer (* March 12, 1497; † February 25, 1560) and his wife Ottilie (born Simon; † May 5, 1540) he attended the Budissin Council School, where he already had a high intellectual ability expelled. So it was suggested to his father that he should continue to support him so that he could attend college. So his father sent him to the grammar school in Goldberg , where he received an excellent education from Valentin Friedland . On his recommendation, he went to Wittenberg in 1540, where he was accepted into the house of Philipp Melanchthon . He completed the preparatory school for the university in Wittenberg and enrolled under the rectorate of Caspar Cruciger the Elder on March 26, 1543 at the University of Wittenberg .

As prescribed at the time, Peucer first studied at the Faculty of Philosophy. His teachers included Erasmus Reinhold , Jakob Milich and Georg Joachim Rheticus . His studies also included lectures on classical literature, history, philosophy and theology. On September 1, 1545, he acquired the degree of master's degree in the seven liberal arts. Subsequently, he mainly pursued medical studies. As a result of the Schmalkaldic War , he was only able to continue his medical studies in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1547 . But in the following year he returned to the Wittenberg Academy and was accepted into the Senate of the Philosophical Faculty. After he had married Magdalena (born July 19, 1531 in Wittenberg, † September 12, 1576 in Wittenberg), the daughter of his uncle Melanchthon, on June 2, 1550, he moved to the University of Leipzig for medical studies in 1552 June 1552 in Wittenberg licentiate in medicine.

In 1554 he became professor for "higher mathematics". He wrote works on earth surveying ( De dimensione terrae , 1550) and on the fundamentals of astronomy ( Elementa doctrinae de circulis coelestibus , 1551). On January 30, 1560 he received his doctorate in medicine, became a professor of medicine and, in the summer semester of 1560, rector of the University of Wittenberg. After Melanchthon's death he tried to preserve his legacy. He published various letters and speeches by Melanchthon, continued his historical lectures on the “Chronicon Carionis” and conveyed Melanchthon's Philippism in the “Corpus Doctrinae Philippicum”.

From 1563 Peucer maintained regular contact with the Electoral Saxon court and in 1566 was raised to the hereditary nobility by Emperor Maximilian II . From 1570 he was the personal physician of the Elector August of Saxony . In addition, in 1571 he was given the sponsorship office for Prince Adolf. The developing contacts with the electoral family are evidenced by a rather extensive correspondence that Caspar Peucer conducted with both the elector and his wife, Anna of Denmark .

In 1571 Caspar Peucer was significantly involved in the publication of the new Wittenberg catechism of the theological faculty. As the political leader of the Philippists, Peucer was strongly attacked by Lutheran orthodoxy and called a cryptocalvinist . In connection with the " Bartholomew's Night " held in France in 1572 , Saxony abruptly changed its denominational policy and now followed the radical course of the Gnesiolutherans . Followers of Calvinism became enemies of the state. The moderate forces of the Philippists were also drawn into this vortex. Peucer, who refused to deviate from his basic religious beliefs, was arrested in 1574. At first he was imprisoned with his family in Rochlitz Castle .

From 1576 to 1586 he was incarcerated in solitary confinement at the Pleißenburg in Leipzig . During his imprisonment, Peucer made chronologically ordered notes about his imprisonment, which were printed as Historia Carcerum after his death and which today represent a rare early document about the prison system from the perspective of a person concerned. He also wrote a second book in captivity, the Idyllium Patria , in which he set a literary monument to his home in Upper Lusatia in Latin distiches . After his release, brought about by the young Saxon Electress Agnes Hedwig von Anhalt , he lived as a personal physician and counselor at the Anhalt court in Dessau , where he died on September 25, 1602.

Works (selection)

Hypotyposes orbium coelestium , 1568

For a complete overview, see the directory of the 16th century prints published in the German-speaking area (VD 16) .

  • Elementa Doctrinae De Circvlis Coelestibvs, Et Primo Motv ( digitized version )
  • Tractatus historicus de Ph. Melanchthonis sententia de controversia coenae Domini , 1553 (printed 1596)
  • Commentarius de praecipuis divinationum generibus , 1553
  • Corpus Doctrinae Philippicum , 1560
  • Opera Melan , 1562-1565
  • Epistolae , 1565
  • Idyllion de Lusatia , 1583 (printed 1594)

literature

Web links

Commons : Caspar Peucer  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Roebel: Humanistic Medicine and Cryptocalvinism. Life and medical work of Wittenberg medical professor Caspar Peucer (1525–1602) . Centaurus Verlag, 2012, Modern History of Medicine and Science, Volume 31, p. 78.
personal data
SURNAME Peucer, Caspar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Peucker, Caspar; Peucer, Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Sorbian humanist
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1525
PLACE OF BIRTH Budissin
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1602
Place of death Dessau