Ludwig Lavater

Ludwig Lavater (born March 4, 1527 at Kyburg Castle ; † July 15, 1586 in Zurich ) was a Swiss Reformed theologian and clergyman, most recently Antistes of the Zurich Church.

Career

Lavater, a son of the bailiff and later Zurich mayor Hans Rudolf Lavater (1496 / 97–1557), attended the convent school in Kappel from 1538 and later studied in Strasbourg , Paris and Lausanne . In 1550 he was appointed archdeacon at the Grossmünster in Zurich and in the same year married Margaretha, the daughter of Heinrich Bullinger . In December 1585 he was promoted to pastor at the Grossmünster, with which the office of Antist of the Zurich Church was connected.

Due to his short term in office, Lavater was hardly able to set ecclesiastical political accents, but was known as an author and translator of theological writings. His “Ghost Book” (first 1569), which turned against superstition, had 19 editions and was translated into several languages.

His daughter Anna († 1612) was married to the theologian Rudolf Hospinian .

Fonts (selection)

De ritibus et institutis ecclesiae Tigurinae. 1559 (New edition: The customs and institutions of the Zurich Church. Zurich: Theological Verlag 1987 ISBN 3-290-11590-9 )
Of ghosts, monsters and other wonderful things. .. 1559. First edition by Froschauer, Zurich. Further editions in Latin, French, English and Dutch. Digitized version of the German edition from 1670

Lavater's ghost book from 1569

With the so-called Ghost Book of 1569, the Zurich theologian wrote one of the best-selling books of his time. The book is a collection of ghost and ghost stories. The theological justification for the spirits and ghosts takes a back seat to the actual stories. Lavater has systematically scoured the past and present literature available to him for such stories. His book was printed 19 times in the 16th and 17th centuries and translated into Latin, French, English and Dutch. It is an important source for narrative researchers and proves that the written transmission of legends may have played just as important a role as the oral narrative tradition. With the triumph of book printing in the Reformation period, written tradition became more important. In their German sagas, the Brothers Grimm were able to rely heavily on the collectors and their compilations from the Reformation period.

literature

Erich Wenneker : LAVATER, Ludwig. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 15, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-077-8 , Sp. 851-853. ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
Georg von Wyß: Lavater, Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 83 f.
Dominik Landwehr : Ludwig Lavater (1527 - 1586 ). In: Rudolf Schenda and Hans ten Doornkaat: legend researcher and legend collector in Switzerland. Studies on the production of popular history and stories from the early 16th to the 20th centuries. Stuttgart and Bern 1988. pp. 121-137.

Web links

Literature by and about Ludwig Lavater in the catalog of the German National Library
Hans Ulrich Bächtold: Lavater, Ludwig. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Katrin Moeller: Lavater, Ludwig. In: Lexicon on the history of the witch hunt. Edited by Gudrun Gersmann, Katrin Moeller and Jürgen-Michael Schmidt, in: historicum.net, last changed: October 27, 2008, accessed: February 15, 2009
Digitized works by Lavater in the Post Reformation Digital Library (PRDL)

Individual evidence

^ Dominik Landwehr: Ludwig Lavater (1527 - 1586) . In: Rudolf Schenda and Hans ten Doornkaat (eds.): Saga researchers and saga collectors in Switzerland. Studies in the production of folk history and stories from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Paul Haupt, Bern, Stuttgart 1988, p. 121-137 .
^ Rudolf Schenda: Johannes Stumpf (1500 - 1577/78) . In: Rudolf Schenda and Hans ten Doornkaat (eds.): Saga researchers and saga collectors in Switzerland. Studies in the production of folk history and stories from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Paul Haupt, Bern, Stuttgart 1988, p. 112 .

personal data
SURNAME	Lavater, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss Reformed clergyman, Antistes of the Zurich Church
DATE OF BIRTH	March 4, 1527
PLACE OF BIRTH	Kyburg Castle
DATE OF DEATH	July 15, 1586
Place of death	Zurich

[1] Dominik Landwehr: Ludwig Lavater (1527 - 1586) . In: Rudolf Schenda and Hans ten Doornkaat (eds.): Saga researchers and saga collectors in Switzerland. Studies in the production of folk history and stories from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Paul Haupt, Bern, Stuttgart 1988, p. 121-137 .

[2] Rudolf Schenda: Johannes Stumpf (1500 - 1577/78) . In: Rudolf Schenda and Hans ten Doornkaat (eds.): Saga researchers and saga collectors in Switzerland. Studies in the production of folk history and stories from the 16th to the early 20th centuries. Paul Haupt, Bern, Stuttgart 1988, p. 112 .