Martin Pollich

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Portrait oil on panel, arranged by Jan Jessenius at the end of the 16th century .

Martin Pollich (also Polich and Latinized Martinus Polichius , also simply called Mellerstadt, * around 1455 in Mellrichstadt ; † December 27, 1513 in Wittenberg ) was a philosopher, astrologer, physician, theologian and founding rector of the University of Wittenberg .

Life

Leipzig time

Martin Pollich, son of Dorothea Mültner († 1492), was at the summer 1470 Leipzig University enrolled, acquired after nearly two years of study in 1472, the Baccalariat and winter term 1475, the master's degree and then lectured on the logical writings of Aristotle , where he is the Thomistic school followed. Then he devoted himself to astrology and medicine . In 1476 he traveled to Rome for the Archdiocese of Magdeburg and then began to study medicine. 1482 he has been a licentiate testified before 1486 he was (presumably in Mainz) for MD PhD .

In 1482 he was mentioned as the personal physician of Prince Elector Friedrich the Wise . In 1486 he was Vice Chancellor of the University of Leipzig. Although he was skeptical about astrology, Pollich devoted himself from 1482 to 1490 to astronomical-astrological annual forecasts , such as the Practica Lipsensis , which in 1484/85 became the model for the Practica about the stat augspurg of his student Leonhard Seybold. 1490 he became a member of by Konrad Celtis launched Sodalitas litteraria Rhenana where it contacts with various personalities such as Bohuslav hate stone built. In this circle he was given the nickname lux mundi (lamp of the world). From March 19 to October 30, 1493 he accompanied Frederick the Wise on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in Jerusalem . Pollich took him on a trip to Holland in 1494 to visit the “high schools” there. In the same year Pollich was accepted into the council of the medical faculty of the University of Leipzig.

When syphilis was rampant in Europe at the end of the 15th century , doctors were perplexed. When in 1497 a pamphlet by the Venetian doctor Niccolò Leoniceno broke with the traditional idea that the constellation of the planets had an impact on health, and instead pointed out ways to efficiently combat the French plague , as it was called at the time, Pollich took this pamphlet into his text Lessons on. When in 1498 his colleague in the medical faculty, Simon Pistori's theses against Leoniceno and Pollich, a scholarly dispute ensued, from which Pollich emerged victorious, but reaped hostility from the scholastic camp to which he had belonged.

His former student and friend, the theology professor Konrad Wimpina , challenged him in 1500 with the pamphlet Poetry about the new humanistic direction. Pollich then got involved in a bitter argument about the relationship between theology and poetry. In the works Apologetius and Palillogia , Wimpina turned to an unknown humanist writer whom he accused of elevating poetry above theology in his poems. A literary feud followed, which was of little help to Pollich, and so he could not get his new ideas through in Leipzig.

Wittenberg time

The dispute over syphilis was the reason that Pollich turned to his employer Friedrich the Wise and in 1502 the University of Wittenberg was founded. Pollich devoted himself with great zeal to building up the university. He recruited Hermann von dem Busche for the medical faculty . He was able to win Hermann Kaiser for the theological faculty. Pollich thus became the founding rector and the first pillar of the new university. The other support was the founding dean of the theological faculty, Johann von Staupitz . Siegmund Epp , the founding dean of artists and Wolfgang Strählin , the founding dean of lawyers, were drawn to the university through his influence .

In order to attract students to the University of Wittenberg, Friedrich the Wise had leaflets distributed in which the tuition fee waiver for three years was announced. In addition, the elector promised, based on the Italian model, the legal equality of Wittenberg students with nobles . Students flocked to Wittenberg from all parts of Europe. Pollich, who remained vice-chancellor of the university for his life, gave lectures at the medical, philological and theological faculties, took care of the food supply for the students and the establishment of a university printing press and founded a pharmacy in 1508. In 1503 he was the first to receive his doctorate at the theological faculty. As early as 1508 he made the acquaintance of the young Augustinian monk Martin Luther , who was appointed as Magister Artium von Staupitz to teach Aristotelian ethics from Erfurt to Wittenberg. When he succeeded Staupitz after a stay in Rome in 1512, Pollich was convinced of Luther's talent and said about him four years before his Reformation appearance: “The monk will confound all Docktors, introduce a new teaching, and the whole Roman Church reform, because he lies down on the prophets and apostles' scriptures and stands on the words of Jesus Christ: Nobody, neither with philosophy nor sophistry, Scotism, Albertism, Thomistry and the whole of Tartaret, can overthrow and defeat! "Pollich did not experience this more. He died on December 27, 1513 and was buried in the Wittenberg town church. An epitaph was erected for him there, the text of which was written by Georg Spalatin . In memory of the former founding rector, there is a plaque at the site of his former home.

Works

  • various Practicae (astronomical-astrological annual forecasts)
  • Anathomia Mundini (around 1488 or around 1493)
  • Speculum medicine by Arnald von Villanova (around 1495)
  • De complexione quid est et quot sunt (Leipzig approx. 1498)
  • Defensio Leoniceniana (Magdeburg 1499)
  • Castigationes in alabandicas declarationes domini Simonis Pistoris (Leipzig 1500)
  • Poema natale cujusdam Flectorii principis Septentrionalis (Leipzig 1501)
  • Responsio in superadditos errores Simonis Pistoris de malo Franco (Nuremberg 1501)
  • Laconismos tumultuarius Martini Mellerstad (Leipzig 1502)
  • Martinus Mellerstadt Polichi in Wimpinianas offensiones & denigrationes Sacre-Theologiae (Wittenberg 1503)
  • Theoremata aurea pro studiosis philosophie et theologie iniciatis Thomistis (Wittenberg 1503)
  • Exquisita cursus physici collectanea (Leipzig 1514)

literature

  • Klaus Kühnel: Friedrich the Wise - Elector of Saxony - A biography . Drei Kastanien Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-933028-81-7
  • Heinz Kathe : The Wittenberg Philosophical Faculty 1502–1817 (= Central German Research. Volume 117). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-412-04402-4 .
  • Walter Friedensburg : History of the University of Wittenberg . Max Niemeyer Verlag, Halle (Saale) 1917
  • August Hirsch:  Pollich, Martin . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 26, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 393 f.
  • Helmut Schlereth:  Pollich, Martin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , pp. 605 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Helmut Schlereth: Opera Pollichiana. An overview of the literary work of Martin Pollich von Mellrichstadt (approx. 1455 to 1513). In: Würzburger medical historical reports 4, 1986, pp. 185–202
  • Helmut Schlereth: Martin Pollich von Mellrichstadt (born around 1455, died 1513) and his dispute with Simon Pistoris about the origin of "syphilis". (also dissertation Würzburg) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2001 (= Würzburg medical historical research, 73), ISBN 3-8260-2231-9
  • Leucorea Foundation (Ed.): Leucorea - Pictures on the history of the University of Wittenberg. 1999, ISBN 3-9804492-6-2
  • Heinrich Kühne and Heinz Motel: Famous personalities and their connection to Wittenberg. Druckhaus Göttinger Tageblatt GmbH & Co, 1990, ISBN 3-924781-17-6
  • Directory of the prints published in the German language area of ​​the XVI. Century. Volume 16. Anton Hiersemann Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7772-9007-6
  • Max Senf (senior): Calendarium Historicum Vitebergense . Wittenberg 1912
  • Rotary Club Wittenberg (Ed.): Famous Wittenberg guests . 2nd Edition
  • Gerhard Wolf: Polich, Martin, also: MP von Mellerstadt. In: Walther Killy (Ed.): Literaturlexikon. Authors and works of German language. Volume 9, Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh, Munich 1988–1991, p. 202 (CD-ROM: Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932544-13-7 )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brigitte Streich : Between travel rule and residence formation. The Wettin Court in the late Middle Ages. Cologne 1989, p. 166 names him for 1484 as a member of the Prinzenhof.
  2. ^ Gundolf Keil: Seybold, Leonhard. In: Author's Lexicon . 2nd Edition. Volume 8, Col. 1129 f.
personal data
SURNAME Pollich, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mellerstadt, Martin; Polich, Marti; Polichius, Martinus; Mellerstadt, Martinus; Mellerstadt, Martini; Mellerstat, Martini
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher, physician and theologian, founding rector of the University of Wittenberg
DATE OF BIRTH around 1455
PLACE OF BIRTH Mellrichstadt
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1513
Place of death Wittenberg