Nathan Chytraeus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nathan Chytraeus (actually Nathan / Nathaniel Kochhaff / Kochhafe , according to Greek χύτρα Chytra "pot" to Latin Chytraeus Graecized and Latinized * 15. March 1543 in Menzingen ; † 25. February 1598 in Bremen ) was a Protestant theologian, poet and philologist . He is considered the most important poet of late North German humanism .

Life

Chyträus was the son of the evangelical pastor Matthäus Kochhafe from Brackenheim and his wife Barbara, nee. Nelberg. After the family was persecuted because of their evangelical attitude, they found refuge in Menzingen , where Nathan was born as the younger brother of David Chyträus . At the age of ten he attended the Johannes Sturms Latin School in Strasbourg .

From 1555 Nathan Chyträus enrolled in the artist faculty of the University of Rostock , where his brother David, as a student of Philipp Melanchthon, taught as professor of theology from 1550. In Tübingen , Nathan Chyträus received his bachelor's degree in May 1562 and at the same time a master's degree in the arts. In 1564 Chyträus received from Duke Ulrich III. von Mecklenburg-Güstrow the call to Rostock and the professorship for the Latin language. Shortly afterwards, Chyträus gave up his professorship in favor of a study trip that took him through numerous European countries from Easter 1565 to the end of 1567, during which he collected all kinds of Latin inscriptions . After his return he took over the professorship for poetics in Rostock. As dean of the Philosophical Faculty, Chyträus founded a library in the summer semester of 1569, from which today's Rostock University Library emerged. In 1578 the University of Rostock elected Nathan Chyträus as rector of the alma mater for a regular term of one semester. In addition, in February 1580 he took over the office of Rector of the Rostock Latin School , today's Great City School.

Since Chyträus translated the works of Huguenot authors from French into German several times , he was accused of crypto-calvinism in the confessional disputes from 1590 onwards . He had to leave Rostock in 1592 and went to Bremen as rector of the Latin School , today's old grammar school .

Works

Title page of the work Der Alte Todtendantz Sächsisch , published in 1597

In addition to neo-Latin dramas such as Abraham (1595) and the Ludi litterarii (1580), Chyträus created an abundance of occasional poems . He published his own edition of Aesop's Fables (1571).

He was one of the first to be interested in the philology of Low German . In 1582 his Latin-Low German non-fiction dictionary Nomenclator latinosaxonicus appeared , which was reprinted several times.

With the publication of the Middle Low German verses of the Lübeck Dance of Death (in the version from 1520), Chytraeus entered new philological territory in 1597 and created the oldest philological edition of a Low German text.

His German translation of the famous Il Galateo by Giovanni Della Casa was published in the year he died .

expenditure

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

  • Poematum Nathanis Chytraei praeter sacra omnium libri septendecim. Rostock 1579. Digitized at CAMENA
  • Nomenclator latinosaxonicus Rostock 1582. Reprint, with a foreword by Gilbert de Smet, Hildesheim, New York: Olms 1974 (Documenta linguistica: series 1, dictionaries of the 15th and 16th centuries) ISBN 3-487-05277-6
  • Aemilius Probus, seu Cornelius Nepos, De Vita Excellenium Imperatorum. Sextus Aurelius Victor De viris Illustribus. In usum scholarum ... Barth 1590
  • A hundred fables . Frankfurt 1591
  • Christian and correct faith confession . (see left) 1592
  • Fastorum ecclesiae Christianae libri duodecim . 1594 (history of the church year )
  • Carmina et epigrammata sacra . 1595.
  • Variorum in Europa itinerum deliciae. Herborn 1594 (collection of inscriptions, more on this )
  • Io. Casae Galateus This is the little book of merciful polite and gracious customs , 1597. Reprint of the Frankfurt 1607 edition, Tübingen: Niemeyer 1984 (German reprints: Barock series; 34) ISBN 3-484-16034-9
  • The old Todtendantz Saxon. He went out in a public truck in the Keyserliche Seestadt Lübeck for eighty years. With a new Vorred Nathanis Chytræi. Bremen: Arent Wessel's heirs 1597

literature

  • Thomas Fuchs:  Chytraeus, Nathan. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 241-242.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Timothy Sodmann: Der Alte Todtentantz Sächsisch, Nathan Chytraeus, Bremen 1597 . In: Hartmut Freytag (ed.): The dance of death of the Marienkirche in Lübeck and the Nikoliakirche in Reval (Tallinn). Edition, commentary, interpretation, reception. Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-412-01793-0 (Low German Studies Volume 39)
  • Thomas Elsmann (Ed.): Nathan Chytraeus: 1543–1598; a humanist in Rostock and Bremen. Sources and Studies . Edition Temmen, Bremen 1991, ISBN 3-926958-80-4
  • Karl-Heinz Glaser (ed.): David and Nathan Chytraeus: Humanism in the confessional age. Ubstadt-Weiher: Verlag Regionalkultur 1993, ISBN 3-929366-00-2
  • Christa Prowatke: Be favorable to languages! Nathan Chytraeus' contribution to the Low German language . In: Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher (MecklJbb) 109, 1993, p. 85
  • Thomas Elsmann: Nathan Chytraeus' Hodoeporicon itineris dantiscani (1590) . In: Mecklenburgische Jahrbücher (MecklJbb) 111, 1996, p. 101
  • Sabine Pettke: Nathan Chytraeus. Sources on the second Reformation in Northern Germany. Cologne u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-412-15393-1
  • Thomas Elsmann. In: Angela Hartwig, Tilmann Schmidt (ed.): The Rectors of the University of Rostock 1419–2000 . Contributions to the history of the University of Rostock. Issue 23. University Archives 2000, ISBN 3-86009-173-5

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Author information at CAMENA
personal data
SURNAME Chytraeus, Nathan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kochhaff, Nathan; Kochhafe, Nathan; Nathanael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian and poet
DATE OF BIRTH March 15, 1543
PLACE OF BIRTH Menzingen
DATE OF DEATH February 25, 1598
Place of death Bremen