Nicolaus Episcopius

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Epitaph of Nicolaus Episcopius in the Peterskirche Basel

Nicolaus Episcopius the Elder (* 1501 in Rittershofen in Alsace ; † March 7, 1564 ) was a Basel printer .

Life

Nicolaus Episcopius (Latin for bishop was born in 1501 in Rittershofen near Weissenburg ( Wissembourg ) in Lower Alsace. After an apprenticeship as a printer in Mondidier en Bresse (?) He enrolled at the University of Basel in the summer of 1518. Episcopius was in the summer of 1519 at the latest Corrector at the well-known Basel printer and publisher Johannes Froben , with whose son Hieronymus he was friends. In 1520 he was granted Basel citizenship, in the same year he received a master's degree with Hieronymus . He married Hieronymus' sister Justina Froben in 1529. Episcopius joined in the same year the community of heirs who continued his father-in-law's office and to which his brother-in-law and Johannes Herwagen the elder already belonged ("Officina Frobeniana"). On April 16, he was accepted as a printer in the saffron guild. After Herwagen had left the printing community in 1531, they shared Nicolaus Episcopius and Hieronymus Froben took over the management of the business äfts, where Episcopius was mainly responsible for the business part. In 1537 he received a letter of arms from Emperor Karl V. In 1542 he became a member of the marriage court and later held several municipal offices.

Episcopius lived in the house on the armchair on Totengässlein (formerly Johannes Froben's house). Like Hieronymus Froben, he was a close friend of Erasmus of Rotterdam , and together with Hieronymus Froben he acted as his executor. He was in correspondence with scholars such as Beatus Rhenanus , Joachim Camerarius , Wolfgang Musculus and Vadian . In 1557 he published a print together with Matthias Harscher, otherwise he always worked with Hieronymus Froben; only after the death of the partner in 1563 was there still a temporary cooperation with Johannes Oporin . Nicolaus Episcopius died of consumption on March 7, 1564. His sons Nicolaus the Younger and Eusebius took over his office.

The printer Niklaus Bischoff translated his name to Episcopius in Latin contexts, and by this name he is known as his next descendants who produce books. The real family name, however, remained Bischoff, and in German prints he called himself that, for example: "through Jeronymus Froben / and Niclaus Bischoff" (Georg Agricola: Vom Bergkwerck XII books . Basel 1557, imprint at the end).

Create

The joint work of Nicolaus Episcopius and Hieronymus Froben is shown in Hieronymus Froben .

literature

  • Paul Heitz, Carl Christoph Bernoulli: Basel book brands up to the beginning of the 17th century: With preliminary remarks and news about the Basel printers Strasbourg, JH Ed. Heitz (Heitz & Mündel), 1895, p. XXII u. 40f.
  • Anja Wolkenhauer: Too difficult for Apollo: Antiquity in humanistic printer's characters from the 16th century. Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz, 2002, p. 407.
  • Peter G. Bietenholz: Nicolaus Episcopius . In: Peter G. Bietenholz, Thomas B. Deutscher (Ed.): Contemporaries of Erasmus . University of Toronto Press, Toronto / Buffalo / London 2003, ISBN 0-8020-8577-6 . (consists of three separately paginated volumes), volume 1, p. 437f. (the most detailed biography of Nicolaus Episcopius).
  • Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area . 2nd revised and expanded edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-447-10416-6 , p. 76 (also Eusebius Episcopius p. 90; Nikolaus der Jüngere p. 86 and 90).
  • Frank Hieronymus: Froben, Hieronymus. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Index typographorum editorumque Basiliensium: Nicolaus Episcopius the Elder . Retrieved September 29, 2015
  2. ^ Wilhelm Richard Staehelin: Basel nobility and coat of arms letters . In: Swiss archive for heraldry . Volume 31, 1917, Issue 3, pp. 145f. No. 32 ( digitized version), also published as a separate print).
  3. ↑ Bischoff . In: Swiss gender book . Volume 5. CF Lendorf, Basel 1933, pp. 18-35 (pp. 20f. Niklaus, p. 21 his sons Eusebius and Niklaus the Younger).
personal data
SURNAME Episcopius, Nicolaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bischoff, Nicholas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Printer and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH 1501
PLACE OF BIRTH Rittershofen
DATE OF DEATH March 7, 1564