Nicolaus Heldvader

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Nicolaus Heldvader or Niels Heldvad (also Hellevad , Heldvaderus or Helduader ; actually Niels Hansen ; falsely Johann Nicolaus ; * October 27, 1564 in Hellewatt ; † August 23, 1634 in Copenhagen ) was a German theologian, astronomer , calendariographer and historian.

Life

Heldvader was the son of pastor Hans Nissen (1534–1590). The family is said to have regularly held the office of preacher in the Hellewatt and Ekwatt double church even before the Reformation. Heldvader's school education has many stages. He is said to have been in Flensburg in 1575 , in Hadersleben in 1576 and then in Lüneburg in 1580 and in Lübeck in 1583 . Finally, a certificate has been received from his school days in Riga in 1586 and 1587 . There he left on July 18, 1587. In January 1588 he was registered as Nicolaus Helduaderus in the registry of the University of Rostock .

Heldvader finished his studies in 1590 to succeed his father, who had recently died, in the parish of Hellewatt and Eckwatt. In the same year he published an almanac or calendar for the first time . In it he shared weather observations that his father had already recorded, gave astrological predictions and hints, and told anecdotes. Heldvader's almanac was the first calendar in the Danish-speaking area. Heldvader published it annually in Low and High German and Danish for 44 years until his death. The calendar reached a circulation of more than 100,000 copies in later years.

In 1597 he wrote the Danish-language pamphlet Eleusinia Sacra , in which he defended Lutheranism against the Calvinism represented by Duke Johann Adolf von Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf . Due to disputes with the Calvinist church president and secret councilor Johann von Wowern , he was dismissed from church service in 1608, reinstated in 1611 and removed again in 1612. He first fled to Hadersleben.

From 1613 to 1615, Heldvader and his family settled in a monastery in Svendborg . There he met King Christian IV of Denmark . This took him to Copenhagen. On January 10, 1616, he was finally appointed by the king to be his astronomer and calendariographer. In this position he died in Copenhagen.

Works (selection)

  • Conciliatio Calendarii vet. et rec. Astronomiae , Schleswig 1592 (Low German 1597).
  • Eleusinia Sacra . 1597 (new edition 1610)
  • Kurtze and simple description of the old and famous town of Schleßwig , Schleswig 1633.
  • Calendariographia sacra , Copenhagen 1618.
  • Amphitheatrum Fidei Catholicae, & Ceremoniarum Ecclesiae Jesu Christi , Hering, Hamburg 1622.
  • Sylva Chronologica Circuli Baltici, that is: Historical forest and area around the Baltic Sea or the Baltic Sea , Carstens, Hamburg 1625.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johann Friedrich von Recke , Karl Eduard Napiersky : General writers and scholars lexicon of the provinces of Livonia, Esthland and Courland , Volume 2, Steffenhagen, Mitau 1829, p. 219.
  2. ↑ Nicolaus Helduaderus No. 30 winter semester 1587/1588 in the Rostock matriculation portal .
personal data
SURNAME Heldvader, Nicolaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heldvad, Niels; Helduader, Nicolaus; Hellevad, Niels; Heldvaderus, Nicolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pastor, astrologer and calendar maker
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1564
PLACE OF BIRTH Hellewatt
DATE OF DEATH 23 August 1634
Place of death Copenhagen