Nikolaus Gerbel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nikolaus Gerbel (* around 1485 in Pforzheim ; † January 20, 1560 in Strasbourg ; Latin Nicolaus Gerbelius ) was a German humanist .

After attending the Latin school in Pforzheim , Gerbel studied at the University of Vienna from 1502 and was one of Konrad Celtis' students . He continued his studies in 1507 at the University of Cologne and in 1508 in Tübingen . After a stay in Mainz, he probably returned to Pforzheim in 1511 and temporarily headed the Latin school there. In May 1512 he went to Vienna again, studied law there and worked with printers and publishers. In the summer of 1514 he set off on a trip to Italy, visited the printer Aldus Manutius in Venice and received his doctorate in canon law on October 2 in Bologna . He then returned to Germany and settled in Strasbourg . There he worked as an ecclesiastical legal adviser, from 1521–1540 he was secretary of the cathedral chapter. In 1541 Gerbel became professor of history at the university, which opened in 1538, but gave up this position in 1543.

Gerbel only did his legal profession to earn a living. He belonged to the circle of Alsatian humanists and worked as a proofreader and editor, first for the printer Matthias Schürer. In 1515 he traveled to Basel and was there as a proofreader on the edition of the Greek New Testament by Erasmus . Gerbel was a staunch supporter of Martin Luther from an early age , corresponded with him and Philipp Melanchthon and became the godfather of Luther's eldest son in 1526. In the years 1526–1527 he let Paracelsus take care of him. Since the mid-1530s, his interest has increasingly focused on historical, regional and geographic topics. Nikolaus Gerbel was married three times and had four children from his second wife.

Gerbel has contributed to the publication of numerous ancient and contemporary books as editor and proofreader. His own main work is the Descriptio Graeciae , written as a companion to the map of Greece by Nikolaos Sophianos . In addition, his reliable literary work is narrow: In addition to an extensive correspondence, there are numerous prefaces and around 30 smaller poems, mostly printed as additions to the writings of other authors. Of a series of satires that appeared anonymously around 1520–1521 and that were supposed to be ascribed to him, only the three against Thomas Murner are still considered to have possibly been written by Gerbel. A document about the Peasants' War of 1524/1525 is lost. Gerbel's diary covering the period from December 1522 to December 1529 has been known for a long time, but has not yet been edited as a whole.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernest Wickersheimer : Paracelse à Strasbourg. In: Centaurus 1 (1951), pp. 356-365.
  2. ↑ In descriptionem Graeciae Sophiani praefatio . Johannes Oporinus, Basel 1545, and, greatly expanded, Pro declaratione picturae sive descriptionis Graeciae Sophiani . Johannes Oporinus, Basel 1550.
  3. ^ Strasbourg, Archives de la Ville: AST 38 (carton 20.1).
personal data
SURNAME Gerbel, Nicholas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nikolaus Gerbellius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German humanist
DATE OF BIRTH around 1485
PLACE OF BIRTH Pforzheim
DATE OF DEATH January 20, 1560
Place of death Strasbourg