Petrus Niger

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Hebrew alphabet. From Petrus Niger's Star of Meschiah

Petrus Niger alias Peter Schwartz (* 1434 in Kaaden in Bohemia ; † between 1481 and 1484) was a theologian . He is considered to be the author of the earliest printed anti-Semitic writings, but also the first Christian in Germany to write a Hebrew language teaching and have it printed.

Life

Petrus Niger studied in Salamanca and Montpellier , among others . There he also learned Hebrew and studied Jewish literature and theology. He later used this knowledge in sermons and disputes with rabbis .

In 1452 Niger joined the Dominican order in Eichstätt . In Leipzig he dealt with philosophy and theology. There he wrote his first work, which was entitled De modo praedicandi and was published in 1457. After he had brilliantly passed his university exams in Freiburg , he was sent to Bologna to continue his training in theology and canon law at the university there. Two years later he was called back to teach and preach. In 1465 he taught philosophy in Cologne, among other things, in 1467 theology in Ulm , in 1469 or 1470 he came to Eichstätt as prior and on May 31, 1473 he became a doctor of theology at the newly founded University of Ingolstadt . The following year he taught theology at the convent of Regensburg . From 1478 he held a professorship in Ingolstadt and taught exegesis of the Old Testament. Matthias Corvinus invited him to Hungary to the Academy for Philosophy, Theology and Holy Scripture in Buda . Petrus Niger dedicated to him in gratitude for the 1481 Venice published font Clypeus Thomistarum adversus omnes doctrinae doctoris Angelici obtrectatores . A convinced Thomist , he kept strictly to the tradition of this school.

Writings against Judaism

Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
Dispute between Dominicans and Jews

Petrus Niger dealt with abstract topics of logic and psychology in his theological writings. He also invested a lot of energy in his debates with Judaism . In Regensburg, Worms and Frankfurt am Main , he preached against Judaism in three different languages ​​- German, Latin and Hebrew - and tried to challenge Jewish theologians to discussions. In 1475 his Tractatus contra perfidos Judaeos de conditionibus veri Messiae was printed in Esslingen , in which he sharply attacked Judaism and the Talmud . In 1477 the German-speaking Chochaf hamschiah followed in the same place , which is interpreted as a star of Meschiah . These books were printed by Konrad Feyner .

Niger argued here, according to a disputation he had held in Regensburg in 1474, that the Messiah had already appeared in the form of Jesus Christ , that it was an error of the Jews to wait for one and that they should convert to Christianity instead. The German-language edition was provided with two full-page illustrations. One shows the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem , the other refers to Niger's stay in Regensburg and shows a dispute between a Dominican and a group of Jews. The hand-colored woodcut shows the Jews with the yellow ring . The main protagonist is shown with a hooked nose and spread legs, speaking to his interlocutor; a comment from the Bridwell Library, which has a copy of this book, on the picture reads: "This [...] image caricatures the Jews by giving them ugly features and expressions [...]"

The treatises of Petrus Niger against Judaism were described by Johannes Reuchlin as absurd in his ophthalmoscope .

These writings are interesting, however, because their linguistic sections are among the oldest evidence of printed Hebrew texts in Germany and represent the first attempt by a Christian in Germany to create a Hebrew grammar and language teaching. The Hebrew letters of the works published by Fyner in Esslingen are printed using the woodcut technique; Alexander Marx attributes them "uneveness" as well as a "clumsy and unsightly form".

The linguistic parts of Niger's treatises were reprinted separately two centuries later and appeared as Commentatio de primis linguae Hebraicae elementis in Altdorf in 1764 .

Identity of Niger with other authors

It can be assumed that the names Peter Teuto and Peter Eystettensis also refer to Petrus Niger.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tractatus contra perfidos Judaeos de conditionibus veri Messiae as a digitized version
  2. ^ A b c Joseph Schroeder, Peter George Niger , in: Catholic Encyclopedia 11, 1913
  3. ↑ Karl & Faber, owner: Dr. G. Karl, Auction XXXVII, 2. – 3. October 1951. Illumin. Manuscripts. Books + autographs. Graphics + drawings , Munich 1951, p. 18 f. with ill. on p. 14
  4. ↑ Star of Meschiah on www.smu.edu
  5. ↑ Quoted from: Karl & Faber, owner: Dr. G. Karl, Auction XXXVII, 2. – 3. October 1951. Illumin. Manuscripts. Books + autographs. Graphics + drawings , Munich 1951, p. 19
  6. ↑ Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: Personal Names of the Middle Ages / Nomina Scriptorum Midii Aevi (PMA): Forms of names for 13,000 people according to the Rules for Alphabetical Cataloging (RAK) / Names of 13,000 Persons according to the "Rules for the Alphabetical Cataloging (RAK) " . Walter de Gruyter, January 1, 1999, ISBN 978-3-11-096246-8 , p. 509.
personal data
SURNAME Niger, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwartz, Peter; Schwarz, Peter; Teuto, Peter; Eystettensis, Peter; Nigri, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Dominican
DATE OF BIRTH 1434
PLACE OF BIRTH Kadaň
DATE OF DEATH 15th century