Rudolf Agricola (humanist)

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Rudolf Agricola

Rudolf Agricola , Latin Rodolph (us) Agricola (Phrisius) , actually Roelof Huysman (born February 17, 1444 or August 23, 1443 in Baflo near Groningen ; † October 27, 1485 in Heidelberg ) was an early humanist Dutch writer, scholar and teacher. He had a great influence on early humanism in Germany .

Live and act

Agricola came from the connection of Hendrik Vries from Baflo, who was abbot of the Benedictine monastery Selwert from 1444 , with the "puella" Sicke (Huusman?), Who later married the widower Sycko Sartor (Schroeder). Agricola grew up in his house. He received his first lessons at the Martini School in Groningen under the influence of the " Brothers of Life Together ". Later he studied from 1456 in Erfurt and Cologne (1462) the subject Artes (arts), then in Leuven , where in 1465 he obtained the master's degree “with the highest distinction”.

In 1468 Agricola seems to have gone to Italy, because from the summer of 1469 at the latest he was studying law at the University of Pavia ; but he soon switched to the subject "artes quas humanitates vocant". In Pavia he gave the introductory speech three times for the rector scholarium, which is elected each year . He interrupted his stay in Italy in the winter of 1470/71 as well as during the year 1474 and stayed in Groningen.

His interest in the Greek language and literature prompted him to move to Ferrara in 1475 , where he stayed at the court of Duke Ercole I. d'Este and studied at the university there until 1479 . In the files of this university Agricola's multiple participation in doctorates is noted, initially as "artium magister", but on January 27, 1478 as "artium doctor" and "familiaris illustrissimi nostri Ducis". In addition, he was the organist of the Duke's court orchestra in 1476 and 1477 . The University of Leuven wanted to win Agricola for the chair of poetics in 1477 , but he refused.

After more than ten years in Italy, he turned back to Central Europe, stayed for a few months in his residence city of Dillingen at the invitation of the humanistically interested Bishop of Augsburg , Johann II von Werdenberg, and then continued his journey via Cologne to Groningen.

In Groningen Agricola exercised the function of secretarius of this city from 1480 to 1484 ; Here various embassies took him several times to the court of Emperor Maximilian I in Brussels , namely in 1480 and 1481. There attempts were made to win him over as "secretarius from epistolis Latinis" and as educator of the emperor's children, but without Success.

During a stay in Antwerp in 1481 he met the Franco-Flemish composer Jacob Barbireau (around 1408–1491), with whom he remained closely connected until his death. Due to the influence of Barbireau, the city of Antwerp tried to win Agricola for the rectorate of the Latin school there; however, he had decided otherwise.

In April 1484 Agricola left Groningen for good and followed a call to Heidelberg , the Johann XX. von Dalberg had pronounced. Johann was the humanist educated electoral Palatinate chancellor , bishop of Worms and chancellor of Heidelberg University . Both had been friends since studying together in Pavia.

In Heidelberg he lived in the house of his episcopal benefactor, was relieved of all material worries and began to study Hebrew at Heidelberg University, which at that time had a humanistic profile since the 1450s. Without holding an official position, he gave speeches and lectures, gave lectures on Greek and Latin literature, also on the Hebrew language, and was in the highest esteem among professors and students; his whole demeanor and the way he taught were perceived as new and unusual.

After the election and coronation of Pope Innocent VIII , Elector Philip of the Palatinate sent his Chancellor Dalberg to Rome in 1485; Rudolf Agricola was among his entourage. During the public consistory on July 6, 1485, Dalberg, as Bishop of Worms, held the oratio gratulatoria (congratulatory speech), which Agricola had written. On the way back from Rome, Rudolf Agricola fell ill and died in Heidelberg on October 27, 1485. He had called his childhood friend and college friend, the doctor Adolph Occo (1447–1503). But the latter found him no longer alive, was appointed to his estate administrator and inherited his many books.

meaning

During Agricola's lifetime none of his writings appeared in print, with the exception of some Latin carmina (songs) and the mentioned oratio gratulatoria for Innocent VIII. Many writings, however, circulated in handwritten form among his students and followers and in this way had an influence on various circles of Humanists. Agricola's students in Heidelberg included B. the later celebrated poet and archhumanist Conrad Celtis (1459–1508), on whose instigation the Rhenish Society for Science “Sodalitas litteraria Rhenania” moved its spiritual center to Heidelberg.

After many of the Agricola’s works went to press, especially from 1520, awareness and appreciation changed abruptly. The well-known humanist Erasmus von Rotterdam describes in a letter to Johannes von Botzheim the great importance of Rudolf Agricolas with the words "Rodolphus Agricola primus omnium aurulam quandam melioris litteraturae nobis invexit ex Italia".

Like no other of his generation in Central Europe, Agricola had appropriated humanism in its Italian form and made it his program of life.

As an educator, he was passionate about a comprehensive education modeled on the ancient Artes Liberales . He explained the procedure in his work "De formando studio" (dedicated to Jacob Barbireau), which is considered the first educational treatise by a German humanist. He translated numerous Greek works into Latin and advocated the study of antiquity.

As one of the first humanists north of the Alps, he embodied the ideal of the universal scholar with extensive interests beyond literature and written culture, with the far-reaching impact of his writings many decades after his death. In the course of this effect, the influence of literary humanism on music and music theory, especially in German-speaking countries, becomes noticeable, as it did in Italy under Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374), and so music became part of humanistic education in Germany as well.

Agricola was not only interested in the fine arts in theory, but was also active as a drawing artist, especially as a portraitist. His early biographer Johannes von Plieningen reports : "He also enjoyed painting to an astonishing degree, and this fact alone is enough proof that he was a person of excellent talent and memory." Writings of the Agricola prove his familiarity z. B. with the treatise on the theory of painting (De pictura) from around 1435/36 by the influential Italian humanist and artist Leon Battista Alberti .

Rudolf Agricola was also extremely versatile as a performing musician. According to a report by Othmar Luscinius (Strasbourg 1515) he was a singer and played wind, string and keyboard instruments, although he had a special relationship with the organ. In Groningen and Ferrara he worked as an organist and organ expert . When the organ in the Martini church in Groningen was rebuilt and expanded in 1481/82, he was significantly involved as a consultant, as well as in the construction of the new organ in Kampen in 1480.

expenditure

  • De inventione dialectica (main work, "On the dialectical method of thinking"), three volumes, published in 1515.
  • A selection of Agricola's writings was published by Alardus of Amsterdam in 1539 under the title “Rudolphi Agricolae lucubrationes” ( Rudolf Agricola's night works ).
  • Adrie van der Laan and Fokke Akkerman (eds.): Rudolph Agricola: Letters , Assen / Tempe 2002

literature

  • Wilhelm Kühlmann (Ed.): Rudolf Agricola 1444–1485, protagonist of Northern European humanism, on his 550th birthday. Lang, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-906752-51-8 .
  • Michael Seidlmayer :  Agricola, Rudolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 103 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Rudolphus Agricola Phrisius 1444-1485. Proceedings of the International Conference at the University of Groningen 28-30 October 1985 , edited by F. Akkerman and AJ Vanderjagt, Leiden et al. 1988 (= Brill's Studies in Intellectual History 6).
  • Michael Baxandall: Rudolf Agricola and the Visual Arts. In: Intuition and Art History. Festschrift for Hanns Swarzenski on his 70th birthday, ed. v. Peter Bloch and Tilmann Buddensieg u. a. Berlin 1973, pp. 409-418.
  • Adrie van der Laan: Rudolph Agricola's Address to Innocent VIII . In: AA MacDonald, ZRWM von Martels, JR Veenstra (ed.), Christian Humanism. Essays in Honor of Arjo Vanderjagt, Leiden 2009, pp. 431–443 (with critical edition of the text)
  • Adrie van der Laan: Rodolphus Agricola Phrisius. A Life in Letters. In: Rudolf Suntrup, Jan R. Veenstra (Ed.), City, Law Office and Culture in Transition to the Early Modern Age / City Culture and Urban Chanceries in an Era of Change, Frankfurt am Main, 2004, pp. 107–121
  • Adrie van der Laan: Humanism in the Low Countries before Erasmus: Rodolphus Agricola's Address to the Clergy at Worms. In: Zweder van Martels, VM Schmidt (ed.): Antiquity Renewed. Late-Classical and Early-Modern Themes, Löwen, 2003, pp. 127–166 (with critical edition of the letter)

bibliography

  • GC Huisman: Rudolph Agricola. A Bibliography of Printed Works and Translations , Nieuwkoop 1985 (= Bibliotheca Bibliographica Neerlandia 20)

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Agricola  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Rudolf Agricola  - Sources and full texts

Remarks

  1. ↑ Lothar Mundt (Ed.): Rudolf Agricola - De inventione dialectica libri tres / Three books on the Inventio dialectica: Based on the edition of Alardus von Amsterdam (1539) , Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 1992, p. 568, ISBN 3110942569 ; (Digital scan)
  2. ↑ Quoted as a translation from Latin from: Hanns Hubach: Johann von Dalberg and the naturalistic branchwork in contemporary sculpture in Worms, Heidelberg and Ladenburg, in: Gerold Bönnen and Burkard Keilmann (eds.), Der Wormser Bischof Johann von Dalberg (1482 -1503) and its time. Mainz 2005, pp. 207-232, p. 224.
  3. ↑ Baxandall 1973; Hubach 2005, p. 225.
personal data
SURNAME Agricola, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Huysman, Roelof (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch early humanist writer and scholar
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1443 or February 17, 1444
PLACE OF BIRTH Baflo near Groningen , Holy Roman Empire
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1485
Place of death Heidelberg , Electoral Palatinate , Holy Roman Empire