Sebastian Theodoricus

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Sebastian Theodoricus (also: Sebastianius Dietrich, Stephan Theodoricus, Sebastian von Windsheim, Sebastian Theodorich; * around 1520 in Windsheim ; † October 4, 1574 in Wittenberg ) was a German mathematician and physician.

Life

It is still unknown whether Theodoricus attended the Latin school in Windsheim. From the foreword to the compendium it can be seen that he was trained at the Lorenz Latin School in Nuremberg under its rector Johannes Ketzmann. He enrolled as Sebastian Dietrich in the winter semester 1537/38 at the University of Wittenberg and latinized the customs of the time according to his name in the scholar's name Theodoricus. He obtained his baccalaureate on March 27, 1539 and received the highest academic degree in philosophy at the time, a Magister of the Seven Liberal Arts on September 4, 1544. In 1545 he was admitted to the philosophical faculty of the Wittenberg University, lecturing on Philipp Melanchthon's 1540 work "De anima", on the physics of Aristotle , on the text "De meteoris" written by Pedanios Dioscurides and on the "Materia medica" (medicine) by the same author.

During the last-mentioned course he explained plants that grew in the Wittenberg area, giving their native names. The Wittenberg lecturer, like other scholars in Northern Europe, knew that a work dedicated to the Mediterranean flora needed to be supplemented, and drew conclusions from this for the design of the lesson. He therefore attached great importance to autopsy in natural history lessons and in 1550 took over the professorship for lower mathematics at the Wittenberg University, for which he received an annual salary of 110 guilders.

In explaining his lectures on arithmetic in the winter semester of 1556/57 and algebra in the summer semester of 1557, he referred to Plato's words that reason, which constitutes and perfects man, requires knowledge of numbers in order to be used. In everyday life arithmetic helps to lead a family, to rule the state, to conduct money and trade, to calculate the movements of the heavenly bodies and the calendar, to indicate areas and distances in geography.

In the summer semester of 1553, 1559 and in the winter semesters of 1555/56, 1556/57, 1557/58, 1558/59, 1559/60 he managed the deanery of the philosophical faculty and took over the professorship for higher mathematics on January 24, 1560, where he read about geometry and astronomy according to Euclid and Klaudius Ptolemaios . So preoccupied with the natural sciences, he received his doctorate in medicine on July 13, 1571, he switched to the medical faculty as the third medical professor in the summer semester of the same year, rose to the position of second medical professor and died after he died in the summer semester of 1554, 1572 Rectorate and in 1555 the Vice- Rectorate had administered.

family

Theodoricus was married to Katharina Örtel, the daughter of Veit Winsheim, and to Rebecka from Bitterfeld in his second marriage (she married Erasmus Seidel from Berlin in 1578). The sons Nicolaus Dietrich and Sebastian Theodoricus d. J. are known. There are also six daughters:

  • Katharina married on June 19, 1565 in WB Magister Johann Gallien;
  • Rebecka (born August 25, 1567) married in Jüterbog in 1586 the later pastor in Könnern and Bernburg, M. Georg Vorwerk (born March 8, 1552 in Könnern; † August 9, 1613 in Bernburg)
  • Elisabeth marries the schoolmaster Johannes Ursin on November 6, 1570,
  • Anna (born May 4, 1571 in Wittenberg), daughter
  • Dorothea (May 12, 1573 - December 5, 1576)
  • On November 10, 1577, Ursula married the schoolmaster in Belzig, M. Jakob Rötting, who came from Pirna.

Fonts

  • Breve perspicuum et facile compendium logisticae astronomicae . Wittenberg 1563 (textbook for calculating with sexagesimal numbers). German translation by Stephan Weiss 2012
  • Canon Sexagenarum . Wittenberg 1564 and others (Sexagesimal multiplication table with short calculation rules). English translation by Stephan Weiss 2011, 2012
  • Quaestiones sphaericae . Wittenberg 1564
  • Novae quaestiones sphaerae, hoc est de circulis coelestibus . Wittenberg 1567

literature

personal data
SURNAME Theodoricus, Sebastian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dietrich, Sebastianius; Theodoricus, Stephan; Windsheim, Sebastian von; Theodorich, Sebastian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician and physician
DATE OF BIRTH around 1520
PLACE OF BIRTH Windsheim
DATE OF DEATH October 4, 1574
Place of death Wittenberg