Sebastian Span

Sebastian Span (born January 25, 1571 in Tirschenreuth , † November 24, 1640 in Graslitz ) was a German lawyer .

Life

Span was the son of the mayor of Tirschenreuth, Mathias Span. From 1587 he attended the Protestant grammar school in Regensburg and from 1590 to 1594 the University of Jena . After completing his studies, he became a private tutor to the von Zedtwitz family in Liebenstein near Eger. Subsequently, he entered the service of Count Joachim Schlick , who was two years his senior , where he had his first personal contact with the mining industry.

At the beginning of the 17th century he moved with his newlywed wife to the mountain town of Schlaggenwald , where he got a job as a syndic . In 1606 he took his oath of service as town clerk. In this function he wrote a. a. 1616 the city regulations for Schlaggenwald, the legal book of the catholic free royal mountain town Schlaggenwald and promoted the plant of a new city school. At the same time he worked for the mountain town from 1597 as a bailiff of the pledged Beschau rule.

Span witnessed the Counter Reformation and the persecution of exiles during the Thirty Years' War . After he lost the office of mayor he had assumed in the meantime on imperial orders in 1625, he left Schlaggenwald and first went to Graslitz on the Saxon border. Here in May 1626 he became godfather to the later mining captain Christoph Carl von Boxberg . In the same year he wrote Diarium Davidicum , published in Leipzig . At the same time, he seems to have worked on the Bergrechtsspiegel , the manuscript of which he had largely completed in 1628. This major work did not appear until after his death in Dresden in 1698 , as the persecution of exiles in Graslitz had caught up with him in 1629. He had to go to Auerbach / Vogtl with his family . move. From 1631 Span worked as a bailiff in Hartenstein.

In 1636 in Zwickau he had six hundred mountain verdicts published. This work with the complete title Six Hundred BergkUrthel Schied und Weisunge / bey vorfallenen Bergkwerck's differentiations of different places / so Wol informatorie spoken as ad Acta / next to short miner's report on every titul and matter became his most significant legal work that appeared during his lifetime.

In 1638 Span asked for his release and returned to Graslitz, where his son lived. Span died in Graslitz in 1640, his widow died six days later.

literature

• Alfred Riedel and Alfred Eckert: Sebastian Span . In: Pictures of life on the history of the Bohemian countries . Volume 4. Oldenbourg, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-486-50591-2 , pp. 49-70.