Theodor Craanen

Theodor Craanen

Theodor Craanen (also: Theodorus Cranius, Theodoras Craen, Kranen etc .; * around 1633 in Cologne ; † February 27, 1688 in Potsdam ) was a German mathematician and physician.

Life

No information is available about Craanen's first educational path. All we know is that his father was a skipper. In 1651 he began studying philosophical and medical sciences at the University of Utrecht , where Henricus Regius was teaching at the time. At the age of twenty-one, he moved to the University of Leiden on February 17, 1655 and continued his studies on November 6, 1656 at the University of Duisburg .

In Duisburg he received his doctorate in medicine on May 4, 1657 and was appointed full professor at the medical faculty at the university in the same year . After he had also acquired the highest philosophical degree in 1659, he seems to have given mathematical lectures at the Duisburg University. In 1661 he followed a call as professor of philosophy at the Illustrious Academie Nijmegen , where he also gave mathematical lectures as professor of philosophy, as his former student Gerhard Noodt remembered.

In 1670 he moved to the University of Leiden as a professor of mathematics. Due to the fact that he defended the teachings of René Descartes , he got into a dispute with the professor Friedrich Spanheim (1632-1701), so that the curators of the university removed him from this professorship and transferred him to a professorship at the medical faculty. That argument had also aroused the interest of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz , with whom he was now in correspondence. In 1687 he became the personal physician of the Brandenburg Elector Friedrich Wilhelm , in 1688 he was appointed curator of the University of Duisburg, and he had become a court advisor to the Elector of Brandenburg.

Act

Craanen, who had dealt with the Aristotelian-Galenic conception of his time, became an ardent exponent of Cartesian philosophy. Following the opinion of Descartes and Pierre Gassendi (1592–1655), he explained the human body mechanically and physically and tried to represent it in the form of a closed system of tubes, levers and pumps. He did take into account the iatrochemical processes, but these were not in the foreground in his view. With his iatrophysical views he had also influenced his students Bernhard Friedrich Albinus , Benjamin Broeckhysen (1647–1686), Heydentrijck Overkamp (born 1652), Steven Blankaart (1650–1704), Theodor Schoen (born 1656) and Cornelius Bontekoe .

Works (selection)

• De suffocante uteri. Duisburg 1657
• Disputatio medica inauguralis de vertigne ... (Pres .: Albertus Kusius). Lugduni Baiavorum. Apud viduum & haeredes Joannis Elsevirii. 1672
• Disputatio medica de fluxu sanguinis menstrui ... (Resp .: J. van Eysden). Suffering 1676
• Disputatio medica de Mania, quam, Favente Divino Numinc. SUB PRAESIDIO Clarissimi. Expertissimi. Acutissimique Viri, D. THEODOR CRAANEN. Phil. & Medicinae Doct. hujusque in Illustri Academia Lugd. Batav. Professoris ordinarii. Publico Examini submitting. ELIAS SAUTYN, Mediob. Zeland.
• The 1st of February loco horisque solitis, post meridiem. LUGDUNI BATAVORUM, Apud Viduam & Heredes JOHANNIS ELSEVIRII. Academiac Typographer. MDCLXXVI.
• Disputatio medica de caiarrlm in gencre ... (Resp .: J. Fuhrmann). 1676
• Disputatio medica De cephalalgia, ex intemperie frigida. Quam ... sub praesidio ... Theodori Craanen ... publico examini submit Joannis Terwen (auth. & Resp.) ... the 25th of April ...... Lugduni Batavorum, Apud viduam & haeredes Johannis Elsevirii. 1676.
• Disputatio medica De calculo renum & vesicae, quam ... sub praesidio ... Theodori Craanen ... publici examini submitting Zacharias Regius (auth. & Resp.) ... the 20th lunii ... Lugduni Batavorum. Apud viduam & hacredes Johannis Elsevirii. 1676
• Disputatio medica de hydrope ... (Resp .: J. van Eysden). Lugduni Batavorum, Apud viduam & heredes Johannis Elsevirii. 1676
• Disputatio medica de variolis ... (Resp. J. Hellendoorn). 1676
• Disputatio medica de apoplexia ... [Resp .: T. Preusman]. 1677
• Disputatio medico-chymica exhibens medicamenti veterum universalis, recenriorumque particularium verum in medicina usum ... (Resp .: J. Crull). Lugduni Batavorum, Apud viduam & heredes Joannis Elzevirii. 1679
• Oratio funebris in obitum ... D. Arnoldi Syeni ... recitala v. cal. febr. MDCLXXIX. Lugd. Batav .: Arnold Doude. 1679
• Disputatio medica de palpitatione cordis. . . (Resp .: J. Broen). Lugduni Batavorum. Apud Abrahamum Elzevier. 1681
• Disputatio medica de phthisi s. tabe vera ... (Resp .: J. Broen). Lugduni Baiavorum. Apud Abrahamum Elzvier. 1682
• Disputatio medica De dolore colico. Quam ... sub praesidio .., Theodori Craancn ... publico examini subjicit Martin Schepel ... ad diem July 7th ... Lugduni Baiavorum. Apud Abrahamum Elscvir. 1683.
• Disputatio medica de arthritide ... [Resp .: A. Luders). 1685
• Disputatio medica de phithisi ... (Resp .: A. Luders). 1685

literature

• Abraham Jacob van der Aa : Biographical woordenboek der Nederlanden, bevattende levensbeschrijvingen van zoodanige people, who zich op eenigerlei wijze in ons vaderland vermaard made. Verlag JJ Van Brederode, Haarlem, 1858, vol. 3, p. 806, ( online )
• Peter Bahl : The court of the great elector. Studies on the higher officials in Brandenburg-Prussia. Verlag Böhlau, Cologne, 2001, p. 457, ( online reading sample )
• Lothar Noack: Bio-Bibliographies. Brandenburg scholars of the early modern period. Akademie Verlag, Berlin, 1997, ISBN 3050028408 , page 95 et seq., ( Online excerpt )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Born not in 1620 or 1635, as he registered in the Leiden register in 1655 at the age of 21, which is confirmed by the information provided by the Dutch NA; also did not die in 1690 or March 27, 1688.
2. ↑ The statement that he was supposed to have been a professor at the University of Frankfurt Oder in 1685 cannot be deduced from the university's register.