Thomas Platter the Elder

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hans Bock the Elder: Portrait of Thomas Platter, 1581. Kunstmuseum Basel

Thomas Platter the Elder (born February 10, 1499 in Grächen / Wallis ; † January 26, 1582 in Basel ) was a humanistic scholar and left an autobiography in which he described his exemplary career from a shepherd child and traveling pupil to a supporter of the Reformation , printer and Describes teachers of ancient languages ​​in Basel.

Life

According to his own information, Thomas Platter was born on February 10, 1499 in Grächen in the Valais . His father, Anthoni Platter, who died early, covered himself in autumn with wool that he bought in the Bern area . He had several siblings and half-siblings from later marriages of his mother, Ammili Summermatter.

In his autobiography, he describes his tough childhood in the Valais mountains, which he spent as a goat and cow herder with relatives. As a traveling pupil and servant of an older Bachanten, which he received sometimes under precarious conditions with singing and begging, he wandered for eight years to Meissen , Silesia , Poland and Hungary . In 1517 he attended the Latin school in Schlettstadt . From 1523 he received further instruction in Zurich as a pupil and foster son of Oswald Myconius at the Fraumünster School. Deeply impressed by Ulrich Zwingli's sermons , he soon worked as a private teacher of Greek and Hebrew and also learned the basics of the rope-making trade. Around 1529 he married Anni Dietschin von Dübendorf , whom he had met as a maid for Oswald Myconius. This first marriage resulted in four children, three daughters and a son, Felix , who later became a well-known city doctor and anatomist. The three daughters all died of the plague .

After staying in Valais and in Pruntrut , Thomas Platter settled in Basel after he had witnessed the Battle of Kappel in 1531 . Here he took over 1535 together with John Oporin , Balthasar Lasius (Ruch) and Robert winter Offizin of Andreas Cratander . Her books, however, often did not appear under the names of all four partners, so only Platter and Lasius figure in their most famous print in 1536: It is the first version of the Christianae religionis Institutio by Johannes Calvin , who later became the reformer of Geneva. In 1544 the printing house was sold to Pietro Perna . In addition to his work as a printer, Thomas Platter worked as a Greek teacher at the “auf Burg” school. After the sales office to Pietro Perna in 1544, he became rector there and remained so until 1578. He also ran a boarding house for forty students. Thomas Platter became wealthy and was proud of his ascent, which included buying several houses in the city and an estate.

After the death of his first wife, he married Hester Gross in 1572, the daughter of Nicolaus Megander, who worked as a people priest in Lützelflüh . From this marriage there were six other children, including Thomas Platter the Younger .

Platter dedicated his autobiography to his eldest son Felix , whose career as an aspiring doctor he closely followed. His son Thomas Platter the Younger, who was partly raised by his brother Felix, worked as a professor of medicine and rector of the University of Basel .

Out of scientific curiosity, Thomas Platter the Elder dealt with medicine and even carried out an anatomical section together with the surgeon Jeckelmann, who had already assisted Andreas Vesalius .

Thomas Platter died in 1582. His grave can be seen in the cloister of Basel Minster .

Biography

  • Thomas Platter and Felix Platter: 2 autobiographies. A contribution to the moral history of the XVI. Century. Edited by DA Fechter . Basel 1840 ( digitized version ).
  • Thomas Platter: Thomas and Felix Platter: To the moral history of the 16th century . Edited by Heinrich Boos. Leipzig: Hirzel, 1878.
  • Thomas Platter: Thomas Platter's letters to his son Felix . Edited by Achilles Burkhardt. Basel: Deloff, 1890.
  • Thomas Platter: Thomas and Felix Platters and Agrippa d'Aubigné's biographies . Edited by Otto Fischer. Munich: Mörike, 1911, (pp. 15–168).
  • Thomas Platter: biography . Edited by Alfred Hartmann , 3rd edition, Basel 2006, ISBN 978-3-7965-1372-5 . (First edition 1944)

literature

Web links

Commons : Thomas Platter the Elder  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christoph Reske: The book printers of the 16th and 17th centuries in the German-speaking area . 2nd revised and expanded edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2015, ISBN 978-3-447-10416-6 , pp. 79f .; Thomas Platter the Elder . In: Index typographorum editorumque Basiliensium .
  2. ↑ digitized version .
  3. ^ Theophil Burckhardt-Biedermann: History of the high school in Basel 1589-1889 . E. Birkhäuser, Basel 1889 (reprint 1989), pp. 34-50.
  4. ↑ Edgar Bonjour : Thomas Platter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  5. ↑ Dieter Sasse: At the beginning of modern times: the doctor Felix Platter (1536–1614) and the humanist Thomas Platter (1499? –1582). In: Würzburger medical history reports 23, 2004, pp. 328–338; here: p. 333 f.
personal data
SURNAME Platter, Thomas the Elder
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Platter, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss humanistic scholar and autobiographical writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1499
PLACE OF BIRTH Grächen , Canton of Valais
DATE OF DEATH January 26, 1582
Place of death Basel