Caspar Schamberger

Caspar Schamberger ( born September 1, 1623 in Leipzig, † April 8, 1706 ibid ), also: Casper shame Bergen, Caspar Schamberg, was a German surgeon, the mid-17th century in Japan sparked a lasting interest in Western surgery.

Life

Caspar Schamberger was born as the son of immigrants from Franconia wine merchant Balthasar Schamberger in Leipzig. After an apprenticeship in the guild of surgeons Leipzig he went on a three-year wanderings which led him to the Netherlands through northern Germany, Denmark, Sweden and finally. Here he undertook in 1643 when the Dutch East India Company (VOC ) and reached 1644 after an adventurous voyage, including a shipwreck at the Cape of Good Hope, Batavia (now Jakarta ), the main base of the Company in East Asia.

1649 he was appointed surgeon to Japan for trade station Dejima ( Nagasaki ) sent. In the entourage of the Special Envoy Andries Friese / Frisius end of that year he moved to Edo (now Tokyo). There his abilities attracted the attention of high-ranking personalities of the court. At their request, he remained after the departure of the embassy six months. In the following years he spent several months in Edo. On November 1, 1651, he left the country.

The shame by Bergers interpreter Inomata Dembei (also Dembyōe ,猪 股 伝 兵卫) writing held therapies and the high-level patient's interest stimulated a sustained employment of local doctors with Western surgery. The ' surgery in the style of Caspar ' (カスパル 流 外科, Kasuparu - ryū geka ) was the first surgical tradition of Central European imprint in Japan. From then on, the surgeons and physicians of the trading post Dejima enjoyed the strong interest of Japanese colleagues that could be instruct, books, medicines and instruments acquired and gradually also the necessary language skills to finally read independently western trusses. These activities led to the "Holland Customer" ( rangaku ), which experienced a major boom in the 18th century, then also included other scientific disciplines and the rapid modernization of Japan after the country opened in 1868 enabled. Manuscripts with recipes Meester Caspar ( Mēsutoru Kasuparu ) were copied and disseminated in the 19th century. With the application of new remedies at the same time grew the interest in the replacement of the expensive Dutch imports by Japanese products, which in the first two decades after pubic Bergers to explore the native flora and with the publication of the work Yamato Honzo by Kaibara Ekiken (including corners ) in 1709 led to a first climax in the development of an independent Japanese botany.

Schamberger himself probably did not know about the sustainability of his work in the Far East. Richly rewarded in 1655 he returned back to Leipzig, where he earned the right of citizenship and as a trader in the gold and silver trade as well as in the cloth trade reached considerable prosperity. On the Maps the time there are pubic Berger's name on one of the great civil gardens on the outskirts of the city. Was with the career of the son of Johann Christian, professor of medicine and rector of the University of Leipzig, the family reached their social zenith.

The Giessen naturalist Michael Bernhard Valentini (1657-1714) used for his monumental book Museorum Museum (1704), among others, a " tear Japponische = description " of Schamberger, which was apparently never printed and was lost. Been preserved, however, a copy of a printed Schamberger at his own expense in 1686 small font, in which he three images ( " depictions, " ) is annotated with East Asian people, coins, fruit, animals, etc. in detail:

Caspar Schamberger died on April 8, 1706 in his hometown. As a surgeon, his funeral would have been modest, but when a wealthy merchant and father of the rector of the university as him the effort was considerable. The more than sixty pages long sermon the pastor Seeligman ( Thomas Church ) was printed and distributed. There were also printed obituaries and a portrait of the renowned engraver Martin Bernigeroth.

Shame Bergers son Johann Christian died only a few months after his father. The not easy division of assets retired due to all sorts of disputes in the length. But the male descendants died early or left the city, so that disappeared around the middle of the 18th century, the name of the family from the citizens of Leipzig Register.