Conrad Lycosthenes
Conrad Lycosthenes (actually Conrad Wolff Hart, born August 8, 1518 Rufach (now Rouffach, Upper Alsace), † March 25, 1561 in Basel) was a humanist and encyclopedist. It belongs to the series of major polymath of the 16th century.
Life
Conrad Wolff Hart, who later adopted the Greek name Lycosthenes, was the son of the consul Theobald Wolffhart and his wife Elisabeth furrier, a sister of Conrad Pellican. At the age of 17 he was sent to Heidelberg, where he developed the undergraduate studies with a Master of Arts graduating in 1539, before he turned to the study of theology and the history under the influence of his friend Heidelberg pastor Heinrich Stoll.
In 1542 he moved to study, accompanied by his friend Heinrich Pantaleon to Basel. There, he taught for three years grammar and dialectic and in 1545 was appointed deacon of the St. Leonhard Church, a post which he retained until his death.
One suffered in 1554 permanent paralysis of the right side of the body forced him from now on to use the left hand.
Conrad Lycosthenes died in 1561 at the age of 43 years in Basel. He was there buried in the St. Leonhard Church. The grave inscription reads: Siste Viator gradum: si Bonnus it, morere victurus; sin malus, vive Moriturus. Hocce Conradus ego Lycosthenes Rubeacensis, Philosophia perennis compendium, Aterni luminum datoris benign. by 42 valetudinaria Aetatis annos. M.7.D.7. ferio seduloque commentatus, 8 Cal Aprilis non improviso apoplexia turbine ad certam immortalitatem anno ejusdem Repar. 1561st praeter votum metumque abreptus, sortis literariae multam saltem, si non magnam, reliqui usuram posteris. Qui potes meliora, debes; atque ut praestes, in rem tuam abi.
The scholar had married the widowed Christine Herbster, the sister of the printer Johannes Oporinus ( Oporin ), who had been married in first marriage with Leonard Kennels, father of Theodor Zwinger the Elder.
Work
His work can be characterized as: Collect, complete the Handed down and comment.
Two major topic areas, it includes: ( a) the making available of Sentences - encyclopedic treasure from antiquity and humanism and (b) the assembly of wonderful sign.
( a) He is - inspired by the seminal collections of Erasmus of Rotterdam - several Sentenzsammlungen out: Stobaeus, Enea Silvio, Ravisius Textor, the Erasmus Parabolae, and finally in 1555 its own collection of Apophthegmata. The handwritten notes were inherited by his stepson Theodor Zwinger, which they then repeatedly issued in ever larger editions. Lycosthenes this laid the foundations for the Encyclopedia Theatrum Vitae Humanae ( the scene of human life ). - A transformation of this taxonomic- systematic approach towards work in an alphabetical represents the Theatrum of Lawrence Beyer Linck (1631 passim ) dar.
( b ) The 16th century has been averted by the idea that God's intervention in sign - natural disasters, birth defects, Comets - heralds; a time- typical strategy of contingency. Lycosthenes edited and supplemented in 1552 the prodigies book of the late antique author Julius Obsequens and provides 1557 before his own collection:
Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon: quae praeter naturae ordinem, motum, et operationem, et in et superioribus his inferioribus regionibus mundi, mundi usque ad from exordio haec nostra tempora, acciderunt ... conscriptum by Conradum Lycosthenem; Basileae, Henricum by Petri in 1557 - and in the same year in German: unergründtliches Wunderwerck or prefigure God, which he so leyblichen ... by anbegin the weldt, biting our images this time, erscheynen ... leave his inn gschöpffen all so Geystlichen: Anything with beautiful pictures gezierdt ... by Johann Herold ... Verteütscht, Basel: Petri, 1557
Selections
- Commentarius in Plinium Juniorem de viris illustribus, Basel 1547, also in 1552 and 1576
- Compendium Bibliothecae Gesnerianae, Basel 1551, and 1555
- Gnomologia ex Aenea Sylvius Piccolominei ... omnibus operibus collecta, Basel 1551
- Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon = Wunderwerck or God unergründtliches prefigure, Basel 1557
- Illustrium virorum Apophthegmata, Bern 1557, also Köln 1618
- Apophthegmata ex probatis Graecae Latinaeque Linguae Scriptoribus. A Conrado Lycos Thene authore collecta by locos communes et iuxta literacy Seriem digesta, Paris: Gorbinus, 1560 and many other issues
- Theatrum Humanae vitae ( " the scene of human life " ), significantly expanded edition, ed. by Theodor Zwinger, 1565