Wilhelm Xylander

Guilielmus ( Guilhelmus ) Xylander (also Wilhelmus Xylander; hellenized from Wilhelm Holtzman; * December 26, 1532 in Augsburg, † February 10, 1576 in Heidelberg ) was a German scholar and humanist.

He was born in Augsburg, studied in Tübingen and received in 1558 as the successor of Micyllus the professorship of Greek at Heidelberg. In 1562 he extended this professorship in the Department of Logic ( publicus organic Aristotelici interpres ). From 1564 to 1565 he was rector of the University of Heidelberg.

Xylander was the author and editor of many important works and translations from ancient times. He translated Cassius Dio (Basel, 1558 ), Plutarch (Basel, 1560-1570 ), the geography of Strabo (ibid., 1571) and several mathematical writings from Greek into Latin. Xylander also edited the geographical dictionary of Stephanus of Byzantium (ibid., 1568). The travels of Pausanias were completed after his death by Friedrich Sylberg and published 1583rd

Further works are the meditations of Marcus Aurelius ( 1558 editio princeps which is based on a lost manuscript in Heidelberg, and the second edition in 1568, also includes works by Antoninus liberalism, Phlegon of Tralles, an unknown Apollonius and of Antigonus of Carystus - all Paradoxographoi ) and the chronicle of Georgios Kedrenos ( 1566). He also translated the first six books of Euclid with annotations in German as well as the Arithmetica of Diophantus of Alexandria and the " De quattuor mathematicis scientiis " by Michael Psellos into Latin. From its spending over the Greek prose writers of the philosophical writings of Marcus Aurelius ( Zurich, 1559 ) is important.