Kaspar Ursinus Velius (c. 1493 – 5 March 1539) was a German humanist scholar, poet and historian.
Life
From
Schweidnitz in
Silesia
Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
(now
Świdnica
Świdnica (; german: Schweidnitz; cs, Svídnice; szl, Świdńica) is a city in south-western Poland in the region of Silesia. As of 2019, it has a population of 57,014 inhabitants. It lies in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, being the seventh large ...
in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
) he began life as secretary to
Johann Thurzo,
Bishop of Breslau
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
. Later in
Vienna
en, Viennese
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, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
he was court historian and poet laureate. His ''De Bello Pannonico'' chronicled the wars of
Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand I ( es, Fernando I; 10 March 1503 – 25 July 1564) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1556, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia from 1526, and Archduke of Austria from 1521 until his death in 1564.Milan Kruhek: Cetin, grad izbornog sabor ...
against
John Zápolya
John Zápolya or Szapolyai ( hu, Szapolyai/ Zápolya János, hr, Ivan Zapolja, ro, Ioan Zápolya, sk, Ján Zápoľský; 1490/91 – 22 July 1540), was King of Hungary (as John I) from 1526 to 1540. His rule was disputed by Archduke Fer ...
and the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
. It was published in 1762, in an edition by
Adam František Kollár
Adam František Kollár de Keresztén (german: Adam Franz Kollar von Keresztén, hu, kereszténi Kollár Ádám Ferenc; 1718–1783) was a Slovak jurist, Imperial-Royal Court Councillor and Chief Imperial-Royal Librarian, a member of Natio Hun ...
.
Velius also composed a narrative recounting ("''De interitu Ludovici regis et clade Hungarie''") on the death of
Louis II of Hungary
Louis II ( cs, Ludvík, hr, Ludovik , hu, Lajos, sk, Ľudovít; 1 July 1506 – 29 August 1526) was King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia from 1516 to 1526. He was killed during the Battle of Mohács fighting the Ottomans, whose victory led to t ...
and the
Battle of Mohács
The Battle of Mohács (; hu, mohácsi csata, tr, Mohaç Muharebesi or Mohaç Savaşı) was fought on 29 August 1526 near Mohács, Kingdom of Hungary, between the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary and its allies, led by Louis II, and thos ...
(1526), as he informed his friend
Nicolaus Olahus
Nicolaus Olahus (Latin for ''Nicholas, the Vlach''; hu, Oláh Miklós; ro, Nicolae Valahul); 10 January 1493 – 15 January 1568) was the Archbishop of Esztergom, Primate of Hungary, and a distinguished Catholic prelate, humanist and historiog ...
in his letters at the turn of 1531 and 1532. The manuscript had been hidden for centuries, until a mutilated, patched version was discovered in the
National Széchényi Library
The National Széchényi Library ( hu, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár) (OSZK) is a library in Budapest, Hungary, located in Buda Castle. It is one of two Hungarian national libraries, the other being University of Debrecen Library.
History
The ...
(OSZK) in 2018. It was translated into
Hungarian within the framework of
textual criticism
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and of literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts or of printed books. Such texts may range in da ...
in 2020.
A friend of
Johannes Göritz (Corycius), he visited Rome as an upcoming
neo-Latin
New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...
poet.
Velius' body was found in 1539 in a branch of the
River Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
at Vienna.
References
*
:s:de: ADB:Ursinus, Kaspar Velius
Notes
External links
Biography by Gustav Bauch (1886)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ursinus Velius, Kaspar
1493 births
1539 deaths
German Renaissance humanists
16th-century German historians
16th-century German poets
16th-century German male writers
German male poets
German male non-fiction writers
Historians of Hungary