Christopher Besoldus (Christoph Besold) (1577 – September 1638) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for a work such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists who ...

whose writing is seen as important for the history of the causes of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...

Life

He was born of

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

parents in 1577 at

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

. He studied jurisprudence, and in the early 1590s was a close friend of

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws ...

. Besold asked permission of the classical scholar Vitus Müller (Veit Müller, 1561–1626) to defend theses based on Kepler's dissertation (on astronomical topics); he was denied the chance. Later, when Katharina Kepler, Johannes Kepler's mother, was prosecuted on

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have us ...

charges, Besold was one of the jurists dealing with the case, which was dropped. He graduated as Doctor of Law in 1598; and in 1610 became professor of law at Tübingen. Among his pupils was

Johannes Valentinus Andreae Johannes Valentinus Andreae (17 August 1586 – 27 June 1654), a.k.a. Johannes Valentinus Andreä or Johann Valentin Andreae, was a German theologian, who claimed to be the author of an ancient text known as the ''Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Ro ...

. Besold was one of the influences on Andreae's later

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking it ...

writings, along with Tobias Hess. His advice was frequently sought in juridical questions by the civil administration. He read the Scriptures, the writings of the

Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...

, and of the medieval mystics. He was publicly converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. From the late Mid ...

in 1635. Two years later, he accepted the chair of Roman Law at the

University of Ingolstadt The University of Ingolstadt was founded in 1472 by Louis the Rich, the Duke of Bavaria at the time, and its first Chancellor was the Bishop of Eichstätt. It consisted of five faculties: humanities, sciences, theology, law, and medicine, all o ...

. He was considering the offer of a professorship at the University of Bologna, tendered him by

Pope Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII ( la, Urbanus VIII; it, Urbano VIII; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death in July 1644. As po ...

, when he died at

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...

Works

He knew 9 languages including

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. His works are numerous, with 102 scholarly writings known. His theory of

federalism Federalism is a combined or compound mode of government that combines a general government (the central or "federal" government) with regional governments (Province, provincial, State (sub-national), state, Canton (administrative division), can ...

was influential in explaining the workings of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...

. He was one of the earliest writers on

public finance Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achiev ...

, with Eberhard von Weyhe, Georg Obrecht, and Jacob Bornitz. The ''Thesaurus Practicus'' (1629), an alphabetical and encyclopedic work defining legal and other terms, ran to many editions, being taken up by his student Johann Jacob Speidel (died 1666) and others. His publication of three volumes of documents from the Stuttgart archives was tendentious. Their contents suggested that the immediate dependency of the Württemberg monasteries on the Empire (''Reichsunmittelbarkeit'') implied for the local dukes the obligation of restoring the confiscated religious property. He translated the satirical ''Ragguagli di Parnaso'' of

Trajano Boccalini Trajano Boccalini (155616 November 1613) was an Italian satirist. Biography Boccalini was born in Loreto, the son of an architect, he himself adopted that profession, and it appears that he commenced late in life to apply to literary pursuits ...

.R. J. W. Evans, ''Rudolf II and his World'' (1973), p. 281. * ''Signatura temporum'', 1614. * ''Axiomatha philosophica-theologica'', Strasburg 1616. * ''Politicorum libri due'', Frankfurt 1618. * ''De verae philosophiae fundamento discursus'', Tübingen 1619. * ''Pentas Dissertationum philologicarum'', Tübingen 1620.

References

Notes

External links

WorldCat for Christophorus BesoldusOpen Library page
* :de:s:ADB:Besold, Christoph * https://books.google.com/books? d=mzknkKS1jqQC&pg=PA9 Biography in Ferdinand Elsener, ''Lebensbilder zur Geschichte der Tübinger Juristenfakultät'' (1977) * http://www.ubs.sbg.ac.at/sosa/besold.htm
CAMENA at uni-mannheim.de
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110721160903/http://www.his-data.de/zedler/0/3/14/99/zedler-3-1499-8-daten.htm
At idref.fr
;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Besoldus, Christopher 1577 births 1638 deaths Canon law jurists Jurists from Baden-Württemberg People from Tübingen People from the Duchy of Württemberg Christian Kabbalists 16th-century German jurists 17th-century German jurists