Giovanni Faber (or Johann Faber, sometimes also known as Fabri or Fabro) (1574–1629) was a German papal doctor,
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
and art collector, originally from
Bamberg
Bamberg (, , ; East Franconian: ''Bambärch'') is a town in Upper Franconia, Germany, on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. The town dates back to the 9th century, when its name was derived from the nearby ' castle. C ...
in
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
, who lived in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
from 1598. He was curator of the
Vatican botanical garden
Vatican may refer to:
Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum
The Holy See
* The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...
, a member and the secretary of the
Accademia dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
. He acted throughout his career as a political broker between
Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria
Maximilian I (17 April 157327 September 1651), occasionally called the Great, a member of the House of Wittelsbach, ruled as Duke of Bavaria from 1597. His reign was marked by the Thirty Years' War during which he obtained the title of a Prince- ...
and Rome. He was a friend of fellow Linceian
Galileo Galilei
Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de' Galilei (15 February 1564 – 8 January 1642) was an Italian astronomer, physicist and engineer, sometimes described as a polymath. Commonly referred to as Galileo, his name was pronounced (, ). He was ...
and the German painters in Rome,
Johann Rottenhammer
Johann Rottenhammer, or Hans Rottenhammer (1564 – 14 August 1625), was a German painter. He specialized in highly finished paintings on a small scale.
Biography
He was born in Munich, where he studied until 1588 under Hans Donauer the Eld ...
and
Adam Elsheimer
__NOTOC__
Adam Elsheimer (18 March 1578 – 11 December 1610) was a German artist working in Rome, who died at only thirty-two, but was very influential in the early 17th century in the field of Baroque paintings. His relatively few paintin ...
. He has also been credited with inventing the name "
microscope
A microscope () is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisibl ...
".
Biography
Johann Faber was born the son 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 Bamberg in 1574. When he was one year old, he was orphaned by an epidemic of the
plague
Plague or The Plague may refer to:
Agriculture, fauna, and medicine
*Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis''
* An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural)
* A pandemic caused by such a disease
* A swarm of pes ...
. He was raised and educated in the
Catholic faith
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 p ...
by his cousin Philip Schmidt. He studied medicine at the
University of Würzburg
The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg (also referred to as the University of Würzburg, in German ''Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg'') is a public research university in Würzburg, Germany. The University of Würzburg is one of ...
and graduated in 1597. In order to continue his studies he moved to Rome in 1598, where he worked as a doctor in the hospital of
Santo Spirito in Sassia
Church of the Holy Spirit in the Saxon District (Italian: ''La chiesa di Santo Spirito in Sassia'') is a 12th-century titular church in Rome, Italy. It is in '' Borgo Santo Spirito'', a street which got its name from the church, placed in the sou ...
. His practical studies of
anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having its ...
proceeded from direct observation of the human body. He later turned exclusively to the study of animal anatomy. In 1600 he was appointed to the chair of
Botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
and of Anatomy at the
Sapienza University of Rome
The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...
. In the same year he became the director of the Papal botanical garden (now the Orto Botanico dell'Università di Roma "La Sapienza").
Diplomacy at the papal court
Thanks to these new engagements he attended the papal court more regularly, and gradually became known as an effective spokesman for people from his homeland with sensitive causes. He also cultivated deep artistic interests, becoming an avid collector of paintings. In 1611 Faber's interest in natural investigation led him to become a member of the
Accademia dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
. Faber attended the papal court regularly under five Popes (
Clement VIII
Pope Clement VIII ( la, Clemens VIII; it, Clemente VIII; 24 February 1536 – 3 March 1605), born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death in March 1605.
Born ...
,
Leo XI
Pope Leo XI ( it, Leone XI; 2 June 153527 April 1605), born Alessandro Ottaviano de' Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 1 April 1605 to his death in April 1605. His pontificate is one of the briefest in his ...
,
Paul V
Pope Paul V ( la, Paulus V; it, Paolo V) (17 September 1550 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death in January 1621. In 1611, he honored ...
,
Gregory XV
Pope Gregory XV ( la, Gregorius XV; it, Gregorio XV; 9 January 15548 July 1623), born Alessandro Ludovisi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 9 February 1621 to his death in July 1623.
Biography
Early life
Al ...
and
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 ...
), and developed friendships with powerful figures including cardinals
Cinzio Aldobrandini
Cinzio Aldobrandini (1551 – 1 January 1610) was an Italian cardinal.
Name
In some documents he is known as Cinzio Personeni Aldobrandini or Cinzio Passeri Aldobrandini because, after settling in Romagna, the family varied its name according to ...
,
Scipione Borghese
Scipione Borghese (; 1 September 1577 – 2 October 1633) was an Italian Cardinal, art collector and patron of the arts. A member of the Borghese family, he was the patron of the painter Caravaggio and the artist Bernini. His legacy is the estab ...
,
Francesco Barberini and
Scipione Cobelluzzi
Scipione Cobelluzzi (1564 – 29 June 1626) was an Italian cardinal, archivist and librarian. He was chief archivist of the Vatican Secret Archives (which now holds over 85 linear kilometres of shelving), from 17 February 1618 until his dea ...
. With these important connections, he was entrusted over many years with confidential business by many leading German families, including the
Fugger
The House of Fugger () is a German upper bourgeois family that was historically a prominent group of European bankers, members of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century mercantile patriciate of Augsburg, international mercantile bankers, and vent ...
s of
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
, the brothers
Philip III, Landgrave of Hesse-Butzbach and
Frederick I, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg
Frederick I of Hesse-Homburg (5 March 1585, at Lichtenberg Castle in Fischbachtal – 9 May 1638, in Bad Homburg), was the first Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg and founder of the eponymous family line.
Life
Frederick was the youngest son of Count ...
, the Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt
Ludwig V and his son
George II George II or 2 may refer to:
People
* George II of Antioch (seventh century AD)
* George II of Armenia (late ninth century)
* George II of Abkhazia (916–960)
* Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051)
* George II of Georgia (1072–1089)
* ...
,
John Casimir, Count of Erbach-Breuberg John Casimir, Count of Erbach-Breuberg (10 August 1584 – 14 January 1627), was a German prince member of the House of Erbach and ruler over Breuberg, Wildenstein and Fürstenau.
Born in Erbach, he was the eleventh child and fourth (but third su ...
,
Frederick IV of Fürstenberg
Frederick IV of Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg (german: Friederich von Fürstenberg-Heiligenberg; 9 May 1563 – 8 August 1617), a member of the Swabian noble house of Fürstenberg (princely family), Fürstenberg, was Count (''Graf'') of Fürstenbe ...
and
Philipp Otto zu Salm.
Visit to Naples
In 1608 Faber was sent by
Pope Paul V
Pope Paul V ( la, Paulus V; it, Paolo V) (17 September 1550 – 28 January 1621), born Camillo Borghese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 16 May 1605 to his death in January 1621. In 1611, he honored ...
to Naples. The Pope wanted him to report discreetly about the conditions in which
Tommaso Campanella
Tommaso Campanella (; 5 September 1568 – 21 May 1639), baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.
He was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and w ...
was being held in the
Castel Sant'Elmo
Castel Sant'Elmo is a medieval fortress located on Vomero Hill adjacent to the Certosa di San Martino, overlooking Naples, Italy. The name "Sant'Elmo" derives from a former 10th-century church dedicated to Sant'Erasmo, shortened to "Ermo" and, ...
, where he had been held since his imprisonment in 1600 for unorthodox views and rebellion. Faber's contacts
Caspar Schoppe
Caspar Schoppe (27 May 1576 – 19 November 1649) was a German catholic controversialist and scholar.
Life
He was born at Neumarkt in the upper Palatinate and studied at several German universities. He converted to Roman Catholicism in about 1599 ...
and the Fuggers also encouraged him to use his good offices on Campanella's behalf. Faber's visit seems to have been instrumental in securing Campanella's transfer to the more humane prison of
Castel dell'Ovo
Castel dell'Ovo ("Egg Castle") is a seafront castle in Naples, located on the former island of Megaride, now a peninsula, on the Gulf of Naples in Italy. The castle's name comes from a legend about the Roman poet Virgil, who had a reputation in ...
. However the official purpose of his visit to Naples was to gather exotic plants for the Vatican gardens. Faber spent two months, enjoying the vigorous intellectual life of Naples with men such as
Ferrante Imperato
Ferrante Imperato (1525? – 1615?), an apothecary of Naples, published ''Dell'Historia Naturale'' (Naples 1599) and illustrated it with his own cabinet of curiosities displayed at Palazzo Gravina in Naples; the engraving became the first pict ...
,
Giambattista Della Porta
Giambattista della Porta (; 1535 – 4 February 1615), also known as Giovanni Battista Della Porta, was an Italian scholar, polymath and playwright who lived in Naples at the time of the Renaissance, Scientific Revolution and Reformation.
Giamba ...
,
Fabio Colonna,
Giulio Cesare Capaccio,
Nicola Antonio Stigliola
Nicola Antonio Stigliola (Also: Colantonio Stelliola) (1546 Nola – 1623 Naples) was an Italian philosopher, printer, architect, and medical doctor. He was a friend of Tommaso Campanella and Giordano Bruno and a member of the Accademia de ...
,
Quinzio Bongiovanni,
Mario Schipani,
Marco Aurelio Severino
Marco Aurelio Severino (November, 1580 – July 12, 1656) was an Italian surgeon and anatomist.
Biography
Severino was born in Tarsia (Calabria, Italy), of Giovanni Jacopo Severino, a lawyer. He died of plague in 1656 in Naples.
Adept of the ...
and Brother
Donato D'Eremita and learning about plants, botanical gardens and collections of rare objects.
Scientific Interests
His interests in natural philosophy continued to develop after his return to Rome. Here he was a frequent visitor to the pharmacy of his friend the Dutch botanist
Enrico Corvino at the sign of the ''Imperial Eagle'' in Montegiordano, where many of the city's artists and physicians gathered. Faber was also friendly with
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
who was working in the city until 1608, as well as other painters and miniaturists. Corvino was to become a member of the
Accademia dei Lincei
The Accademia dei Lincei (; literally the "Academy of the Lynx-Eyed", but anglicised as the Lincean Academy) is one of the oldest and most prestigious European scientific institutions, located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rom ...
in 1611, and Faber came to know a number of the men who were involved in its work, including
Federico Cesi
Federico Angelo Cesi (; 26 February 1585 – 1 August 1630) was an Italian scientist, naturalist, and founder of the Accademia dei Lincei. On his father's death in 1630, he became briefly lord of Acquasparta.
Biography
Federico Cesi was ...
, its founder,
Johann Schreck
Johann(es) Schreck, also Terrenz or Terrentius Constantiensis, Deng Yuhan Hanpo 鄧玉函, Deng Zhen Lohan, (1576, Bingen, Baden-Württemberg or Constance – 11 May 1630, Beijing) was a German Jesuit, missionary to China and polymath. He is c ...
and
Theophilus Müller. On 29 October 1611 Faber himself became a member.
December 1612 saw the visit to Rome of
Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen
Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen (1575–1622) was the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg from 1609 to 1622 and Prince-Bishop of Würzburg from 1617 to 1622.
Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen was born in Oberlauda, today a district of Lauda-Königshofen, on ...
, Prince-Bishop of Bamberg. Faber hoped to make him a gift of a telescope, but was unable to do so owing to the difficulties Galileo as experiencing in producing lenses of sufficiently high quality. Nevertheless, he was able to use the visit to help foster academic projects in Germany, ensuring that the Bishop was given a number of books written by members of the Accademia, and a sample volume of Hernandez's ''Mexicanarum plantarum'' which Cesi had charged Schreck and Faber with editing. Faber's work, with a dedication to
Francesco Barberini, was finally published in 1628 under the title ''Animalia Mexicana'', while the edited version of Hernandez' full original was published only after his death, in 1651.
Naming the microscope
Giovanni Faber has been credited with giving the microscope its name. In 1609 fellow
Lincean Galileo developed a compound microscope with a convex and a concave lens, which he called the ''occhiolino'', the "little eye". In 1624 Galileo presented his occhiolino to Prince
Federico Cesi
Federico Angelo Cesi (; 26 February 1585 – 1 August 1630) was an Italian scientist, naturalist, and founder of the Accademia dei Lincei. On his father's death in 1630, he became briefly lord of Acquasparta.
Biography
Federico Cesi was ...
, founder of the Accademia dei Lincei. One year later Giovanni Faber coined the word ''microscope'' from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
words ''μικρόν'' (''micron'') meaning "small", and ''σκοπεῖν'' (''skopein'') meaning "to look at". The word was meant to be analogous with ''
telescope
A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, absorption, or reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally meaning only an optical instrument using lenses, curved mirrors, or a combination of both to observe ...
'', another word coined by the Linceans.
Family
In 1608 Faber became a naturalised Roman by adopting the legal status of "civis romanus": on 19 August 1612 he married Maria Anna Hyrler, who was herself born in Rome to German parents. Faber died on 17 September 1629 and was buried, in accordance with his last wish, in the church of
Santa Maria dell'Anima
, native_name=
, image=Santa Maria del Anima I.jpg
, caption=Façade of the church.
, mapframe=yes
, mapframe-caption=Click on the map for a fullscreen view
, mapframe-zoom=12
, mapframe-marker=religious-christian
, coordinates=
, location=Via di ...
next to his wife who had died some two years previously. He was survived by several children; Maria Vittoria, Maria Maddalena and Giano Domenico.
References
External links
"Medical competence, anatomy and the polity in seventeenth-century" by Rome Silvia De Renzi, Renaissance Studies Vol. 21 No. 4* [https://www.academia.edu/5495800/Science_Books_and_Censorship_in_the_Academy_of_the_Lincei._Johannes_Faber_as_cultural_mediator_in_Conflicting_Duties._Science_Medicine_and_Religion_in_Rome_1550-1750_ed._by_Maria_Pia_Donato_and_Jill_Kraye_London-Turin_Warburg_Institute_Colloquia_15_2009_pp._109-133 'Science Books and Censorship in the Academy of the Lincei: Johannes Faber as Cultural Mediator in Conflicting Duties']
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faber, Giovanni
1574 births
1629 deaths
17th-century German botanists
Members of the Lincean Academy
German Roman Catholics
17th-century German physicians