Henrich Smet (also ''Henricus Smetius Alostanus'', ''Henricus Smetius a Leda'', or ''Hendrik de Smet'') (29 June 1535 or 1537—15 March 1614)

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

was a physician and humanist scholar.

Life

Smet was the son of Robert Smet (d. 1540) and initially studied with John Otho in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

(1552–54). He met several students there that like him would eventually make a name for themselves in the world of letters. Barely fifteen, he translated the ''Gnomae Pythagorae ac Phocylidis'' and the ''

Batrachomyomachia The ''Batrachomyomachia'' ( grc, Βατραχομυομαχία, from , "frog", , "mouse", and , "battle") or ''Battle of the Frogs and Mice'' is a comic epic, or a parody of the ''Iliad'', commonly attributed to Homer, although other authors ha ...

'' (then ascribed to

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

) from

Classical Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

and the ''Historia Susannae'' from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and also displayed skill in the Latin poetry. He studied medicine at

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

se
entry of Henrich Smet
in

Rostock Matrikelportal The Rostock Matrikelportal (matriculation portal) disseminates about 186,000 individual-level datasets drawn from the student registers of the University of Rostock from its establishment in 1419 to today. Each entry is faithfully transcribed and li ...

and

and took his doctorate in 1561 in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

. He established a medical practice in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. As a result of his

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 ...

convictions, he left Antwerp during the tumult of 1567 for

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

. He then moved to

Lemgo Lemgo (; nds, Lemge, Lemje) is a small university town in the Lippe district of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is situated between the Teutoburg Forest and the Weser Uplands, 25 km east of Bielefeld and 70 km west of Hannover. T ...

and was the

court physician A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to Adjudication, adjudicate legal disputes between Party (law), parties and carry out the administration of justice in Civil law (common law), civil, C ...

of the Count of Lippe. In 1574 he moved to Heidelberg and became court physician to the Elector Palatine, Frederick III. When Frederick died in 1576, he was succeeded by his

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

son Elector Louis VI who removed the

Reformed Reform is beneficial change Reform may also refer to: Media * ''Reform'' (album), a 2011 album by Jane Zhang * Reform (band), a Swedish jazz fusion group * ''Reform'' (magazine), a Christian magazine *''Reforme'' ("Reforms"), initial name of the ...

faculty from the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

, Smet briefly practiced medicine in

Frankenthal Frankenthal (Pfalz) ( pfl, Frongedahl) is a town in southwestern Germany, in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. History Frankenthal was first mentioned in 772. In 1119 an Augustinian monastery was built here, the ruins of which — known, aft ...

. After 1579 he entered the service of Count Palatine Johann Casimir and began to give medical lectures in the Casimirianum in Neustadt. He returned to the University of Heidelberg with the rest of the medical faculty in 1585 after Johann Casimir became the regent of the Palatinate. Besides medicine, he was interested in philology and poetry. He compiled a dictionary of Latin words, which was so successful that it was frequently reprinted throughout the seventeenth century. Many letters from Smet from the period 1585-93 are preserved in the archive of the University of Heidelberg. Smet married Johanna van den Corput in 1562, sister of the humanist and pastor Hendrik van den Corput.

Works

* ''Henrici Smetii (...) Juvenilia sacra regnum judaïcorum.'' Heidelberg, 1594. * ''Henrici Smetii, Parentalia (...).'' Heidelberg, 1594. * ''Miscellanea (...) Medica.'' Frankfurt: Jonas Rhodius, 1611. VD 17 23:290916S * ''Oratio de febri tertiana intermittente.'' Heidelberg, 1587. * ''Prosodia Henrici Smetii, med. d. prontissima (...).'' Frankfurt, 1599. * ''Prosodia in novam formam digesta.'' Amsterdam, bij H. & T. Boom, 1683, (One of the many reprints of the work of 1599)
''Ueber Alter und Vortrefflichkeit der Medicin: aus dem Lateinischen des Henricus Smetius a Leda,''
ed. Gustav Waltz. 1889.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smet, Heinrich 1535 births 1614 deaths Physicians of the Habsburg Netherlands Physicians of the Spanish Netherlands Academic staff of Heidelberg University

Life

Works

Further reading

References

External links