thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

Johannes Fries (or Latinized Frisius, 1505–1565) was a Swiss theologian and lexicographer during the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. He is also known for his work in music theory.

Life

He studied at the cathedral school in

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

during 1527-1531, on scholarship from Ulrich Zwingli. Along with Conrad Gesner, he studied music and philology at the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

from 1533 to 1535. He taught Latin at the Fraumünster college from 1536 to 1547. Between 1545 and 1547, he traveled in Italy, in particular researching Latin and Greek manuscripts and studying

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 ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

. He resumed his position in Zurich upon his return. From 1563 he was the head of the Grossmünster college.

Works

He edited the works of various authors, contributed to the Zürich Bible and published a Latin-German dictionary (''Dictionarium Latinogermanicum''). In 1541, together with Peter Kolin (Petrus Cholinus), Fries translated the 1538 French dictionary (''Dictionarium Latinogallicum'') by Robert Estienne into German. In 1556, he published a greatly expanded edition of the dictionary, also known as ''The big Fries''. These dictionaries were alphabetized according to the Latin lemmata and lacked a German index, for which reason

Jacob Grimm Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (4 January 1785 – 20 September 1863), also known as Ludwig Karl, was a German author, linguist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist. He is known as the discoverer of Grimm's law of linguistics, the co-author of th ...

did not count them as German dictionaries. The first German dictionary which alphabetized according to the German lemmata was that by

Josua Maaler Josua Maaler (also ''Maler, Mahler'', Latinized ''Pictorius''; 1529–1599) was a Swiss pastor and lexicographer. He was the author of the first dictionary which focussed exclusively on the German language, published in Zürich as ''Die Teü ...

, published in 1561. Later editions of Fries's dictionary did include German index; so Johann Kaspar Suicer, ''Joannis Frisii Dictionarium Latino-Germanicum Nec Non Germanico-Latinum'' (1701). Fries was interested in both secular and sacred music, and published works on music theory, most notably the ''Brevis musicae isagoge'' (Zürich, 1554). This book included 24 settings of Horatian odes for four voices in strict chordal style, the tenors of which, according to the preface, were composed by Fries, with the other parts filled in by the Zürich Cathedral organist and singer Heinrich Textor. The classical poetic meters are strictly observed, leading humanistic schoolteachers to use them as examples. In about 1540, Fries edited a collection of evangelical songs and psalms that included his own poem "Der hat ein Schatz gefunden" (based on

Proverbs A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...

31:10) set to the tune of " Entlaubet ist der Walde." The setting was popular enough to be frequently reprinted in Swiss songbooks through the end of the century.

References

* * Peter Bührer: ''Johannes Fries (1505–1565). Pädagoge, Philologe, Musiker. Leben und Werk.'' In: ''Zürcher Taschenbuch auf das Jahr 2002,'' Zürich 2001, p. 151–231. * Wilfried Kettler: ''Untersuchungen zur frühneuhochdeutschen Lexikographie in der Schweiz und im Elsass. Strukturen, Typen, Quellen und Wirkungen von Wörterbüchern am Beginn der Neuzeit.'' Peter Lang, Bern 2008, p. 487–590, . {{DEFAULTSORT:Frisius, Johannes 1505 births 1565 deaths Swiss Calvinist and Reformed theologians German dictionaries 16th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians