Johannes Honter (also known as Johann Hynter;
Latinized as Johann Honterus or Ioannes Honterus;
Romanian sources may credit him as Ioan,
Hungarian ones as János; 1498 – 23 January 1549) was a
Transylvanian Saxon
The Transylvanian Saxons (german: Siebenbürger Sachsen; Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjer Såksen''; ro, Sași ardeleni, sași transilvăneni/transilvani; hu, Erdélyi szászok) are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania ...
,
renaissance humanist,
Protestant reformer, and
theologian. Honter is best known for his geographic and
cartographic publishing activity, as well as for implementing the
Lutheran reform in Transylvania and founding the church, which would become the
Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania
The Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Romania (german: Evangelische Kirche A.B. ugsburgischen Bekenntnissesin Rumänien, ro, Biserica Evanghelică de Confesiune Augustană în România) is a German-speaking Lutheran church in ...
, after Romania annexed Transylvania.
Education and activity
Early life
Born in
Brassó ''(German: Kronstadt, today Brașov, Romania)'',
Transylvania,
Kingdom of Hungary, he studied at the
University of Vienna between 1520 and 1525, graduating with a ''
magister artium'' title. As the
Ottomans
The Ottoman Turks ( tr, Osmanlı Türkleri), were the Turkic founding and sociopolitically the most dominant ethnic group of the Ottoman Empire ( 1299/1302–1922).
Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks remains scarce, ...
approached
Vienna in 1529 (''see
Siege of Vienna Sieges of Vienna may refer to:
* Siege of Vienna (1239)
* Siege of Vienna (1276)
* Siege of Vienna (1287)
* Siege of Vienna (1477), unsuccessful Hungarian attempt during the Austro–Hungarian War.
*Siege of Vienna (1485), Hungarian victory during ...
''), Honter moved first to
Regensburg
Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...
, and, in 1530, he registered at the
Kraków's
Jagiellonian University
The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...
(in
Poland) as "Johannes Georgii de Corona, artium magister Viennensis" (Corona is medieval Latin for Brassó). It was in Kraków that he published his first books, a
Latin grammar and
cosmography manual.
Between 1530 and 1532 he lived in
Basel and practiced
wood engraving, notably designing two star maps that already show his advanced skills in the craft.
In the same time period he often traveled to his native Transylvania, gathering information that was to serve in his design of a map of Transylvania, commonly known as Siebenbuergen,
Johann Honter map, published by A. Ortelius in 1566
/ref> one that he engraved and printed in Basel, and the very first one of the region to be printed. The only known copy of the map survives in the National Library of Hungary. It is known that Honter was not pleased with the map – he tried to get back all copies that he had sent to friends and other scientists. His plan was to improve the map before reprint and distribution. Dedicated to the leadership of Brassó, it was the basic design for all later maps of Transylvania, up to the early 18th century. Abraham Ortelius made the map famous by beautifully engraving it in copper.
In Brassó
He returned to Brassó in 1533 and became involved in local events. During his stay in the Holy Roman Empire, Honter had encountered Protestant ideas, and he worked hard to introduce Lutheranism to Transylvania (german: Siebenbürgen). He attempted to achieve this by informing as many persons as possible. As such, he founded the humanist gymnasium local school (functioning to this day as the "Johannes Honterus" School), set up a printing press (1539), printed a large number of books (some of which he himself authored), such as the ''Reformationsbuechlein'', published the ''Kirchenordnung aller Deutschen in Siebenbuergen'' and assisted in the introduction of a paper mill
A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags, and other ingredients. Prior to the invention and adoption of the Fourdrinier machine and other types of paper machine that use an endless belt, ...
.
In 1542, in Brassó, he printed a new version of his cosmography manual, this time in verse
Verse may refer to:
Poetry
* Verse, an occasional synonym for poetry
* Verse, a metrical structure, a stanza
* Blank verse, a type of poetry having regular meter but no rhyme
* Free verse, a type of poetry written without the use of strict me ...
, under the name '' Rudimenta Cosmographica''. He believed that verse would help students remember information contained in the book. Additionally, the book contains 13 maps, engraved by Honter himself. The maps show all known parts of the world. The ''Rudimenta'' was so successful that no less than 39 editions of it were printed in Brassó, Zürich, 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, , Basel, Rostock, Prague, and Cologne. The book was last reprinted in 1602, but sections of it have been included in other books up to 1692. It can be considered the first European-wide manual.
References
Bibliography
* NUSSBÄCHER, Gernot; PHILIPPI, Astrid, eds., 1983. ''Odae cum harmoniis 1548''. Facsimilia and music transcriptions. București: Editura Muzicală
External links
In German
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honter, Johannes
1498 births
1549 deaths
16th-century Hungarian people
Hungarian Renaissance humanists
Protestant Reformers
Hungarian Lutherans
German Lutherans
Hungarian cartographers
German cartographers
University of Vienna alumni
Jagiellonian University alumni
Transylvanian-Saxon people
Hungarian expatriates in Austria
Hungarian expatriates in Germany
Hungarian expatriates in Poland
People from Brașov
16th-century cartographers
16th-century German writers
16th-century German male writers