Johannes Heinrich Ursinus (also known as Johannes Henricus Ursinus, Iohannes Henricus Ursinus, Johann Heinrich Ursin and even John Henry Ursinus) (26 January 1608 in

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...

– 14 May 1667 in

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 ...

) was a learned German author, scholar,

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 ...

theologian, humanist and dean of Regensburg. Ursinus studied the Oriental roots of western philosophy and was the author of a scholastic encyclopaedia. He was a Rector in

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

, preached in Weingarten, Speier and Regensburg, and had been a student in

Straßburg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label= Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

His ''Arboretum Biblicum,'' which appeared in 1663, was the first attempt of note to create a

concordance Concordance may refer to: * Agreement (linguistics), a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase * Bible concordance, an alphabetical listing of terms in the Bible * Concordant coastline, in geology, where beds, or la ...

of botanical references in the Bible, and predated the ''Hierozoicon'', a zoological compendium of biblical animals, of

Samuel Bochart Samuel Bochart (30 May 1599 – 16 May 1667) was a French Protestant biblical scholar, a student of Thomas Erpenius and the teacher of Pierre Daniel Huet. His two-volume '' Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan'' (Caen 1646) exerted a profound in ...

.''Palestine: The Bible History of the Holy Land, Volume 2'' - John Kitto
/ref> In all Ursinus published 137 works in 153 publications in 3 languages. The plant genus '' Ursinia'' was named after Ursinus by the German botanist,

Joseph Gaertner Joseph Gaertner (12 March 1732 – 14 July 1791) was a German botanist, best known for his work on seeds, ''De Fructibus et Seminibus Plantarum'' (1788-1792). Biography He was born in Calw, and studied in Göttingen under Albrecht von Haller. ...

Selected works

* ''Musagetes, seu de studiis recte instituendis consilium'', Regensburg 1656, Nürnberg 1659, Leipzig 1678 * ''Atrium Latinitatis sive Commentarius locuples in Januam Comenianam'', Frankfurt 1657 * ''Progymnastices oratoriae epitome, praxin grammaticam, dialecticam, rhetoricam'', Nürnberg 1659 * ''Analecta rhetorica sive progymnasmata sacrae profanaeque eloquentiae libri II'', Nürnberg 1660 * ''De Zoroastre Bactriano, Hermete Trismegisto, Sanchoniathone Phoenicio eorumque scriptis et aliis contra Mosaicae scripturae antiquitatem exercitationes familiares'', Nürnberg 1661 * ''Tyrocinium historico-chronologicum sive in Historiam Sacram et Profanam Universalem Brevis Manuductio in Usum Iuventutis'', Frankfurt 166
online
* ''Epitome metaphysicae'', Nürnberg 1664 * ''Compendium Topicae generalis'', Nürnberg 1664 * ''Compendium Logicae Aristotelicae'', Regensburg 1664 * ''Encyclopaedia scholastica sive artium, quas vocant liberalium prima rudimenta'', Nürnberg 1665 * ''De fortuna, Christophorus Ursinus ad panegyrin solemnem qua Johannes Brunnemannus viro Christiano Wildvogeln publ. collaturus, humanitate invitat'', Frankfurt 1668

Bibliography

* ''Johannes Henricus Ursinus, Autobiographischer Lebenslauf, Regensburg 1666''; Neudr. von H. W. Wurster (Hg.), in: Zeitschrift für bayerische Kirchengeschichte 51, Nürnberg. 1982, S. 73 – 105.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ursinus, Johannes Heinrich German scholars 1608 births 1667 deaths