Petrus Lotichius Secundus or Peter Lotz (2 November 1528 in Niederzell/

Schlüchtern Schlüchtern is a town in the Main-Kinzig district, in Hessen, Germany. It is located on the river Kinzig, approximately 30 km southwest of Fulda. Schlüchtern has a population close to 16,000. Location Schlüchtern is located in the '' Ber ...

– 7 November 1560 in

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 scholar and a significant

neo-Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

of the 16th century. Petrus Lotichius Secundus was born “Peter Lotz” in 1528 in Niederzell, today a district of Schlüchtern (Hesse). In his childhood he attended convent school in Schlüchtern (1535/1537), which was founded by his uncle, the abbot Petrus Lotichius (Peter Lotz). The Frankfurt

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

Jakob Micyllus Jacob Micyllus,In Antiquity Micyllus was the poor cobbler of Lucian's ''Gallus'' (6 April 1503 – 28 January 1558) was a German Renaissance humanist and teacher, who conducted the city's Latin school in Frankfurt-am-Main, Frankfurt and held a ...

inspired his interest in Latin poetry. He began his university education in

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

in 1544, but quickly moved to

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

to study with

Joachim Camerarius Joachim Camerarius (12 April 150017 April 1574), the Elder, was a Germans, German classical scholar. Life He was born in Bamberg, in the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg. His family name was Liebhard, but he was generally called Kammermeister, previo ...

, and from there to

Wittenberg Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...

to study with

Philip Melanchthon Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lu ...

. In the winter of 1546/47, he served as a soldier in the

Schmalkaldic War The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...

on the Protestant side in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

. He earned his Master of Arts degree in Wittenberg in 1548. He traveled as a companion to the nephew of the Würzburg canon Daniel Stiebar to Paris in 1550/51. Towards the end of 1551 he commenced the study of

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

and

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 ...

at the

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

which he continued in late 1554 in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

and later received his doctorate at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

in 1556. He was appointed by Elector Otto Henry as professor of

and

at 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, ...

in 1557, where he quickly attracted a circle of young poets around him. He suffered from a reoccurring fever since 1556 and died on 7 November 1560 (possibly as a result of poisoning from his time in Bologna) as one of the most important German poets of his time. He left behind an extensive body of poems based on classical models.

Works

* ''Elegiarum liber; Carminum libellus''. Paris, 1551 * ''Elegiarum liber secundus; Venator''. Lyon, 1553 * ''Carminum libellus''. Bologna, 1556 * ''Poemata''. Leipzig, 1563 * ''Opera omnia''. Leipzig, 1586
''Poemata omnia''"> ''Poemata omnia''
ed. Pieter Burmann der Jüngere. Amsterdam, Schouten, 1754. Reprint, New York: Olms (no date)

References

* * * * Ulrike Auhagen and Eckart Schäfer. ''Lotichius und die römische Elegie.'' Verlag Günter Narr, Tübingen, 2001, , * Friedrich Bluhme and Ernst Gottlob Köstlin. ''Des P. Lotichius Secundus Elegieen.'' Verlag Hemmerde und Schwetschke, 1826 * Bernd Henneberg, ''Die Hirtengedichte von Petrus Lotichius Secundus(1528–1560): Text, Übersetzung, Interpretation.'' Diss. Freiburg i.Br. 1985 * Wilhelm Kühlmann and Joachim Telle. “Humanismus und Medizin an der Universität Heidelberg im 16.Jahrhundert.” In ''Semper Apertus: Sechshundert Jahre Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg 1386–1986'', ed. Wilhelm Doerr et al., 1:255-89. Berlin: Springer, 1985.

External links

at the

Munich Digitization Center Munich Digitization Center (German ''Das Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum'' (MDZ)) is an institution dedicated to digitization, Online publication and the long-term archival preservation of the holdings of the Bavarian State Library and other cu ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lotichius Secundus, Petrus 1528 births 1560 deaths Lotichius, Petrus Secundus People from Schlüchtern 16th-century Latin-language writers German Renaissance humanists 16th-century German physicians German medical writers 16th-century German writers 16th-century German male writers Writers from Hesse Physicians from Hesse