Valens Acidalius (156725 May 1595), also known as Valtin Havekenthal, was a German critic and poet writing in the

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 ...

language.

Life

Acidalius was born in

Wittstock Wittstock/Dosse is a town in the Ostprignitz-Ruppin district, in north-western Brandenburg, Germany. Geography It is located in the eastern Prignitz region on the Dosse River near the confluence with its Glinze tributary, about east of Pritzwal ...

, the son of a Lutheran pastor. He studied at the universities of

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, ...

Greifswald Greifswald (), officially the University and Hanseatic City of Greifswald (german: Universitäts- und Hansestadt Greifswald, Low German: ''Griepswoold'') is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania after Rosto ...

and Helmstedt. Even in his early youth, his Latin poems caused a stir. In 1590 he accompanied his friend Daniel Bucretius (Daniel Rindfleisch) to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

where he published his first literary work, an edition of

Velleius Paterculus Marcus Velleius Paterculus (; c. 19 BC – c. AD 31) was a Roman historian, soldier and senator. His Roman history, written in a highly rhetorical style, covered the period from the end of the Trojan War to AD 30, but is most useful for the per ...

. Acidalius studied philosophy and medicine in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label=Emilian language, 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 1 ...

and was awarded a doctorate degree in both disciplines. He was however not attracted by the practical work as a medic and therefore concentrated on the criticism of classic works. He returned to Germany in 1593 after several fever attacks, moving to Breslau, the home town of his friend Bucretius. In 1595 Acidalius became a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and in spring of the same year, he accepted an invitation of his friend and supporter, the episcopal chancellor Wacker von Wackenfels to Neisse. He died there of a fever at the age of 28.

Publications

* ''Velleius Paterculus'', 1590,

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 ...

* ''Animadversiones in Curtium'', 1594,

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...

Posthumously: * a collection of poems, elegies, odes and epigrams, 1603,

Liegnitz Legnica (Polish: ; german: Liegnitz, szl, Lignica, cz, Lehnice, la, Lignitium) is a city in southwestern Poland, in the central part of Lower Silesia, on the Kaczawa River (left tributary of the Oder) and the Czarna Woda. Between 1 June 1975 ...

* ''Centuria prima epistolarum'', 1606, Hanau * ''Divinationes et interpretationes in comoedias Plauti'', 1607, Frankfurt, 566 pages * ''Notae in Taciti opera'', 1607, Hannover * ''Notae in Panegyrici veteres'', 1607,

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 ...

Disputed: * '' Disputatio nova contra mulieres, qua probatur eas homines non esse'', 1595, probably printed in

Zerbst Zerbst () is a town in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until an administrative reform in 2007, Zerbst was the capital of the former Anhalt-Zerbst district. Geography Zerbst is situated in the Anhalt-Wittenberg regi ...

, 11 sheets 4°. A tract which caused much annoyance among the theologians of the time because of its blasphemic precepts. His attackers overlooked the fact that the tract was intended as a parody on the

Socinian Socinianism () is a nontrinitarian belief system deemed heretical by the Catholic Church and other Christian traditions. Named after the Italian theologians Lelio Sozzini (Latin: Laelius Socinus) and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Faustus Socinus), uncle ...

methods of refuting the divine nature of

Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

. During his lifetime, Acidalius denied having written these papers. It is believed that while Acidalius did not actually write the tract, he was nevertheless instrumental in its creation. Thus, the actual author remains anonymous. **Czapla, Ralf G. d. Burkard, Georg d. Burkard, Georg rans. ''Disputatio nova contra mulieres, qua probatur eas homines non esse / Acidalius, Valens. (Neue Disputation gegen die Frauen zum Erweis, dass sie keine Menschen sind). Heidelberg 2006.

References

Sources

* ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie''— online version at German

Wikisource Wikisource is an online digital library of free-content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole and the name for each instance of that project (each instance usually re ...

External links

in the catalog of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

in Rostock Matrikelportal

in

VD 17 The Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts (in English: ''Bibliography of Books Printed in the German Speaking Countries from 1601 to 1700''), abbreviated VD17, is a project to make a retrospective German n ...

VD 16 The Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts (VD 16) (in English: ''Bibliography of Books Printed in the German Speaking Countries of the Sixteenth Century''), abbreviated VD 16, is a project to make a ret ...

Johann Heinrich Zedler Johann Heinrich Zedler (7 January 1706 in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) – 21 March 1751 in Leipzig) was a bookseller and publisher. His most important achievement was the creation of a German encyclopedia, the '' Grosses Universal-Lexicon (Gre ...

Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon The ''Grosses vollständiges Universal-Lexicon aller Wissenschafften und Künste'' ( en, Great Complete Encyclopedia of All Sciences and Arts, , italic=yes) is a 68-volume German encyclopedia published by Johann Heinrich Zedler between 1731 and 1 ...

, band 1, Leipzig 1732, column 346 f.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acidalius, Valens 1567 births 1595 deaths People from Ostprignitz-Ruppin Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism German Renaissance humanists German Roman Catholics People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg University of Rostock alumni University of Greifswald alumni University of Helmstedt alumni Infectious disease deaths in Germany