Conrad Lycosthenes (8 August 151825 March 1561), born Conrad Wolffhart, was an Alsatian

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 "human ...

and encyclopedist.

Deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Chur ...

of Saint Leonard in

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...

, professor of

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...

and

dialectics Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing t ...

, Lycosthenes had a passion for the study of nature and

geophysics Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' so ...

Life

Conrad Wolffhart was born in

Rouffach Rouffach (; German and Alsatian: ''Rufach'') is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. Rouffach lies along the Alsatian wine route (''Route des Vins d'Alsace''). Its vineyards produce one of the finest ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

on 8 August 1518, the son of Theobald Wolffhart and Elizabeth Kürsner, sister of the

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Conrad Pellicanus. He later changed his German name, Wolffhart, to the

humanist name Latinisation (or Latinization) of names, also known as onomastic Latinisation, is the practice of rendering a ''non''-Latin name in a Latin style. It is commonly found with historical proper names, including personal names and toponyms, and in t ...

Lycosthenes. From 1535 to 1539, Conrad studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. ...

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...

. In 1542, he left Heidelberg for

where he began teaching Grammar and Dialectics. In 1545, at the age of 27, he became Deacon in the Church of Saint-Leonard. On 21 December 1554, he suffered from

hemiplegia Hemiparesis, or unilateral paresis, is weakness of one entire side of the body ('' hemi-'' means "half"). Hemiplegia is, in its most severe form, complete paralysis of half of the body. Hemiparesis and hemiplegia can be caused by different med ...

and lost the ability to use his right hand. He learned to write with his left hand and continued his literary works until his death from apoplexia on 25 March 1561 at the age of 43. In the meantime he had married Chretienne Herbster, sister of the famous Basel book printer

Johannes Oporinus Johannes Oporinus (also Johannes Oporin; Latinised from the original German name: ''Johannes Herbster'' or ''Hans Herbst'') (25 January 1507 – 7 July 1568) was a humanist printer in Basel. Life Johannes Oporinus, the son of the painter Hans ...

(Oporin) and widow of Leonard Zwinger, father of

Theodor Zwinger Theodor Zwinger the Elder (2 August 1533 – 10 March 1588) was a Swiss physician and Renaissance humanist scholar. He made significant contributions to the emerging genres of reference and travel literature. He was the first distinguished repr ...

, author of the ''Theatrum vitae humanae''.

Works

One of the numerous

polyhistor A polymath ( el, πολυμαθής, , "having learned much"; la, homo universalis, "universal human") is an individual whose knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific pro ...

s of the 16th century, Lycosthenes mastered Latin and Greek, and was particularly fond of

curiosities Curiosity (from Latin '' cūriōsitās'', from ''cūriōsus'' "careful, diligent, curious", akin to ''cura'' "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident by observation in humans ...

. His varied works include editions, translations, and compilations. * 1547 Commentaries on ''De viris illustribus'', Basel, in-8°. * 1551 ''Elenchus scriptorum omnium'', Basel, in-4°. * 1551 ''Gnomologia ex AEneae Sylvii operibus collecta'', Basel, edit.1555, in 4°. * 1552 ''Iulii Obsequentis Prodigiorum liber, ab urbe condita usque ad Augustum Caesarem, cujus tantum extabat Fragmentum, nunc demum Historiarum beneficio, per Conradum Lycosthenem Rubeaquensem, integrati suae restitutus''. Basilae, ex off. Ioannis Oporinii, Anno Salutis humanae, M.D.LII. Mense Martio, in-8°. * 1552 ''J. Ravisii Textoris officina'', Basel. * 1555 ''Apophthegmatum sive responsorum memorabilium, ex probatissimis quibusque tam graecis quam latinis auctoribus priscis pariter atque recentioribus, collectorum Loci communes ad ordinem alphabeticum redacti'', Basel, in fol. * 1557 ''Epitome Stobaei Sententiarum'', Basel, in -8°. * 1557 ''Parabolae sive similitudines ex var. auct. ab Erasmo collectae, in locos communes redactae'', Berne in-4°; Basel, 1575, 1602, in-8°. * 1557 ''Prodigiorum ac ostentorum chronicon, quae praeter naturae ordinem, et in superioribus et his inferioribus mundi regionibus, ab exordio mundi usque ad haec nostra tempora acciderunt''. Basileae per H. Petri, fol, 672 p. fig. et pl. (64). * 1559 ''Dom. Brusonii Facetiarum lib. VII'', Basel, in-4°. * 1560 ''Regula investigationis omnium locorum in tabula Helvetiae contentorum'', Basel, in-4°.

External links

* �

��. ''Philosophengalerie''. Philosophisches Institut der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Abteilung für Wissenschaftstheorie.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lycosthenes, Conrad 1518 births 1561 deaths People from Rouffach German Calvinist and Reformed theologians German Renaissance humanists

Life

Works

Further reading

External links

Notes