Johannes Matthaeus Wacker von Wackenfels (1550–1619) was an active diplomat, scholar and author, with an avid interest in history and philosophy. A follower of

Neostoicism Neostoicism was a philosophical movement that arose in the late 16th century from the works of Justus Lipsius, and sought to combine the beliefs of Stoicism and Christianity. Lipsius was Flemish and a Renaissance humanist. The movement took on ...

, he sought to resolve the doubts he still had about his conversion to

Catholicism 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 ...

, according to STUDIA RUDOLPHINA - Bulletin of the Research Center for Visual Arts and Culture in the Age of Rudolf II. Johann Matthäus Wacker von Wackenfels

He was born in

Konstanz Konstanz (, , locally: ; also written as Constance in English) is a university city with approximately 83,000 inhabitants located at the western end of Lake Constance in the south of Germany. The city houses the University of Konstanz and was th ...

(Constance) in 1550 in a Lutheran Protestant family and studied in Strasbourg,

Geneva , neighboring_municipalities= Carouge, Chêne-Bougeries, Cologny, Lancy, Grand-Saconnex, Pregny-Chambésy, Vernier, Veyrier , website = https://www.geneve.ch/ Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevr ...

and

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 ...

. He was supported and promoted by

Johannes Crato von Krafftheim Johannes Crato von Krafftheim (born Johannes Krafft; 22 November 1519 – 19 October 1585) was a German humanist and court physician to three Holy Roman emperors. Origins and education Crato von Krafftheim was born Johannes Krafft''.'' He was ...

, who put his way into the circle of

Renaissance humanism in Northern Europe Renaissance humanism came much later to Germany and Northern Europe in general than to Italy, and when it did, it encountered some resistance from the scholastic theology which reigned at the universities. Humanism may be dated from the invention ...

in Breslau. On Crato's and Hubert Languet's recommendation, he became tutor in noble houses. In 1574 he traveled from

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to Italy, where he met Jakob Monau and Fabier Ien de Dohna. In 1575 he received his doctorate in Padua. As a steward, he accompanied the son of Nicholas of Rhediger on the

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

(peregrinatio Academica). In 1576 he returned to Breslau and became the confidant of bishop Andreas von Jerin. In 1591 Wackenfels was Chancellor of the Upper Silesian provincial team. In 1583 he married Sophie Poley in Dresden (1563-92), a sister of Wroclaw businessman and gentleman on animal garden Christoph Poley. In 1592 Wackenfels converted to the Catholic faith and in 1594, he was in the

Ennoblement Ennoblement is the conferring of nobility—the induction of an individual into the noble class. Currently only a few kingdoms still grant nobility to people; among them Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Vatican. Depending on time and reg ...

. In 1595 he married his second wife Catherine of Troilo, being then Franz Troilo's brother-in-law, a sister of his first wife and second daughter of Johann Franz Troilo, and allied himself with one of the most influential families in Wroclaw. In the spring of the same year, he made an invitation to his friend

Valens Acidalius Valens Acidalius (156725 May 1595), also known as Valtin Havekenthal, was a German critic and poet writing in the Latin language. Life Acidalius was born in Wittstock, the son of a Lutheran pastor. He studied at the universities of Rostock, Greifsw ...

to go to

Neisse The Lusatian Neisse (german: Lausitzer Neiße; pl, Nysa Łużycka; cs, Lužická Nisa; Upper Sorbian: ''Łužiska Nysa''; Lower Sorbian: ''Łužyska Nysa''), or Western Neisse, is a river in northern Central Europe.Aulic Council The Aulic Council ( la, Consilium Aulicum, german: Reichshofrat, literally meaning Court Council of the Empire) was one of the two supreme courts of the Holy Roman Empire, the other being the Imperial Chamber Court. It had not only concurrent juri ...

, where he served until 1612, from 1608 as a trainee. In 1611 he has devoted his friend Johannes Kepler, who dedicated to him his "Strena seu nive sexangula" (From hexagonal snow; see:

Kepler conjecture The Kepler conjecture, named after the 17th-century mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler, is a mathematical theorem about sphere packing in three-dimensional Euclidean space. It states that no arrangement of equally sized spheres filling s ...

) (1611).

Works

Wackenfels wrote courtly poems and his manuscripts contain many philological and historical studies (examples:- "Dissertatio de nummo Ptolomaei" - which he also illustrated, presently held at the Öesterreichische Nationalbiliothek in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, various philosophical treatises and "De cruce et fruce veterum" - known only from correspondence). Vota aulica super illustrissima ducum Saxoniae controversia de jure praecedentiae in dignitate et successione . Frankfurt / M. 1619 (together with Johann Müller Hegen).

Sources

Colmar Grünhagen Colmar Grünhagen (2 April 1828 - 27 July 1911) was a German archivist and historian. Almost all of his considerable published output concerns the History of Silesia In the second half of the 2nd millennium B.C. (late Bronze Age), Silesia belon ...

: "Wacken Rock, Johann Matthaeus Wacker from". In: ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB). Volume 40, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1896, pp. 448 f. Conrad, climb, p 282f., 1571st Mountain weapons.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wacker von Wackenfels 1550 births 1619 deaths People from Konstanz Converts to Roman Catholicism from Lutheranism German Roman Catholics Catholic philosophers