Heinrich Steinhöwel, alternatively ''Steinhäuel'' or ''Steinheil'' (1410/1411 – 1 March 1479) was a German doctor,

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

, translator and writer. From 1450 he settled in

Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...

, from which most of his works were published.

Life and work

According to recent research, Steinhöwel was born in 1410 or 1411 in

Weil der Stadt Weil der Stadt () is a town of about 19,000 inhabitants in the Stuttgart Region of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is about west of Stuttgart city centre, in the valley of the River Würm, and is often called the "Gate to the Black Fo ...

and went to study medicine at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

from 1429 to 1436. He continued his education at the

University of Padua The University of Padua (, UNIPD) is an Italian public research university in Padua, Italy. It was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from the University of Bologna, who previously settled in Vicenza; thus, it is the second-oldest ...

from 1438, where he began by studying

canon law Canon law (from , , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical jurisdiction, ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its membe ...

, transferring later to receive his doctorate in medicine in 1443. From 1444 he taught medicine at the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

, going on to practice as a doctor in his hometown of Weil in 1446, then in 1449 in

Esslingen am Neckar Esslingen am Neckar (Swabian German, Swabian: ''Esslenga am Neckor''; until 16 October 1964 officially '' Eßlingen am Neckar'') is a town in the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, seat of the Esslingen (district), Distri ...

. In 1450 Steinhöwel was appointed

city physician City physician (German language, German: ; , , from Latin ) was a historical title in the Late Middle Ages for a physician appointed by the city council. The city physician was responsible for the health of the population, particularly the poor, ...

, initially for six years and then with an extended contract, and was also granted a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

connection there. Later he authored a small work on the treatment of plague, (1473), the first on its subject in German, which went through four reprints before the end of the century. He was also consulted medically by various princes, including

Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg Eberhard I of Württemberg also known as Eberhard im Bart (Eberhard the bearded) (11 December 144524 February 1496) was the first Duke of Württemberg. After the death of his older brother in 1459 he became the Count of Württemberg-Urach as E ...

and

Philip the Good Philip III the Good (; ; 31 July 1396 – 15 June 1467) ruled as Duke of Burgundy from 1419 until his death in 1467. He was a member of a cadet line of the Valois dynasty, to which all 15th-century kings of France belonged. During his reign, ...

, Duke of Burgundy. Steinhoewel Cronica 1473

Steinhöwel brought , the brother of his Augsburg printer to Ulm, where he set up what was probably the first printing press in 1472 with Steinhöwel's financial support. In 1473, a Latin and soon afterwards a German translation of

Giovanni Boccaccio Giovanni Boccaccio ( , ; ; 16 June 1313 – 21 December 1375) was an Italian people, Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. Born in the town of Certaldo, he became so ...

's () was published, both of them with numerous high-quality woodcuts, as well as Steinhöwel's (). Steinhöwel lived during the transition period from the

Late Middle Ages The late Middle Ages or late medieval period was the Periodization, period of History of Europe, European history lasting from 1300 to 1500 AD. The late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period ( ...

to the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, when there was growing interest in classical Roman and Greek culture. After settling in Ulm, he was at the centre of a circle of humanistically minded men in Swabia and also worked as a translator from Latin and editor of ancient texts. Among such works was his metrical adaptation of the ancient novel ''

Apollonius of Tyre Apollonius of Tyre is the hero of a short ancient novel, popular in the Middle Ages. Existing in numerous forms in many languages, all are thought to derive from an ancient Greek version now lost. Plot summary In most versions, the eponymous ...

'', as well as works by

Petrarch Francis Petrarch (; 20 July 1304 – 19 July 1374; ; modern ), born Francesco di Petracco, was a scholar from Arezzo and poet of the early Italian Renaissance, as well as one of the earliest Renaissance humanism, humanists. Petrarch's redis ...

. Around 1476, Steinhöwel published his famous and influential bilingual collection of

Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...

, with the Latin text in verse accompanied by a German prose translation. The 550-page work contains 191

woodcuts Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with Chisel#Gouge, gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts ...

and numerous decorative

initial In a written or published work, an initial is a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter (books), chapter, or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from the Latin ''initiālis'', which means '' ...

s. The collection was also accompanied by a biography of Aesop and stories by Petrus Alphonsus and

Poggio Bracciolini Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini (; 11 February 1380 – 30 October 1459), usually referred to simply as Poggio Bracciolini, was an Italian scholar and an early Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist. He is noted for rediscovering and recove ...

. Very soon after, translations or adaptations followed in Italian (1479), French (1480), English (the Caxton edition of 1484), Czech (about 1488) and Spanish (1489). Steinhöwel exerted a great influence on the development of a sophisticated German written language through his relatively free translations from Latin into German. Statements about his principles of translation, published in the introductions to his works, are among the early Renaissance theoretical considerations of the problem of translation and thus implicitly of cultural transfer. Hans Vermeer: ''Das Übersetzen in Renaissance und Humanismus (15. und 16. Jahrhundert)'' (Heidelberg, 2000), vol. 1, pp. 549–568 He died in Ulm in 1479.

Life and work

References

See also