Johannes Schenck von Grafenberg (Latin: Ioannes Schenckius) (June 20, 1530 – November 12, 1598) was a German physician. He studied at

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

, and was later a physician to the city of

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

. He was the father of physician Johann-Georg Schenck von Grafenberg (died 1620). Johannes Schenck was one of the more influential authorities on medicine during the late

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

Era. His studies of language disturbances caused by

brain A brain is an organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It is located in the head, usually close to the sensory organs for senses such as vision. It is the most complex organ in a v ...

injuries are considered advanced by 16th century standards, and because of this research he is considered to be a pioneer of

neurolinguistics Neurolinguistics is the study of neural mechanisms in the human brain that controls the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws methods and theories from fields such as n ...

. In this field he published the 1584 treatise ''Observationes Medicæ de Capite Humano'', in which he describes his personal observations of language disorders, along with the observations of other physicians. Schenck's best-known written work was ''Observationum medicarum rariorum, libri VII'', which was a seven-volume compendium that described

pathological Pathology is the study of the causal, causes and effects of disease or injury. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when us ...

conditions concerning all the parts of the human body. Information in these books was derived from medical experiences described by Schenck and his contemporaries, and well as medical observations taken from sources dating back to antiquity.

References

Neurolinguistics from the Middle Ages to the Pre-Modern Era"; Historical Vignettes
The Bernard Becker Collection in Ophthalmology
(Rare Books 301-350) 16th-century German physicians 1598 deaths 1530 births 16th-century German writers 16th-century German male writers {{Germany-med-bio-stub