Recent from talks
Leonhart Fuchs
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Leonhart Fuchs
Leonhart Fuchs (German: [ˈleːɔnhaʁt ˈfʊks]; 17 January 1501 – 10 May 1566), sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs and cited in Latin as Leonhartus Fuchsius, was a German physician and botanist. His chief notability is as the author of a large book about plants and their uses as medicines, a herbal, which was first published in 1542 in Latin. It has about 500 accurate and detailed drawings of plants, which were printed from woodcuts. The drawings are the book's most notable advance on its predecessors. Although drawings had been used in other herbal books, Fuchs's book proved and emphasized high-quality drawings as the most telling way to specify what a plant name stands for.
Fuchs was born in 1501 in Wemding (Marktplatz 5), near Donauwörth in Donau-Ries in the then Duchy of Bavaria, as the youngest son of Johann (Hans) Fuchs and his wife Anna Denten. His father was the town Burgomaster, and both parents came from families of municipal councillors (Ratsherr). The exact date of his birth is unknown, but this was at the height of the German Renaissance. His father died prematurely in 1506, leaving Leonhart to be brought up by his mother and grandfather, an earlier Burgomaster.
His family considered him gifted, but felt that local schools could not provide him with the education he needed. In 1511, with help from relatives, he was sent to the Lateinschule (grammar school) in Heilbronn (150 km west of Wemding), where Konrad Költer, the Rektor (1492–1527), also recognised his abilities. At that time, the school, had an excellent reputation, and Költer in particular for his teaching of Terence and Horace. The following year, Fuchs transferred to the Marienschule in Erfurt, Thuringia (320 km to the north), which provided intensive teaching in the classical languages, as a prerequisite to entrance in the University of Erfurt, which he then progressed to after six months. He was now eleven years old. At the time, the university at Erfurt was considered one of the premier German institutions of higher learning. At Erfurt, he matriculated in the Faculty of Arts, and by the 1516–7 winter semester had obtained his Baccalaureus artium, enabling him to teach, and he returned to Wemding to open a private school, at the age of 17. It was at Erfurt that he began his friendship with his contemporary, Joachim Camerarius.
On 28 June 1519 he started classes at the Hochschule (University of Ingolstadt), 62 km east of Wemding. There he studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew under, Johann Reuchlin and Jacob Ceporinus together with some philosophy and botany, and obtained his Magister Artium on 17 January 1521. During this time he became acquainted with the writings of Martin Luther, another graduate of Erfurt, and adopted the Lutheran faith. He then began to study medicine, obtaining his Medicinae Doctor on 1 March 1524.
From 1524 to 1526, he practised as a doctor in Munich, until he was offered the chair of medicine at the University of Ingolstadt in 1526. The university was firmly Roman Catholic and carefully monitored the religious practices and opinions of its professors, creating problems for Fuchs, given his Lutheran views. Thus, in 1528 he accepted a position in Ansbach (then Onoltzbach or Onsbach) as personal physician to Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a Protestant. The position, which he held to 1531, came with a promise of a professorship at a university the Margrave was planning to found there.
Fuchs was called to Tübingen by Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, in 1533 to help in reforming the University of Tübingen in the spirit of humanism. He created its first medicinal garden in 1535 and served as chancellor seven times, spending the last thirty-one years of his life as professor of medicine. Fuchs died in Tübingen in 1566.
Whilst practising in Munich he met and married Anna Catherina Friedberger, the daughter of a city councillor, (b. 1500 – d. 24 February 1563) in 1524. With her he had 4 sons and 6 daughters, two of whom died in infancy.
While working at Ansbach, Fuchs began his long career of scientific publications, beginning with his Errata recentiorum medicorum (Errors of modern doctors) in 1530, which he dedicated to his new patron. In this list of 60 "errors", Fuchs took a stand on the controversy between "Arabist" and Greek medical traditions, siding solidly with the latter, and pointing out the contradictions. In places, he went too far in rejecting or ignoring some aspects of Arab medicine that were uncontested. He also criticized the confusion in nomenclature which led to the production of medicines that did not demonstrate the alleged effects. The book was well received by some, with Brunfels reproducing it in the second volume of his own herbal (Novi herbarii) in 1531. From others it evoked fury. Fuchs rebutted "Arabist" criticisms of the work in his Paradoxorum medicinae (1535), an expanded version of the Errata.
Hub AI
Leonhart Fuchs AI simulator
(@Leonhart Fuchs_simulator)
Leonhart Fuchs
Leonhart Fuchs (German: [ˈleːɔnhaʁt ˈfʊks]; 17 January 1501 – 10 May 1566), sometimes spelled Leonhard Fuchs and cited in Latin as Leonhartus Fuchsius, was a German physician and botanist. His chief notability is as the author of a large book about plants and their uses as medicines, a herbal, which was first published in 1542 in Latin. It has about 500 accurate and detailed drawings of plants, which were printed from woodcuts. The drawings are the book's most notable advance on its predecessors. Although drawings had been used in other herbal books, Fuchs's book proved and emphasized high-quality drawings as the most telling way to specify what a plant name stands for.
Fuchs was born in 1501 in Wemding (Marktplatz 5), near Donauwörth in Donau-Ries in the then Duchy of Bavaria, as the youngest son of Johann (Hans) Fuchs and his wife Anna Denten. His father was the town Burgomaster, and both parents came from families of municipal councillors (Ratsherr). The exact date of his birth is unknown, but this was at the height of the German Renaissance. His father died prematurely in 1506, leaving Leonhart to be brought up by his mother and grandfather, an earlier Burgomaster.
His family considered him gifted, but felt that local schools could not provide him with the education he needed. In 1511, with help from relatives, he was sent to the Lateinschule (grammar school) in Heilbronn (150 km west of Wemding), where Konrad Költer, the Rektor (1492–1527), also recognised his abilities. At that time, the school, had an excellent reputation, and Költer in particular for his teaching of Terence and Horace. The following year, Fuchs transferred to the Marienschule in Erfurt, Thuringia (320 km to the north), which provided intensive teaching in the classical languages, as a prerequisite to entrance in the University of Erfurt, which he then progressed to after six months. He was now eleven years old. At the time, the university at Erfurt was considered one of the premier German institutions of higher learning. At Erfurt, he matriculated in the Faculty of Arts, and by the 1516–7 winter semester had obtained his Baccalaureus artium, enabling him to teach, and he returned to Wemding to open a private school, at the age of 17. It was at Erfurt that he began his friendship with his contemporary, Joachim Camerarius.
On 28 June 1519 he started classes at the Hochschule (University of Ingolstadt), 62 km east of Wemding. There he studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew under, Johann Reuchlin and Jacob Ceporinus together with some philosophy and botany, and obtained his Magister Artium on 17 January 1521. During this time he became acquainted with the writings of Martin Luther, another graduate of Erfurt, and adopted the Lutheran faith. He then began to study medicine, obtaining his Medicinae Doctor on 1 March 1524.
From 1524 to 1526, he practised as a doctor in Munich, until he was offered the chair of medicine at the University of Ingolstadt in 1526. The university was firmly Roman Catholic and carefully monitored the religious practices and opinions of its professors, creating problems for Fuchs, given his Lutheran views. Thus, in 1528 he accepted a position in Ansbach (then Onoltzbach or Onsbach) as personal physician to Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a Protestant. The position, which he held to 1531, came with a promise of a professorship at a university the Margrave was planning to found there.
Fuchs was called to Tübingen by Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg, in 1533 to help in reforming the University of Tübingen in the spirit of humanism. He created its first medicinal garden in 1535 and served as chancellor seven times, spending the last thirty-one years of his life as professor of medicine. Fuchs died in Tübingen in 1566.
Whilst practising in Munich he met and married Anna Catherina Friedberger, the daughter of a city councillor, (b. 1500 – d. 24 February 1563) in 1524. With her he had 4 sons and 6 daughters, two of whom died in infancy.
While working at Ansbach, Fuchs began his long career of scientific publications, beginning with his Errata recentiorum medicorum (Errors of modern doctors) in 1530, which he dedicated to his new patron. In this list of 60 "errors", Fuchs took a stand on the controversy between "Arabist" and Greek medical traditions, siding solidly with the latter, and pointing out the contradictions. In places, he went too far in rejecting or ignoring some aspects of Arab medicine that were uncontested. He also criticized the confusion in nomenclature which led to the production of medicines that did not demonstrate the alleged effects. The book was well received by some, with Brunfels reproducing it in the second volume of his own herbal (Novi herbarii) in 1531. From others it evoked fury. Fuchs rebutted "Arabist" criticisms of the work in his Paradoxorum medicinae (1535), an expanded version of the Errata.
Recent media