- Beatus Rhenanus
Beatus Rhenanus (also known as Beatus Bild;
22 August 1485 –20 July 1547 ), was an Alsatian humanist, religious reformer, andclassical scholar .Rhenanus was born in Schlettstadt (Sélestat) in
Alsace . His father, Bild, was a prosperous butcher fromRheinau (the source of his name "Rhenanus"), who was able to provide his son with an excellent education. Rhenanus attended the famous Latin school of Schlettstadt, and in 1503, went to theUniversity of Paris , where he came under the influence of Jacobus Faber Stapulensis, an eminent Aristotelian. In 1511, he relocated toBasel , where he befriendedDesiderius Erasmus and played an active role in the publishing enterprises ofJohann Froben . He returned to Schlettstadt in 1526 to devote himself to a life of learned leisure. He continued a lively correspondence with many contemporary scholars, including his friend Erasmus, and supervised the printing of many of Erasmus's most important works. Rhenanus died in Strassburg (Strasbourg).Rhenanus's own publications include a
biography ofJohann Geiler von Kaisersberg (1510), the "Rerum Germanicarum Libri III" (1531), and editions ofVelleius Paterculus (1522), based on a manuscript he discovered. He also wrote works onTacitus (1519),Livy (1522), and a nine-volume work on his friend Erasmus (1540-1541).Beatus Rhenanus invaluable collection of books went into the ownership of his hometown by his death and is still to be seen in its entirety in the
Humanist Library of Sélestat .References
*1911
http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/at/beatus-rhenanus_1531_rerum-germanicarum-libri-tres.pdf
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
