- Josias Simmler
Josias Simmler (Josias Simler, Simlerus) (
November 6 1530 –July 2 1576 ), was a Swiss theologian and classicist, author of the first book relating solely to theAlps .The son of the former prior of the
Cistercian convent ofKappel (Canton of Zürich), he was born atKappel , where his father was theProtestant pastor and schoolmaster till his death in 1557. In 1544 Simmler went to Zürich to continue his education under his godfather, the reformer,Heinrich Bullinger . After having completed his studies atBasel andStrasbourg , he returned to Zürich, and became pastor to the neighbouring villages.In 1552 he was made professor of
New Testament exegesis at the Carolinum at Zürich, and in 1560 became professor oftheology . In. 1559 he had his first attack ofgout , a complaint which finally killed him. In 1555 he published a new edition ofConrad Gessner 's "Epitome" of his "Bibliotheca universalis" (a list of all authors who had written in Greek,Latin or Hebrew), a new edition of the "Bibliotheca" itself, and in 1575 an annotated edition of the "Antonine Itinerary".About 1551 he conceived the idea of making his native land better known by translating into Latin parts of the great "Chronik" of
Johann Stumpf . With this view he collected materials, and in 1574 published a specimen of his intended work in the shape of a monograph on the Canton of theValais . He published in the same volume a general description of the Alps, as the Introduction to his projected work on the several Swiss Cantons. In this treatise, entitled "De Alpibus commentarius", he collected all that the classical authors had written on the Alps, adding a good deal of material collected from his friends and correspondents. This "Commentarius" is the first work exclusively devoted to the Alps, and sums up the knowledge of that region possessed in the 16th century.It was re-published by the Elzevirs at
Leiden in 1633, and again at Zürich in 1735, while an elaborate annotated edition (prepared by Mr Coolidge), with French translation, notes and appendices, appeared atGrenoble in 1904. Another fragment of his vast plan was the work entitled "De Helvetiorum republica", which appeared at Zürich in 1576, just before his death. It was regarded as the chief authority on Swiss constitutional matters up to 1798.References
*1911
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