Beatus Rhenanus

Beatus Rhenanus

Beatus Rhenanus (22 August 1485 – 20 July 1547), born as Beatus Bild, was a German humanist, religious reformer, classical scholar,[1] and book collector.[2]

Early life and education

School workbook of Beatus Rhenanus

Rhenanus was born on 22 August 1485 in Schlettstadt (Sélestat) in Alsace.[3] He was the third of three brothers.[4] His father, Anton Bild, was a butcher from Rhinau[4] (the source of his name "Rhenanus", which Beatus Latinised from his father, who was known as the "Rhinauer", the "man from Rheinau"). His grandfather Eberhard emigrated to Schlettstadt from Rheinau, and his son Anton was a member of the local council and acted as Schlettstadt's Mayor between 1495 and 1512.[4] Beatus lost his mother, Barbara Kegler, at the age of three and was raised by his father and his uncle Reinhart Kegler, a priest.[3] His father would not remarry and focused in providing his only surviving son with an excellent education.[3] Between 1491 and 1503 Rhenanus attended the Latin school of Schlettstadt.[5] His classmates in Schlettstadt were the sons of Johann Amerbach, Basilius and Bruno.[6]

Paris

On the 25 April 1503, Rhenanus left Schlettstadt for Paris where he arrived on the 9 May 1503.[5] In Paris he entered the College du Cardinal Lemoine,[5] where he came under the influence of Jacobus Lefèvre Stapulensis, an eminent Aristotelian.[7][3][8] He assisted Lefèvre in publishing a commented Politika and a treatise on the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle in the print of Henri Estienne.[9] After having graduated he returned to Schlettstadt in 1507.[9]

Strasbourg

In the same year he moved to Strassburg (Strasbourg), where he worked for the printer Mathias Schürer and made the acquaintance of prominent Alsatian humanists, including Jakob Wimpfeling,[10] Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg and Sebastian Brant. The works he was involved with at Schürer were poems and treatises by contemporary Italian humanists and are seen as a preparation for his later work on texts by Aristotle and the Fathers of the Church.[10] One was a book by Fausto Anderlini, who was a teacher of his in Paris.[10]

Basel

Sélestat (Bas-Rhin) - Bibliothèque Humaniste - From personal library of Beatus Rhenanus - Rhenanus' edition of Tertullian

After having also evaluated Orleans for his further studies, he eventually chose to come to Basel in July 1511.[11] He sought to become a student of the teacher of the Greek language Johannes Cuno.[11] Rhenanus would become the favorite student of Cuno, who would later bequeath his library to him.[12]

The 1512 edition of the Decretum Gratiani from the printers Johann Amerbach, Johan Petri and Johann Froben is the first known book he edited in Basel.[13] In Basel he also befriended Desiderius Erasmus and played an active role in the publishing enterprises of Johann Froben.[11][14] Many of the authors he worked on were historians. While he was staying in Basel, he usually lived several months a year in Schlettstadt.[11] In 1519/1520, when the plague raged in Basel, he stayed in Schlettstadt for over twelve months.[11]

In 1521, his editio princeps first edition of Tertullian was released.

Schlettstadt

Beatus Rhenanus returned to Schlettstadt in 1528[11] to devote himself to a life of learned leisure. In the early 1530s he edited works of the Roman historians Tacitus and Livy.[15] The Tacitus was published in 1533 by Froben in Basel.[16] 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.[7]

Death and legacy

He fell ill around Pentecost 1547 following which he travelled to Wildbad to cure himself.[17] The stay was not successful and, still gravely sick, he eventually arrived in Strasbourg on the 14 July.[17] He eventually arrived at the Abbey of Ebersmunster, where he died on the 20 July.[17]

The library of Beatus Rhenanus as preserved in Sélestat

Rhenanus's own publications include a biography of Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg (1510),[18] the Rerum Germanicarum Libri III (1531), and editions of Velleius Paterculus (Froben, Basel, 1520), based on the sole surviving manuscript, which he discovered in the Benedictine monastery at Murbach, Alsace.[19] He also wrote works on Tacitus (1519), Livy (1522), and a nine-volume work on his friend Erasmus (1540-1541).[20]

Beatus Rhenanus's 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. Four years after his death, Johannes Sturm wrote a biography on him.[21]

Personal life

His father Anton Rhinau (Bild) was a member of the council in Schlettstadt since 1479 and he became its mayor in 1497.[6] He had two elder brothers, both of whom died during childhood.[4] His mother died when he was three years of age[4] on the 21 July 1487.[22] He died on the way back from Wildbad in Strasbourg on the 20 July 1547 while still in hope of a treatment for his sickness.[23]

Notes

  1. ^ The modern monograph is John F. D'Amico, Theory and Practice in Renaissance Textual Criticism. Beatus Rhenanus Between Conjecture and History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
  2. ^ Konstantinos Staikos (2012), History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Petrarch to Michelangelo, New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, ISBN 9781584561828
  3. ^ a b c d Rhenanus, Beatus (2013). Hirstein, James (ed.). Rhenanus, Beatus. Epistulae Beati Rhenani. La Correspondance latine et grecque de Beatus Rhenanus de Sélestat. Édition critique raisonnée, avec traduction et commentaire. Vol. 1 (1506–1517). Brepols. pp. IX. ISBN 9782503513584.
  4. ^ a b c d e Holzberg, Niklaus (1985). Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus (in French). Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste. p. 22.
  5. ^ a b c Rhenanus, Beatus (2013). Hirstein, James (ed.), p.3
  6. ^ a b Mundt, Felix (2008-12-19), "Beatus Rhenanus: Rerum Germanicarum libri tres (1531): Ausgabe, Übersetzung, Studien", Beatus Rhenanus: Rerum Germanicarum libri tres (1531) (in German), Max Niemeyer Verlag, p. 440, doi:10.1515/9783484970755, ISBN 978-3-484-97075-5, retrieved 2023-07-26
  7. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rhenanus, Beatus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 233.
  8. ^ Barral-Baron, Marie (2016). "Rhenanus, Beatus. Epistulae Beati Rhenani. La Correspondance latine et grecque de Beatus Rhenanus de Sélestat. Édition critique raisonnée, avec traduction et commentaire. Vol. 1 (1506–1517). Édité, par James Hirstein avec la collaboration de Jean Boës, François Heim, Charles Munier†, Francis Schlienger, Robert Walter† et d'autres collègues". Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme (in French). 39 (3): 208–209. doi:10.33137/rr.v39i3.27744. ISSN 0034-429X.
  9. ^ a b Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).pp.23–24
  10. ^ a b c Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).pp.24–25
  11. ^ a b c d e f Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).p.26
  12. ^ Sicherl, Martin (1985). Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus (in French). Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste. p. 141.
  13. ^ Hieronymus, Frank (1997). 1488 Petri-Schwabe 1988: eine traditionsreiche Basler Offizin im Spiegel ihrer frühen Drucke (in German). Schwabe. p. 55. ISBN 978-3-7965-1000-7.
  14. ^ Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).pp.26–27
  15. ^ Allen, Walter (1937). "Beatus Rhenanus, Editor of Tacitus and Livy". Speculum. 12 (3): 382–385. doi:10.2307/2848636. ISSN 0038-7134. JSTOR 2848636. S2CID 161708620.
  16. ^ Allen, Walter (1937). "The Yale Manuscript of Tacitus (Codex Budensis Rhenani)". The Yale University Library Gazette. 11 (4): 81–86. ISSN 0044-0175. JSTOR 40856969.
  17. ^ a b c Meyer, Hubert (1985). "Propose sur la bibliothèque de Beatus Rhenanus". Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus (in French). Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste. p. 86.
  18. ^ Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).p.25
  19. ^ A.J. Woodman, ed., Paterculus: The Tiberian Narrative 2004:3ff.
  20. ^ Chisholm 1911.
  21. ^ Weiss, James Michael (1981). "The technique of faint praise: Johann Sturm's "Life of Beatus Rhenanus"". Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance. 43 (2): 289–302. ISSN 0006-1999. JSTOR 20676335.
  22. ^ Kubler, Maurice (1985). "Beatus Rhenanus Selestadiensis". Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus (in French). Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste. p. 35.
  23. ^ Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).p.32