Georg Henisch

Georg Henisch (1549–1618) was a physician, humanist, educator, astronomer, mathematician and a Professor of St. Ann Gymnasium in Augsburg, Germany, in 16th and early 17th centuries.

Portrait. Credit: Wellcome Collection

Life

Georg Henisch was born in Bartfeld (now Bardejov) in north-eastern Hungary (now Slovakia). Family moved to Bartfeld from Lower Saxony seeking religious freedom. Father Johannes was an attorney and worked for the city of Bartfeld. Georg Henisch was educated in the Latin School ran by Leonard Stockel and later spent three or four years in Wittenberg University (1570–1574). Subsequently he moved to Paris. Leipzig and Basel where, in 1576 he obtained the title of Doctor of Medicine. In 1575 he was hired by an outstanding educator, Hieronymus Wolf, then Rector of St Ann Gymnasium in Augsburg to teach rhetoric, philosophy, geography and astronomy for one year probation. Year later he got the tenure at St Ann Gymnasium and served there, as a Professor until his retirement in 1616. In 1576 he married a daughter of Augsburg Pharmacist, Phillip Wirsburg and had one daughter and three sons. The son Phillip was, later, a Professor of Medicine at Montpellier. Since 1576 until his death in 1618 he served as a town physician in Augsburg and was elected, four times as a Dean of College of Physicians in Augsburg.

Work

He is an author of more than thirty publications, including translations of poetry of Hesiod and writing of Capadocian physician Arateus retained by the town library in Augsburg, Germany. His most outstanding publication was a Thesaurus of German language (1616) (only first volume completed from A to G) . He was a Protestant but served as a consultant to pope Gregory XIII and contributed calculations to the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582. His work alienated him from then Protestant elderly of the town of Augsburg because of their resistance to accepting the new calendar. Together with a fellow teacher, Simon Fabricious, he attempted to establish a free , public university associated with St Ann Gymnasium, open to anyone who wished to learn. The timing was wrong due to prevailing trend of counter-reformation. He was in charge of the Library at St Ann Gymnasium and published first, in German lands, printed catalogue of the Library including 8,500 titles. Only one of his book: The Principles of Geometry, Astronomie, and Geographie was translated into English by Francis Cooke during his lifetime and published in London in 1591. He published several almanacs linking appearances of comets to major events, including weather predictions for upcoming years between 1575 and 1616.

See also

Bardejov The town named one of the trade school there as "Scola of Juraja Henischa." Juraj is the Slovak name for Georg. Beinecke Library at Yale University has several of Georg Henisch publications, including a copy of Thesaurus of German Language published in 1616.

References
  • Spring S: Georg Henisch , Professor bei St Anna, in: Lebensbilder aus dem Bayerischen Schwaben, AH Konrad Verlag, Weissenhorn, 1986
  • Schmidbauer Richard: Die Augsburger Stadtbiblithekare Durch Vier Jahrhunderte; Dr med. Georg Henisch, Stadtbibliothekar: 1580-1593. Verlag die Brigg, Augsburg, 1963

+Henisz Jerzy E : German Renaissance Man Georg Henisch (1549 - 1618) and his times, Createspace, S.C. 2015

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