Editing Theodor Zwinger

{{Short description|Swiss physician and scholar}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Theodor Zwinger
| image             = Theodorus Zwingerus Basiliensis, medicus (détail).jpg
| caption           = Theodor Zwinger<ref name=sourceImage/>
| birth_date        = 2 August 1533
| birth_place       = [[Basel]], Switzerland
| death_date        = {{death date and age|1588|3|10|1533|8|2|df=y}}
| death_place       = Basel, Switzerland
| field             = [[Medicine]]
| work_institutions =
| alma_mater        = [[University of Basel]]<br>[[University of Lyon]]<br>[[University of Paris]]<br>[[University of Padua]]
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Bassiano Landi]]
| academic_advisors = [[Thomas Platter]]<br>[[Petrus Ramus]]<br>[[Vettore Trincavelli]]<br>[[Gabriele Falloppio]]
| notable_students  = [[Petrus Ryff]]
| known_for         =  
}}

'''Theodor Zwinger the Elder''' (2 August 1533 – 10 March 1588) was a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] physician and [[Renaissance humanist]] [[scholar]]. He made significant contributions to the emerging genres of reference and [[travel literature]].<ref name="google">{{cite book|title=English Travellers of the Renaissance|author=Howard, C.M.|date=1914|publisher=Burt Franklin Publisher|isbn=9780833717450|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHgpr0I7Cm0C|page=26|accessdate=2014-12-07}}</ref> He was the first distinguished representative of a prominent [[Basel]] academic family.<ref>[http://www.stroux.org/patriz_f/stQV_f/Zi_f.pdf « Auszug Stamm Zwimmer frühe Generationen »] — family tree.</ref>

==Life and work==

Zwinger was the son of Leonhard Zwinger, a furrier who had become a citizen of [[Basel]] in 1526. His mother was Christina Herbster, the sister of [[Johannes Oporinus]] (Herbster) the famed humanist printer. After Zwinger's father's death, Christina married the noted humanist [[Conrad Lycosthenes]] (Wolffhart).

Zwinger studied at the Universities of [[University of Basel|Basel]], [[University of Lyon|Lyon]], and [[University of Paris|Paris]] before taking a doctorate in medicine at the [[University of Padua]] with [[Bassiano Landi]], the successor of [[Johannes Baptista Montanus]].<ref>{{MathGenealogy|id=125148|title=Theodor Zwinger}}</ref> In Paris he studied with the iconoclastic philosopher [[Petrus Ramus]]. He joined the faculty of the University of Basel as a member of the ''consilium facultatis medicae'' from 1559. At Basel he held successively chairs in Greek (1565), Ethics (1571), and finally theoretical medicine (1580).<ref>Miescher, Friedrich (1860), ''Die medizinische Facultät in Basel und ihr Aufschwung unter F. Plater und C. Bauhin: mit dem Lebensbilde von Felix Plater: zur vierten Säcularfeier der Universität Basel'', 6. September 1860. Basel: Schweighauser. pp. 18–19.</ref> While originally hostile to [[Paracelsus]], in his later career he took an interest in [[Paracelsian]] [[medical theory]] for which he experienced some hostility. He associated with Paracelsians such as [[Thomas Moffet]], [[Petrus Severinus]]<ref>Shackelford, Jole, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=D8Lf_NBW3TIC&pg=PA288 A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine: The Ideas, Intellectual Context, and Influence of Petrus Severinus (1540/2–1602)]'' (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004), pp. 287–288.</ref> and [[Claude Aubery]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heubi |first=William |date=1916 |title=L'Académie de Lausanne à la fin du XVIe siècle : étude sur quelques professeurs d'après des documents inédits |url=http://archive.org/details/lacadmiedelaus00heub |access-date=2021-03-05 |location=Lausanne |publisher=F. Rouge |language=fr}}</ref>

Zwinger was the editor of the early encyclopedia ''Theatrum Humanae Vitae'' (editions 1565, 1571, 1586, 1604). The work is considered "perhaps the most comprehensive collection of knowledge to be compiled by a single individual in the early modern period."<ref>Helmut Zedelmaier, "Navigieren im Text-Universum: Theodor Zwingers Theatrum Vitae Humanae," ''Metaphorik'' 14 (2008): 113: "Theodor Zwingers Theatrum vitae humanae ist die vielleicht umfangreichste Wissenssammlung, die ein einzelner Mensch je in der frühen Neuzeit erstellte."</ref> He was able to draw on the knowledge base of his stepfather Conrad Lycosthenes in compiling the ''Theatrum Humanae Vitae''.

A Catholicized version of the ''Theatrum'' entitled the ''Magnum theatrum vitae humanae'' (1631) by [[Lawrence Beyerlinck]] was one of the largest printed [[commonplace book]]s of the early modern era. These two works "may fairly be described as the early modern ancestors of the great ''dictionnaire raisonné'' of the eighteenth-century [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], the ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' of [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]]."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Havens |first1=Earle |title=Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University |page=52 |edition=first}}</ref>

=== Personal life ===
He seemed to have a difficult to read handwriting and [[Casiodoro de Reina|Casiodoro de Reyna]] once would have liked to travel from Frankfurt to Basel in order for Zwinger to read de Reyna his own letters.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilly |first=Carlos |title=Die Manuskripte in der Bibliothek des Johannes Oporinus |publisher=Schwabe Verlag |year=2001 |location=Basel |pages=10 |language=de}}</ref> The house he resided in, is named [[Zwingerhaus|Zwingerhouse]] in his memory.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Möhle |first=Martin |date=2010 |title=Das Zwingerhaus am Nadelberg |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=bzg-002:2010:110::336 |website=[[E-Periodica]] |publisher=Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde |pages=209–211}}</ref> Zwinger's son, [[Jakob Zwinger]], briefly served as his successor as editor of the ''Theatrum''. His descendant [[Theodor Zwinger the Younger]] (1597–1654) was a prominent preacher and theology professor.

== Works ==
[[File:Theodor Zwinger Methodus Apodemica 1577 title page.jpg|thumb|Title page, ''Methodus apodemica'' (Basel 1577)]]
*[[Conrad Lycosthenes|Lycosthenes, Conrad]]; Zwinger, Theodor. [https://books.google.com/books?id=3I7Yd8y2VOYC&pg=PP5 ''Theatrum vitæ humanæ''], Basel, 1565, 1571, 1586, 1596 et 1604, 5&nbsp;vol. totalling 4376 pages (on line: the 1586 edition) — an early [[encyclopedia]]
* ''Morum philosophia poetica ex Veterum utriusque linguæ poetarum thesauris cognoscendæ veritatis et exercendæ virtutis'', Basel, 1575 : [https://books.google.com/books?id=LB08AAAAcAAJ vol.&nbsp;1] (books 1 to 4); [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10184751?page=5 vol.&nbsp;2] (books 5 to 18) — [Poetical philosophy]
* [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101078502661;view=1up;seq=5 ''Methodus apodemica in eorum gratiam, qui cum fructu in quocunq[ue&#93; tandem vitæ genere peregrinari cupiunt''], Basel, 1577 — an early example of travel literature

== References ==
{{Reflist
 |30em
 | refs =
 <ref name=sourceImage>[http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/0003/bsb00033227/images/index.html?id=00033227&groesser=&fip=fsdrxsxdsydewqeneayasdasweayayztssdas&no=14&seite=304 Source]. [[Bayerische Staatsbibliothek]], Munich, urn:nbn:de:bvb:12-bsb00033227-3</ref>
}}

== Further reading ==
* Almási, Gábor (2009). ''The uses of Humanism : [[Johannes Sambucus]] (1531–1584), [[Andreas Dudith]] (1533–1589), and the Republic of Letters in East Central Europe'', Brill, 387&nbsp;p., ''passim'' — [https://books.google.com/books?id=cXuIh5Aa3SMC&pg=PR3 Excerpts]
* [[Carlos Gilly]]: ''Zwischen Erfahrung und Spekulation: Theodor Zwinger und die religiöse und kulturelle Krise seiner Zeit.'' In: ''[[Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde]]'' 77 (1977), S. 57–137; 79 (1979), S. 125–233 (Digitalized: [https://www.academia.edu/34359110] [https://www.academia.edu/34359353])
* {{cite book |last= Herzog |first= J. W. | title= Athenae rauricae: Sive catalogus professorum Academiae Basiliensis ab A. MCCCCLX ad A. MDCCLXXVIII. Cum brevi singulorum biographia. Adjecta est recensio omnium eiusdem Academiae rectorum | page=208 | publisher= Car. Aug. Serini |language=Latin |year= 1778 | location = Basel | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=XQsOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA208 | oclc= 43215846 }}

== External links ==
* [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/adam/adam2/s333.html Latin biography by Melchior Adam, 1620]
* [http://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/index.html?c=autoren_index&l=de&ab=Zwinger%2C+Theodor Works of Theodor Zwinger] at the [[Munich Digitization Center]]
* [https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Zwinger%2C%20Theodor%22 Works by Theodor Zwinger in Internet Archive]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Zwinger, Theodor}}
[[Category:1533 births]]
[[Category:1588 deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century Swiss physicians]]
[[Category:Physicians from Basel-Stadt]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Basel]]
[[Category:University of Paris alumni]]