Theology
Theology is the critical study of the nature of the divine. It is taught as an academic discipline in universities and seminaries. Theology is the study of deities or their scriptures in order to discover what they have revealed about themselves, it occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the supernatural, but especially with epistemology, asks and seeks to answer the question of revelation. Revelation pertains to the acceptance of God, gods, or deities, as not only transcendent or above the natural world, but willing and able to interact with the natural world and, in particular, to reveal themselves to humankind. While theology has turned into a secular field, religious adherents still consider theology to be a discipline that helps them live and understand concepts such as life and love and that helps them lead lives of obedience to the deities they follow or worship. Theology is derived from the Greek theologia, which derived from Τheos, meaning "God", -logia, meaning "utterances, sayings, or oracles" which had passed into Latin as theologia and into French as théologie.
The English equivalent "theology" had evolved by 1362. The sense the word has in English depends in large part on the sense the Latin and Greek equivalents had acquired in patristic and medieval Christian usage, although the English term has now spread beyond Christian contexts. Augustine of Hippo defined the Latin equivalent, theologia, as "reasoning or discussion concerning the Deity"; the term can, however, be used for a variety of fields of study. Theology begins with the assumption that the divine exists in some form, such as in physical, mental, or social realities, that evidence for and about it may be found via personal spiritual experiences or historical records of such experiences as documented by others; the study of these assumptions is not part of theology proper but is found in the philosophy of religion, through the psychology of religion and neurotheology. Theology aims to structure and understand these experiences and concepts, to use them to derive normative prescriptions for how to live our lives.
Theologians use various forms of analysis and argument to help understand, test, defend or promote any myriad of religious topics. As in philosophy of ethics and case law, arguments assume the existence of resolved questions, develop by making analogies from them to draw new inferences in new situations; the study of theology may help a theologian more understand their own religious tradition, another religious tradition, or it may enable them to explore the nature of divinity without reference to any specific tradition. Theology may be used to propagate, reform, or justify a religious tradition or it may be used to compare, challenge, or oppose a religious tradition or world-view. Theology might help a theologian address some present situation or need through a religious tradition, or to explore possible ways of interpreting the world. Greek theologia was used with the meaning "discourse on god" in the fourth century BC by Plato in The Republic, Book ii, Ch. 18. Aristotle divided theoretical philosophy into mathematike and theologike, with the last corresponding to metaphysics, for Aristotle, included discourse on the nature of the divine.
Drawing on Greek Stoic sources, the Latin writer Varro distinguished three forms of such discourse: mythical and civil. Theologos related to theologia, appears once in some biblical manuscripts, in the heading to the Book of Revelation: apokalypsis ioannoy toy theologoy, "the revelation of John the theologos". There, the word refers not to John the "theologian" in the modern English sense of the word but—using a different sense of the root logos, meaning not "rational discourse" but "word" or "message"—one who speaks the words of God, logoi toy theoy; some Latin Christian authors, such as Tertullian and Augustine, followed Varro's threefold usage, though Augustine used the term more to mean'reasoning or discussion concerning the deity'In patristic Greek Christian sources, theologia could refer narrowly to devout and inspired knowledge of, teaching about, the essential nature of God. The Latin author Boethius, writing in the early 6th century, used theologia to denote a subdivision of philosophy as a subject of academic study, dealing with the motionless, incorporeal reality.
Boethius' definition influenced medieval Latin usage. In scholastic Latin sources, the term came to denote the rational study of the doctrines of the Christian religion, or the academic discipline which investigated the coherence and implications of the language and claims of the Bible and of the theological tradition. In the Renaissance with Florentine Platonist apologists of Dante's poetics, the distinction between "poetic theology" and "revealed" or Biblical theology serves as steppingstone for a revival of philosophy as independent of theological authority, it is in this last sense, theology as an academic discipline involving rational study of Christian teaching
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics and chemistry in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, stars, nebulae and comets. More all phenomena that originate outside Earth's atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject is physical cosmology, the study of the Universe as a whole. Astronomy is one of the oldest of the natural sciences; the early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Indians, Nubians, Chinese and many ancient indigenous peoples of the Americas, performed methodical observations of the night sky. Astronomy has included disciplines as diverse as astrometry, celestial navigation, observational astronomy, the making of calendars, but professional astronomy is now considered to be synonymous with astrophysics. Professional astronomy is split into theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, analyzed using basic principles of physics.
Theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain observational results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences in which amateurs still play an active role in the discovery and observation of transient events. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, such as finding new comets. Astronomy means "law of the stars". Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the belief system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two fields share a common origin, they are now distinct. Both of the terms "astronomy" and "astrophysics" may be used to refer to the same subject. Based on strict dictionary definitions, "astronomy" refers to "the study of objects and matter outside the Earth's atmosphere and of their physical and chemical properties," while "astrophysics" refers to the branch of astronomy dealing with "the behavior, physical properties, dynamic processes of celestial objects and phenomena."
In some cases, as in the introduction of the introductory textbook The Physical Universe by Frank Shu, "astronomy" may be used to describe the qualitative study of the subject, whereas "astrophysics" is used to describe the physics-oriented version of the subject. However, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could be called astrophysics; some fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than astrophysics. Various departments in which scientists carry out research on this subject may use "astronomy" and "astrophysics" depending on whether the department is affiliated with a physics department, many professional astronomers have physics rather than astronomy degrees; some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field include The Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early historic times, astronomy only consisted of the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye.
In some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that had some astronomical purpose. In addition to their ceremonial uses, these observatories could be employed to determine the seasons, an important factor in knowing when to plant crops and in understanding the length of the year. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye; as civilizations developed, most notably in Mesopotamia, Persia, China and Central America, astronomical observatories were assembled and ideas on the nature of the Universe began to develop. Most early astronomy consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, the nature of the Sun and the Earth in the Universe were explored philosophically; the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the geocentric model of the Ptolemaic system, named after Ptolemy.
A important early development was the beginning of mathematical and scientific astronomy, which began among the Babylonians, who laid the foundations for the astronomical traditions that developed in many other civilizations. The Babylonians discovered. Following the Babylonians, significant advances in astronomy were made in ancient Greece and the Hellenistic world. Greek astronomy is characterized from the start by seeking a rational, physical explanation for celestial phenomena. In the 3rd century BC, Aristarchus of Samos estimated the size and distance of the Moon and Sun, he proposed a model of the Solar System where the Earth and planets rotated around the Sun, now called the heliocentric model. In the 2nd century BC, Hipparchus discovered precession, calculated the size and distance of the Moon and inven
Conrad Gessner
Conrad Gessner was a Swiss physician, naturalist and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, his father and teachers realised his talents and supported him through university, where he studied classical languages and medicine, he became Zürich's City Physician, but was able to spend much of his time on collecting and writing. Gessner compiled monumental works on bibliography and zoology and was working on a major botanical text at the time of his death from plague at the age of 49, he is regarded as the father of modern scientific bibliography and botany. He was the first to describe a species of plant or animal in Europe, such as the tulip in 1559. A number of plants and animals have been named after him. Conrad Gessner was born on March 26, 1516, in Zürich, the son of Ursus Gessner, a poor Zürich furrier, his early life was one of poverty and hardship, but Gessner's father realized his talents, sent him to live with and be schooled by a great uncle, who grew and collected medicinal herbs for a living.
Here the boy became familiar with many plants and their medicinal purposes which led to a lifelong interest in natural history. Gessner first attended the Carolinum in Zürich later entered the Fraumünster seminary. There he studied classical languages, appearing as Penia in Aristophanes' Plutus, at the age of 15. In school, he impressed his teachers so much that a few of them helped sponsor him so that he could further his education, including arranging a scholarship for him to attend university in France to study theology at the age of 17. There he attended the University of University of Paris, but religious persecution forced him to leave Paris for Strasbourg, but being unable to secure employment, returned to Zürich. One of his teachers in Zürich acted as a foster father to him after the death of his father at the Battle of Kappel, another provided him with three years of board and lodging, while yet another arranged his further education at the upper school in Strasbourg, the Strasbourg Academy.
There he broadened his knowledge of ancient languages by studying Hebrew. In 1535, religious unrest drove him back to Zürich, where he made what some considered an imprudent marriage at the age of 19, of a woman from another poor family who had no dowry. Although some of his friends again came to his aid, he was appointed to obtaining a teaching position for him, this was in the lowest class and attracted a stipend more than a pittance; however he obtained paid leave of absence to study medicine at the University of Basel. Throughout his life Gessner was interested in natural history, collected specimens and descriptions of wildlife through travel and extensive correspondence with other friends and scholars, his approach to research consisted of four main components: observation, travel to distant lands, accurate description. This rising observational approach was new to Renaissance scholars because people relied upon Classical writers for their research, he died of the plague, the year after his ennoblement on December 13, 1565.
Conrad Gessner was a Renaissance polymath, a physician, encyclopaedist, philologist, natural historian and illustrator. In 1537, at the age of 21, his publication of a Graecolatin dictionary led to his sponsors obtained for him the professorship of Greek at the newly founded academy of Lausanne. Here he had leisure to devote himself to scientific studies botany, earn money to further his medical studies. After three years of teaching at Lausanne, Gessner was able to travel to the medical school at the University of Montpellier, where he received his doctoral degree from Basel, he returned to Zürich to practice medicine, which he continued to do for the rest of his life. There he was appointed to the post of lecturer of Aristotelean physics at the Carolinum, the precursor of the University of Zürich. After 1554 he became the city physician. In addition to his duties there, apart from a few journeys to foreign countries, annual summer botanical journeys in his native land, illnesses, he was able to devote himself to research and writing.
His expeditions involved visits to mountainous country, below the snow-line). Although for purposes of botanical collection, he extolled mountain climbing for the sake of exercise and enjoyment of the beauties of nature. In 1541 he prefixed to his treatise on milk and milk products, Libellus de lacte et operibus lactariis a letter addressed to his friend Jacob Avienus of Glarus on the wonders to be found among the mountains, declaring his love for them, his firm resolve to climb at least one mountain every year, not only to collect flowers, but in order to exercise his body. In 1555 he issued his narrative Descriptio Montis Fracti sive Montis Pilati of his excursion to the Gnepfstein, the lowest point in the Pilatus chain. Gessner is credited with a number of the first descriptions of species in Europe, both animals such as the brown rat, guinea pig and turkey, as well as plants such as the tulip, he first saw a tulip in April 1559, growing in the garden of the magistrate Johann Heinrich Herwart at Augsberg, called it Tulipa turcarum, the Turkish tulip.
He is credited with being the first person to describe brown adipose tissue, in 1551, in 1565 the first to document the pencil, in 1563 among the first Europeans to write about the
Johann Stumpf (writer)
Johann Stumpf was an early writer on the history and topography of Switzerland. He was born at Bruchsal, was educated there and at Strasbourg and Heidelberg. In 1520 he became a chaplain in the order of the Knights Hospitaller, he was sent in 1521 to the preceptory of that order at Freiburg im Breisgau, ordained a priest at Basel, in 1522 was placed in charge of the preceptory at Bubikon. However, Stumpf went over to the Protestants, was present at the great Disputation in Bern, took part in the first Kappel War. In 1529 he married the first of his four wives, a daughter of Heinrich Brennwald, who wrote a work on Swiss history, stimulated his son-in-law to undertake historical studies. Stumpf made wide researches, with this object, for many years, undertook several journeys, of which that in 1544 to Engelberg and through the Valais seems to be the most important because his original diary has been preserved to us; the fruit of his labours was published in 1548 at Zürich in a huge folio of 934 pages, under the title of Gemeiner loblicher Eydgnoschafft Stetten, Landen und Voelckeren Chronick wirdiger thaaten Beschreybung.
The woodcuts are best in the first edition, it remained till Scheuchzer's day the chief authority on its subject. When he converted to Protestantism, Stumpf had carried over with him most of his parishioners, whom he continued to care for, as the Protestant pastor at Bubikon, till 1543, he became pastor of Stammheim until 1561, when he retired to Zürich, where he lived in retirement till his death in 1576. Stumpf published a monograph about Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor and a set of laudatory verses about each of the thirteen Swiss cantons; this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: William Augustus Brevoort Coolidge. "Stumpf, Johann". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. Cambridge University Press. Media related to Johannes Stumpf at Wikimedia Commons
Switzerland
Switzerland the Swiss Confederation, is a country situated in western and southern Europe. It consists of 26 cantons, the city of Bern is the seat of the federal authorities; the sovereign state is a federal republic bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is a landlocked country geographically divided between the Alps, the Swiss Plateau and the Jura, spanning a total area of 41,285 km2. While the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, the Swiss population of 8.5 million people is concentrated on the plateau, where the largest cities are to be found: among them are the two global cities and economic centres Zürich and Geneva. The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy dates to the late medieval period, resulting from a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognized in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648; the country has a history of armed neutrality going back to the Reformation.
It pursues an active foreign policy and is involved in peace-building processes around the world. In addition to being the birthplace of the Red Cross, Switzerland is home to numerous international organisations, including the second largest UN office. On the European level, it is a founding member of the European Free Trade Association, but notably not part of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Eurozone. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties. Spanning the intersection of Germanic and Romance Europe, Switzerland comprises four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French and Romansh. Although the majority of the population are German-speaking, Swiss national identity is rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, Alpine symbolism. Due to its linguistic diversity, Switzerland is known by a variety of native names: Schweiz. On coins and stamps, the Latin name – shortened to "Helvetia" – is used instead of the four national languages.
Switzerland is one of the most developed countries in the world, with the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product according to the IMF. Switzerland ranks at or near the top globally in several metrics of national performance, including government transparency, civil liberties, quality of life, economic competitiveness and human development. Zürich and Basel have all three been ranked among the top ten cities in the world in terms of quality of life, with the first ranked second globally, according to Mercer in 2018; the English name Switzerland is a compound containing Switzer, an obsolete term for the Swiss, in use during the 16th to 19th centuries. The English adjective Swiss is a loan from French Suisse in use since the 16th century; the name Switzer is from the Alemannic Schwiizer, in origin an inhabitant of Schwyz and its associated territory, one of the Waldstätten cantons which formed the nucleus of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Swiss began to adopt the name for themselves after the Swabian War of 1499, used alongside the term for "Confederates", used since the 14th century.
The data code for Switzerland, CH, is derived from Latin Confoederatio Helvetica. The toponym Schwyz itself was first attested in 972, as Old High German Suittes perhaps related to swedan ‘to burn’, referring to the area of forest, burned and cleared to build; the name was extended to the area dominated by the canton, after the Swabian War of 1499 came to be used for the entire Confederation. The Swiss German name of the country, Schwiiz, is homophonous to that of the canton and the settlement, but distinguished by the use of the definite article; the Latin name Confoederatio Helvetica was neologized and introduced after the formation of the federal state in 1848, harking back to the Napoleonic Helvetic Republic, appearing on coins from 1879, inscribed on the Federal Palace in 1902 and after 1948 used in the official seal.. Helvetica is derived from the Helvetii, a Gaulish tribe living on the Swiss plateau before the Roman era. Helvetia appears as a national personification of the Swiss confederacy in the 17th century with a 1672 play by Johann Caspar Weissenbach.
Switzerland has existed as a state in its present form since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848. The precursors of Switzerland established a protective alliance at the end of the 13th century, forming a loose confederation of states which persisted for centuries; the oldest traces of hominid existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years. The oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland, which were found at Gächlingen, have been dated to around 5300 BC; the earliest known cultural tribes of the area were members of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures, named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel. La Tène culture developed and flourished during the late Iron Age from around 450 BC under some influence from the Gree
Cistercian nuns
Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church. The first Cistercian monastery for women, Le Tart Abbey, was established at Tart-l'Abbaye in the Diocese of Langres, in the year 1125, by nuns from the Benedictine monastery of Juilly, with the co-operation of Saint Stephen Harding, abbot of Cîteaux. At Juilly, a dependence of Molesme Abbey, the sister of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and died; the Cistercian nuns of Le Tart founded successively Ferraque in the Diocese of Noyon, Blandecques in the Diocese of St-Omer, Montreuil-les-Dames near Laon. In Spain the first Cistercian monastery of women was that of Tulebras in the Kingdom of Navarre. Came Santa María la Real de las Huelgas, Espírito Santo Olmedo, Villabona, or San Miguel de las Dueñas, Gradefes, Cañas and others; the most celebrated was Santa María la Real de Las Huelgas near Burgos, founded in 1187 by Alfonso VIII of Castile. The observance was established there by Cistercian nuns who came from Tulebras, under the guidance of Misol, who became its first abbess.
The second abbess was Constance, daughter of the founder, who believed she had the power of preaching in her church and hearing confessions of her religious. In the following year, 1190, the eighteen abbesses of France held their first general chapter at Tart; the abbesses of France and Spain themselves made the regular visits to their houses of filiation. The Council of Trent, by its decrees regarding the cloister of nuns, put an end to the chapter and the visits. In Italy, in 1171, were founded the monasteries of Santa Lucia at Syracuse, San Michele at Ivrea, that of Conversano, the only one in the peninsula in which the abbesses carry a crosier. A century the Cistercian nuns had established houses in Switzerland and Flanders; the decline which manifested itself in the communities of monks of the Cistercian Order towards the middle of the fourteenth century was felt in the monasteries of nuns. It was at this time that the Conceptionist Order was founded in Spain, by Beatrice of Silva, her nuns were quick to abandon the Cistercian Rule for that of the Poor Clares.
In France Jeanne de Courcelles de Pourlan, having been elected Abbess of Tart in 1617, restored the regular discipline in her community, transferred to Dijon in 1625. Owing to the hostility of the Abbot of Cîteaux to the reform Abbess de Pourlan had the Holy See withdraw her abbey from the jurisdiction of the Order of Cîteaux. In 1602, another reform was effected at Port-Royal des Champs by Angélique Arnauld, who, to provide for the ever-increasing members of the community, founded Port-Royal de Paris, in the Faubourg of Saint-Jacques. Queen Marie de Medicis declared herself protectress of this institution, Pope Urban VIII exempted it from the jurisdiction of the Abbot of Cîteaux, placing it under that of Paris; the religious of Port-Royal de Paris and of Port-Royal des Champs ended by consecrating themselves to the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. However, the vicinity of the Abbé de Saint-Cyran became dangerous for them, they saw the suppression and destruction of Port-Royal des Champs by order of the Louis XIV in 1710, while they themselves were dispersed.
The property and abbatial titles were annexed to Port-Royal de Paris, which subsisted up to the time of the French Revolution, before being transformed first into a prison, into a maternity hospital. After the French Revolution another reform took place. Dom Augustin de Lestrange gathered the scattered Cistercian nuns of France, with members of other orders, dispersed, reconstructed the Cistercian Sisterhood. In 1795, he gave them a monastery which he called the Holy Will of God, situated in the Bas-Valais, Switzerland; the Trappistines, for so the new religious were called, were obliged to leave Switzerland in 1798. They followed the Trappist monks in their travels over Europe, returned to Switzerland in 1803, remained there until 1816, when at length they were able to return to France and take up their abode at Forges, near La Trappe. Two years they occupied an old monastery of the Augustinians at Les Gardes, in the Diocese of Angers; the Trappistines spread over France, into other countries of Europe.
Since the reunion of the three congregations of La Trappe, in 1892, they have been entitled Reformed Cistercians of the Strict Observance. A Cistercian novice who came from Europe at the same time as the Trappists, and, joined by seventeen women from the United States, tried to establish a community, but circumstances prevented its success. Father Vincent de Paul, at Tracadie, Nova Scotia, having asked the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal for three sisters to help him with his mission in Nova Scotia, established them there and, after probation, admitted them to the profession of simple vows of the Third Order of La Trappe. However, the community never in reality formed a part of the Order of Cîteaux nor wore the Cistercian habit; the Monastery of Our Lady of Good Counsel, at Saint-Romuald near Quebec City, the first genuine community of Cistercian nuns in America, was established in 1902 by Mother Lutgarde, Prioress of Bonneval, when on 21 November 1902, she brought a small colony of religious women.
On 29 July of the following year Mgr. Marois, as delegate of the Archbishop of Quebec, blessed the new monastery; the means of subsistence for this house were the manufacture of chocolate. The community was under the direction of the Archbishop of Quebec. Another, Notre-Dame de l'Assom
Konrad Pellikan
Konrad Pellikan was a German Protestant theologian, Protestant reformer and Christian Hebraist who worked chiefly in Switzerland. His German name, "Kurscherer", was changed to "Pellicanus" by his mother's brother Jodocus Gallus, an ecclesiastic connected with the University of Heidelberg, who supported his nephew for sixteen months at the university in 1491-1492. On returning to Rouffach, he taught gratis in the Franciscan convent school that he might borrow books from the library, in his sixteenth year resolved to become a friar; this step helped his studies, for he was sent to Tübingen in 1496 and became a favorite pupil of the guardian of the Minorite convent there, Paulus Scriptoris, a man of considerable general learning. He taught Hebrew, Greek and cosmography at the Franciscan monastery of St. Katherina in Rouffach, in the upper Alsace, he subsequently taught at Tübingen. The mapmaker Sebastian Münster studied under him at Rouffach, is said to have been influenced by Pellikan's teachings.
There seems to have been at that time in southwest Germany a considerable amount of sturdy independent thought among the Franciscans. At Tübingen the future "apostate in three languages" was able to begin the study of Hebrew, he had no grammar. He learned the letters from the transcription of a few verses in the Star of the Messiah of Petrus Niger, with a subsequent hint or two from Johannes Reuchlin, who lent him the grammar of Moses Kimhi, made his way through the Bible for himself with the help of Jerome's Latin, he got on so well that he was not only a useful helper to Reuchlin but anticipated Reuchlin's manuals by composing in 1501 the first Hebrew grammar in a European tongue. It was printed in 1503, afterwards included in Reysch's Margarita philosophica. Hebrew remained a favorite study to the last. Pellikan became a priest in 1501 and continued to serve his order at Rouffach and Basel until 1526. At Basel he did much laborious work for Froben's editions, came to the conclusion that the Church taught many doctrines of which the early doctors of Christianity knew nothing.
He spoke his views frankly. Thus, supported by the civic authorities, he remained guardian of the convent of his order at Basel from 1519 until 1524, when he had to give up his post, remained in the monastery for two years, professing theology in the university. At length, when the position was becoming quite untenable, he received through Zwingli a call to Zürich as professor of Greek and Hebrew at the Carolinum. Formally throwing off his monk's habit, Pellikan entered on a new life. Here he remained until his death on 6 April 1556. Pellikan wrote the Chronikon and translated Hebrew works into Latin, such as Bechji Ben Asher's commentary on the Torah and the work of Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer, the Liber sententiarum Judiacarum, in 1546. Pellikan's autobiography describes the gradual multiplication of accessible books on the subjects, he not only studied but translated a vast mass of rabbinical and Talmudic texts, his interest in Jewish literature being philological; the chief fruit of these studies is the vast commentary on the Bible, which shows a remarkably sound judgment on questions of the text, a sense for historical as opposed to typological exegesis.
Pellikan's scholarship, though not brilliant, was extensive. He was remarkably free from the pedantry of the time, as is shown by his views about the use of the German vernacular as a vehicle of culture; as a theologian his natural affinities were with Zwingli, having grown up to the views of the Reformation, by the natural progress of his studies and religious life. Thus he Erasmus. Pellikan's Latin autobiography is one of the most interesting documents of the period, it was first published by Riggenbach in 1877, in this volume the other sources for his life are registered. Early modern imprintsDe modo legendi et intelligendi Haebrarum. Strasbourg, 1504. Quadruplex Psalterium. Basel, 1516. Quadruplex Psalterium Davidis. Strasbourg, 1527. Comentaria bibliorum. 7 volumes. Zurich, 1532-1539. Explicatio libelli Ruth. Zurich, 1531. Index bibliorum. Zurich, 1537. Ruth: Ein heylig Büchlin des alten Testament, mit einer schoenen kurtzen außlegung. Zurich, 1555. Modern editionsDie Hauschronik Konrad Pellikans von Rufach.
Trans. Theodor Vulpinus, Strasbourg: Heitz, 1892. Das Chronikon des Konrad Pellikan, ed. Bernhard Riggenbach. Basel, 1877BibliographySee Erich Wenneker, "Pellikan, Konrad" in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. VII, Herzberg, 1994, col. 180-183, online article Bächtold, Hans Ulrich: Konrad Pellikan in German and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. Gordon, Bruce; the Swiss Reformation. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002. Jaumann, Herbert. Handbuch Gelehrtenkultur der Frühen Neuzeit, vol. I, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 500, online excerpt Riggenbach, Bernhard, "Pellican, Konrad", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, 25, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 334–338 Silberstein, Emil. Conr
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Simler, Josias". Encyclopædia Britannica. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 123.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 