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Joachim Camerarius (12 April 1500 – 17 April 1574),the Elder, was a German classical scholar.[1] His critical abilities, his deep understanding of Greek and Latin, and his wide-ranging knowledge of the ancient world made him one of the foremost German scholars of his time.[2][3]
Camerarius was born inBamberg, in thePrince-Bishopric of Bamberg. His family name wasLiebhard, but he was generally calledKammermeister, previous members of his family having held the office ofchamberlain (camerarius) to the bishops ofBamberg.[4]
He studied atLeipzig,Erfurt andWittenberg, where he became a student and friend ofPhilipp Melanchthon. For some years he was teacher of history and Greek at thegymnasium in Nuremberg (Ägidiengymnasium).[5] In 1530 he was sent as deputy for Nuremberg to the diet of Augsburg, where he helped Melanchthon in drawing up theAugsburg Confession.[4]
Five years later he was commissioned by DukeUlrich of Württemberg to reorganize theUniversity of Tübingen; and in 1541 he rendered a similar service at Leipzig, where the remainder of his life was chiefly spent. He played an important part in theReformation movement, and his advice was frequently sought by leading men.[4]
In 1535 he entered into a correspondence withFrancis I as to the possibility of a reconciliation between theCatholic andProtestant creeds; and in 1568Maximilian II sent for him toVienna to consult him on the same subject. He died inLeipzig on 17 April 1574.[4]
He was the father of the physicianJoachim Camerarius the Younger, and his grandsonLudwig Camerarius was a leading figure of theThirty Years' War, as head of the Palatinate government in exile.
He translated into LatinHerodotus,Demosthenes,Xenophon,Homer,Theocritus,Sophocles,Lucian,Theodoretus,Nicephorus,Ptolemy,Euclid, and other Greek writers. He published upwards of 150 works, including aCatalogue of the Bishops of the Principal Sees;Greek Epistles; a treatise onnumismatics; theHippocomicus, a book of horsemanship; accounts of his journeys in Latin verse; and biographies of such contemporaries as Eobanus Hessus, George of Anhalt, Melanchthon, and Albrecht Dürer. HisEpistolae Familiares, published after his death, are a valuable contribution to the history of his time.[4]
He produced the first printed Greek edition of Ptolemy's astrology text, theTetrabiblos, in 1535. It was printed in aquarto format by the publisherJohannes Petreius atNuremberg along with Camerarius's translation to Latin of Books I, II and portions of Books III and IV, accompanied with his notes on the first two books, the Greek text of theCentiloquium (Καρπός) and a Latin translation fromIovianus Pontanus. A second edition, with a Latin translation by Melanchthon, appeared in 1553, printed inBasel, Switzerland inoctavo format byJohannes Oporinus.[6] He was also responsible for the first edition of Ptolemy'sAlmagest, published in Basel in 1538.[1]
His edition of the comic playwrightPlautus, published in Basel in 1552, was the first to draw on the oldest extant manuscripts, one of which is still known today as thecodex vetus Camerarii ("Camerarius's ancient codex"). His text of the plays was not substantially improved until the work ofFriedrich Ritschl in the 19th century.[1]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Camerarius, Joachim".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 107.