Sigismund Gelenius also known as Sigismund Gelen or Sigmund Gelen, was born as into a family of Bohemian

Bohemian

A Bohemian is a resident of the former Kingdom of Bohemia, either in a narrow sense as the region of Bohemia proper or in a wider meaning as the whole country, now known as the Czech Republic. The word "Bohemian" was used to denote the Czech people as well as the Czech language before the word...

 nobles in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. He was an eminent Greek scholar and humanist.

His work

Gelenius translated Erasmus's Moria

Moria

Moria may refer to:*Moria , a location in author J. R. R. Tolkien's high fantasy book, The Lord of the Rings*A type of euphoria sometimes caused by right hemisphere brain lesions*Moria, first wife of Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria...

, as well as works by Petrarch

Petrarch

Francesco Petrarca , known in English as Petrarch, was an Italian scholar, poet and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch is often called the "Father of Humanism"...

 and Cicero

Cicero

Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...

 into Czech

Czech language

Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...

.

"Gelenius at one time studied Greek under Marcus Musurus

Marcus Musurus

Marcus Musurus was a Greek scholar and philosopher born in Retimo, Castello, Venetian Crete . The son of a rich merchant, he became at an early age a pupil of John Lascaris in Venice....

 and visited Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, Sardinia

Sardinia

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...

, Corsica

Corsica

Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....

, and France before returning to Prague, where he lectured privately on Greek authors and entered into correspondence with Melanchthon. ... Probably in 1524 he moved to Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, where he lived in Erasmus' household. He spent the remainder of his life working for the as a scholar, editor, corrector, and translator from the Greek, even declining a position as professor of Greek at Nuremberg for which he was recommended by Melanchthon in 1525 and 1526. ... in his day there cannot have been many major productions of the Froben press which did not benefit from his selfless scholarly devotion. ... There is also evidence that he collaborated on a number of editions by Erasmus ... [also] Erasmus held Gelenius in high regard as is attested to by himself and others" (Contemporaries of Erasmus, II, pp. 84-85). A very handsome, large paper copy, of this fine example of Basel Greek printing 245, [3] pp. Woodcut printer's device on title and at end; large woodcut initials and headpiece. Introduction in Latin with text in Greek. Contemporary ownership inscription, in Greek, on title as well as a later inscription dated "1640." § VD16, C270; Ebert 339; Brunet I, 1479; Graesse II, 17"

Gelenius, a noted Czech humanist who worked a great deal with the Frobens and was well known for his work editing and publishing Tertullian

Tertullian

Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, anglicised as Tertullian , was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He is the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of Latin Christian literature. He also was a notable early Christian apologist and...

. This work was printed by Heironymus Froben son of Johann, the founder of the printing house and his brother in law Nikolaus Episcopius. The Frobens are well respected as not only fine scholarly printers but also as friends of great scholars, such as Erasmus and others.

He also worked on the first printed edition of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea or Periplus of the Red Sea is a Greco-Roman periplus, written in Greek, describing navigation and trading opportunities from Roman Egyptian ports like Berenice along the coast of the Red Sea, and others along Northeast Africa and India...

, which was published by Hieronymus Froben

Hieronymus Froben

Hieronymus Froben was a famous pioneering printer in Basel and the eldest son of Johann Froben. He was educated at the University of Basel and traveled widely in Europe....

 (1501-1563) in 1533. It was, however, full of errors which were not corrected until the 10th century Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

 Manuscript was returned to Heidelberg in 1816.

For a list of his better known publications see the University of Maryland

University of Maryland

When the term "University of Maryland" is used without any qualification, it generally refers to the University of Maryland, College Park.University of Maryland may refer to the following:...

's WorldCat.org listing at: http://umaryland.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-n85-143411

External links

• Short article in German from the Historisches Lexicon der Schweitz