Johann Heinrich Alsted
Encyclopedia
Johann Heinrich Alsted was a German Calvinist minister and academic, known for his varied interests: in Ramism
and Lullism, pedagogy
and encyclopedia
s, theology and millennarianism.
. He was educated at Herborn Academy
, studying under Johannes Piscator
. From 1606 he was at the University of Marburg, taught by Rudolf Goclenius, Gregorius Schönfeld and Raphaël Egli. The following year he went to Basel
, where his teachers were Leonhardt Zubler for mathematics, Amandus Polanus von Polansdorf for theology, and Johann Buxtorf. From about 1608 he taught at Herborn, where he became professor of philosophy
and theology
.
He was later in exile from the Thirty Years' War
in Transylvania
, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1629 Alsted left war-torn Germany for Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia
in Romania
, called at that time Weissenburg in German). He was to found a Calvinist Academy: the context was that the Transylvanian royal family had just returned from Unitarianism to Calvinism. Alsted and Johannes Bisterfeld were German professors brought in improve standards. Among the students there was János Apáczai Csere
. He died in Gyulafehérvár.
in 1610; and in the same year the Panacea philosophica, an attempt to find the common ground in the work of Aristotle
, Raymond Lull, and Petrus Ramus
. In 1612 Alsted edited the Explanatio of Bernard de Lavinheta
, a Lullist work. In 1613 he published an edition of the Systema systematum of Bartholomäus Keckermann
. Theologia naturalis (1615) was an apologetical work of natural theology
.
, indeed reversing one of the original conceptions of Ramus. He had a reputation in his own time as a distinctive methodologist. John Prideaux
in 1639 asked:
To which the pupil's answer was to be "yes"; as it was to be to the question "Is it true that a Mixt ought to be preferred to a Peripatetic, a Ramist, a Lullian, and the others?" A "Mixt" took elements from both Aristotle and Ramus; Philippo-Ramists, who blended Melanchthon with Ramus, were a type of "Mixt"; "Systematics" were "Mixts" who followed Keckermann in a belief in system, as Alsted did.
, and criticised for plagiarism
for verbatim copying without acknowledgment by Jacob Thomasius. Augustus De Morgan
later called it "the true parent of all the Encyclopædias, or collections of treatises, or works in which that character predominates".
The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, p. 632, in the context of Calvinist metaphysics, states
In his The New England Mind, Perry Miller
writes about the Encyclopaedia:
It was reissued as a 4-volume facsimile reprint, edited by W. Schmidt-Biggemann (Fromann-Holzboog Press, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1989–1990).
. This work was a compendium of the arguments of Völkel's teacher Fausto Sozzini, figurehead of the Polish Unitarian
movement.
Ramism
Ramism was a collection of theories on rhetoric, logic and pedagogy based on the teachings of Petrus Ramus, a French academic, philosopher and Huguenot convert who was murdered in 1572.According to Jonathan Israel, Ramism-Development:...
and Lullism, pedagogy
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
and encyclopedia
Encyclopedia
An encyclopedia is a type of reference work, a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge....
s, theology and millennarianism.
Life
He was born in MittenaarMittenaar
-Municipal area's extent:On Mittenaar's 3 518 ha live more than 5,000 people. About 45 km of roads connect the various centres. More than half the municipal area is wooded.-Neighbouring communities:...
. He was educated at Herborn Academy
Herborn Academy
The Herborn Academy was a German institution of higher learning very similar to a university in Herborn, which existed from 1584 to 1817...
, studying under Johannes Piscator
Johannes Piscator
Johannes Piscator was a German Reformed theologian, known as a Bible translator and textbook writer.He was a prolific writer, and initially moved around as he held a number of positions...
. From 1606 he was at the University of Marburg, taught by Rudolf Goclenius, Gregorius Schönfeld and Raphaël Egli. The following year he went 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 his teachers were Leonhardt Zubler for mathematics, Amandus Polanus von Polansdorf for theology, and Johann Buxtorf. From about 1608 he taught at Herborn, where he became professor of philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
.
He was later in exile from the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
in Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
, where he remained for the rest of his life. In 1629 Alsted left war-torn Germany for Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...
in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, called at that time Weissenburg in German). He was to found a Calvinist Academy: the context was that the Transylvanian royal family had just returned from Unitarianism to Calvinism. Alsted and Johannes Bisterfeld were German professors brought in improve standards. Among the students there was János Apáczai Csere
János Apáczai Csere
János Apáczai Csere was a Transylvanian Hungarian polyglot and mathematician, famous for his work The Hungarian Encyclopedia, the first textbook to be written in Hungarian...
. He died in Gyulafehérvár.
Works
Alsted is now remembered as an encyclopedist, and for his millennarian views. His approach to the encyclopedia took two decades of preliminaries, and was an effort of integration of tools and theories to hand.Early works
In 1609 Alsted published Clavis artis Lullianae. He published the Artificium perorandi of Giordano BrunoGiordano Bruno
Giordano Bruno , born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. His cosmological theories went beyond the Copernican model in proposing that the Sun was essentially a star, and moreover, that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited...
in 1610; and in the same year the Panacea philosophica, an attempt to find the common ground in the work of Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
, Raymond Lull, and Petrus Ramus
Petrus Ramus
Petrus Ramus was an influential French humanist, logician, and educational reformer. A Protestant convert, he was killed during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Early life:...
. In 1612 Alsted edited the Explanatio of Bernard de Lavinheta
Bernard de Lavinheta
Bernard de Lavinheta was a Basque Franciscan from Béarn, known as a teacher of the methods of Raymond Lull.-Works:His Explanatio compendiosaque applicatio artis Raymundi Lulli was published in 1523 in Lyon....
, a Lullist work. In 1613 he published an edition of the Systema systematum of Bartholomäus Keckermann
Bartholomäus Keckermann
Bartholomäus Keckermann in Danzig was a German writer, Calvinist theologian and philosopher. He is known for his Analytic Method...
. Theologia naturalis (1615) was an apologetical work of natural theology
Natural theology
Natural theology is a branch of theology based on reason and ordinary experience. Thus it is distinguished from revealed theology which is based on scripture and religious experiences of various kinds; and also from transcendental theology, theology from a priori reasoning.Marcus Terentius Varro ...
.
Logician
Alsted published Logicae Systema Harmonicum (1614). In writing a semi-Ramist encyclopedia, he then applied his conception of logic to the sum of human knowledge. To do that, he added the Lullist topical art of memory to Ramist topical logicTopical logic
Topical logic is the logic of topical argument, a branch of rhetoric developed in the Late Antique period from earlier works, such as Aristotle's Topics and Cicero's Topica. It consists of heuristics for developing arguments, which are in the first place plausible rather than rigorous, from...
, indeed reversing one of the original conceptions of Ramus. He had a reputation in his own time as a distinctive methodologist. John Prideaux
John Prideaux
John Prideaux D.D. was an English academic and Bishop of Worcester.-Early life:The fourth son of John and Agnes Prideaux, he was born at Stowford House in the parish of Harford, near Ivybridge, Devon, England, on 17 September 1578...
in 1639 asked:
Q. Is it true that the seven dialectical theories of method in use today, to wit, i) the Aristotelian, 2) the Lullian, 3) the Ramistic, 4) the Mixt, whether indeed in the manner of Keckermann or of Alsted, 5) the Forensic of HotmanFrançois HotmanFrançois Hotman was a French Protestant lawyer and writer, associated with the legal humanists and with the monarchomaques, who struggled against absolute monarchy. His first name is often written 'Francis' in English. His surname is Latinized by himself as Hotomanus, by others as Hotomannus and...
, 6) the Jesuitic, and 7) the Socinian, differ mostly in respect to manner of treatment, not in respect to
purpose?
To which the pupil's answer was to be "yes"; as it was to be to the question "Is it true that a Mixt ought to be preferred to a Peripatetic, a Ramist, a Lullian, and the others?" A "Mixt" took elements from both Aristotle and Ramus; Philippo-Ramists, who blended Melanchthon with Ramus, were a type of "Mixt"; "Systematics" were "Mixts" who followed Keckermann in a belief in system, as Alsted did.
Encyclopedist
Alsted has been called 'one of the most important encyclopedists of all time'. He was a prolific writer, and his Encyclopaedia (1630) long had a high reputation. It was noticed that sedulitas, meaning "hard work" in Latin, was an anagram of Alstedius. It was preceded by shorter works, including the 1608 Encyclopaedia cursus philosophiei. His major encyclopedia of 1630, the Encyclopaedia, Septem Tomis Distincta, was divided into 35 books, and had 48 synoptical tables as well as an index. In its time it was praised by Bernard LamyBernard Lamy (mathematician)
Bernard Lamy was a French Oratorian mathematician and theologian.-Life:...
, and criticised for plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
for verbatim copying without acknowledgment by Jacob Thomasius. Augustus De Morgan
Augustus De Morgan
Augustus De Morgan was a British mathematician and logician. He formulated De Morgan's laws and introduced the term mathematical induction, making its idea rigorous. The crater De Morgan on the Moon is named after him....
later called it "the true parent of all the Encyclopædias, or collections of treatises, or works in which that character predominates".
The Cambridge History of Renaissance Philosophy, p. 632, in the context of Calvinist metaphysics, states
"In the works of authors like Clemens TimplerClemens TimplerClemens Timpler was a German philosopher, physicist and theologian.Along with Jakob Degen , he is considered the most important Protestant metaphysician, establishing the Protestant Reformed Neuscholastik....
of Heidelberg and Steinfurt, Bartolomaeus Keckermann of Heidelberg and Danzig, and Johann Heinrich Alsted of Herborn there appeared a new, unified vision of the encyclopaedia of the scientific disciplines in which ontology had the role of assigning to each of the particular sciences its proper domain."
In his The New England Mind, Perry Miller
Perry Miller
Perry G. Miller was an American intellectual historian and Harvard University professor. He was an authority on American Puritanism, and a founder of the field of American Studies. Alfred Kazin referred to him as "the master of American intellectual history"...
writes about the Encyclopaedia:
- "It was indeed nothing short of a summary, in sequential and numbered paragraphs, of everything that the mind of European man had yet conceived or discovered. The works of over five hundred authors, from Aristotle to James I, were digested and methodized, including those of Aquinas, Scotus, and medieval theology, as also those of medieval science, such as De Natura Rerum."
It was reissued as a 4-volume facsimile reprint, edited by W. Schmidt-Biggemann (Fromann-Holzboog Press, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1989–1990).
Theologian
From his Transylvanian period dates Alsted's Prodromus (printed 1641, but dated 1635). The Prodromus was a Calvinist refutation of one of the most influential anti-Trinitarian works, De vera religione of Johannes VölkelJohannes Völkel
Johannes Völkel was a German Socinian writer.Völkel was probably born around 1565-1570, and probably converted during his studies at the University of Wittenberg, just as Valentin Schmalz had been converted while at the University of Strassburg, in any case he had joined the Polish Brethren by...
. This work was a compendium of the arguments of Völkel's teacher Fausto Sozzini, figurehead of the Polish Unitarian
Polish Brethren
The Polish Brethren were members of the Minor Reformed Church of Poland, a Nontrinitarian Protestant church that existed in Poland from 1565 to 1658...
movement.
Further reading
- Howard Hotson, Johann Heinrich Alsted 1588-1638: Between Renaissance, Reformation, and Universal Reform (Oxford, Clarendon, 2000).