Willibald Pirckheimer, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Willibald Pirckheimer

German humanist

Date of Birth: 05-Dec-1470

Place of Birth: Eichstätt, Altmühlkreis, Germany

Date of Death: 22-Dec-1530

Profession: writer, politician, jurist

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


Show Famous Birthdays Today, World

👉 Worldwide Celebrity Birthdays Today

About Willibald Pirckheimer

  • Willibald Pirckheimer (5 December 1470 – 22 December 1530) was a German Renaissance lawyer, author and Renaissance humanist, a wealthy and prominent figure in Nuremberg in the 16th century, and a member of the governing City Council for two periods.
  • He was the closest friend of the artist Albrecht Dürer, who made a number of portraits of him, and a close friend of the great humanist and theologian Erasmus.
  • Born in Eichstätt, Bavaria, the son of a lawyer, Dr.
  • Johannes Pirckheimer, he was educated in Italy, studying law at Padua and Pavia for seven years.
  • His wife was called Cresencia, and they had at least a daughter, Felicitas.
  • His elder sister Caritas (1467–1532) was Abbess of St Clare's Franciscan convent in Nuremberg (also in effect a girls' school for the city's upper class) and was also a gifted classical scholar; Dürer's life of the Virgin woodcut series was dedicated to her.
  • He probably met Dürer in 1495. He was a member of a group of Nuremberg humanists including Conrad Celtis, Sebald Schreyer, and Hartmann Schedel (author of the Nuremberg Chronicle).
  • He also was consulted by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I on literary matters.
  • He translated many classical texts into German (as well as Greek texts into Latin), and was a believer in translating "by the sense" rather than over-literally, a great question of the day.
  • Among other works, he edited and had published an edition of Ptolemy's Geographia in 1525.
  • In 1499 Pirckheimer was chosen by the City Council to command their contingent of troops in the Imperial army during the Swabian War against the Swiss.
  • On his return he was presented with a gold cup by the City.
  • This may be referred to in Dürer's engraving Nemesis of about 1502. As Dürer had not received a classical education, it is usually assumed that much of the display of classical and humanist learning in his works, especially his prints, reflected his discussions with Pirckheimer.
  • A notable example is Melencolia I.
  • Pirckheimer lent Dürer the money for his second trip to Italy in 1506/07, and ten letters to him from Dürer in Italy demonstrate the closeness of the friendship, with much teasing.
  • After the death in 1560 of the last of Dürer's immediate family Pirckheimer's grandson Willibald Imhoff bought the remaining Dürer collections and papers.
  • Most of Pirckheimer's own library, famous in its day, was sold by another Imhoff descendant to the Earl of Arundel in 1636.
  • Much of this passed via the collection of Sir Hans Sloane to the British Library.
  • He died in Nuremberg, aged 60.
  • Like Dürer, he is buried in the cemetery of the Johannis-kirche in Nuremberg. A portrait of Pirckheimer appears on the 100 Billion Mark note issued during Germany's Weimar Republic.

Read more at Wikipedia

See Also