Conrad Celtes

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"Epitaph" of Conrad Celtes, woodcut by Hans Burgkmair 1507

Conrad Celtes , also known as Conrad Celtis, (February 1, 1459 - February 4, 1508) was a German Humanist scholar.

[edit] Biography

Born at Wipfeld in Lower Franconia under his original name Konrad Bickel, Celtes pursued his studies at Cologne and Heidelberg. While at Heidelberg, he received instruction from Dalberg and Agricola. As a custom in those days for humanists, he converted his original name into Conradus Celtis. For some time he delivered humanist lectures during his travels to Erfurt, Rostock and Leipzig. His first work was titled Ars versificandi et Carminum ("The art of writing verses and poems", 1486). He further undertook lecture tours to Rome, Florence, Bologna and Venice.

The elector Frederick of Saxony approached the emperor Frederick III, who named Conrad Celtes Poet Laureate (Honored Poet) upon his return to Germany. At this great ceremonial gathering in Nuremberg, Celtes was at the same time presented with a doctoral degree. Celtes again made a lecturing tour throughout the empire and during this time went to Kraków. At Kraków (1488), he applied himself to mathematics, astronomy and the natural sciences and while there, he became friends with many other humanists, such as Lorenzo Rab and Bonacursius. He also founded a learned society, based on the Roman academies. The Kraków society was called Sodalitas Litterarum Vistulana ("Literary Society at Vistula").

Conrad Celtis

In Hungary he formed the Sodalitas Litterarum Hungaria ("Hungarian Literary Society"). He made stops at Regensburg, Passau and Nuremberg (and probably Mainz). At Heidelberg he founded the Sodalitas Litterarum Rhenana ("Rhineland Literary Society"). Later he went to Lübeck and Ingolstadt. At Ingolstadt, in 1492 he delivered his famous speech to the students there, in which he called on Germans to rival Italians in learning and letters. This would later become an extremely popular address in sixteenth century German nationalistic sentiment.

While the plague ravaged Ingolstadt, Celtes taught at Heidelberg. By now he was a professor. In 1497 Celtes was called to Vienna by the emperor Maximilian I, who honored him as teacher of the art of poetry and conversation with an imperial Privilegium, the first of its kind. There he lectured on the works of classical writers and in 1502 founded the Collegium Poetarum, a college for poets.

Celtes died at Vienna a few years later.

[edit] Overview

Conrad Celtes' teachings had lasting effects, particularly in the field of history. He was the first to teach the history of the world as a whole. He started work on the Germania Illustrata with Germania generalis and De rigine situ, moribus et institutis Norimbergae libellus ("Booklet of structure, habits and institutions of Nuremberg"). He discovered and published the writings of Hroswitha of Gandersheim. Celtes also discovered a map of the military roads of the Roman Empire, the Tabula Peutingeriana, or Peutinger Table. He collected numerous Greek and Latin manuscripts in his function as librarian of the imperial library that was founded by Maximilian.

Conrad Celtes was more of a free-thinking humanist and placed a higher value on the ancient pagan, rather than the Christian ideal. His friend Willibald Pirckheimer had blunt discussions with him on that subject.