Christoph Hartknoch

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Christoph Hartknoch

Hartknoch features his last residence, the city of Thorn, in his book Altes und Neues Preussen

Christoph Hartknoch (Polish: Jan Krzysztof Hartknoch, 1644 - 1687) was a historian and educator.

[edit] Biography

The Prussian historian Christoph Hartknoch was born in Jablonken in the Ortelsburg (Szczytno) region of Prussia. His father Stephan Hartknoch of Lyck (Ełk) is recorded to have been married for 100 years and to have lived to the age of 130. In 1650 the family moved to Passenheim (Pasym) and there witnessed the brutality and horrors of the Tatar attacks in southern Prussia. His life was saved by his teacher, who shoved him out the window. Numerous villages in the region were destroyed, but Hartknoch made it to the ducal capital of Königsberg (Kaliningrad).

In Königsberg he started studying theology at a Protestant institute. Soon after his parents died and he had to take on jobs. He became a private teacher in Kaunas and then a rector in the Protestant school in Vilnius. He soon returned to Königsberg where books and records interested him in history.

In 1679 he published a book about Prussian history first in Latin and then in German (Alt- und Neues Preussen), as well as a history of the church in Prussia (Preussische Kirchen-Historia). The works are accompanied by descriptions and illustrations of Prussian people, history, and culture as well as copper etching illustrations of cities in Prussia. He received ethnographical information from the Prussian priest Matthäus Prätorius.

His work in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Kaunas, and Vilnius awoke his interest in their history as well. He then wrote a comprehensive work on the Commonwealth spanning 300 years, the first of its kind.

The city of Thorn (Toruń) had become for the most part Protestant, and in 1677 Hartknoch was invited to become director at the Gymnasium, where he worked for ten years. Wearied through years of Tatar attacks and resulting poverty, Hartknoch died in 1687 at the age of 43. He was buried in Thorn.

His extensive scientific body of works contributed greatly to knowledge of Prussia, Pomerania, Samogitia, Courland, and Poland.

[edit] Nicolaus Copernicus portrait

In his book on Prussian history, Hartknoch features an illustration of Nicolaus Copernicus. Hartknoch wrote: Von den Städten und Schlössern. Der berühmte Mathematicus Nicolaus Copernicus (About the cities and castles. The famous mathematician Nicolaus Copernicus). The book was written later in Hartknoch's life, when he was director at the Gymnasium in Thorn.