Andreae, Johann Valentin

1. Dates

Born: Herrenberg, Württemberg, 17 Aug 1586

Died: Stuttgart, 27 Jun 1654

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 68

2. Father

Occupation: Cleric

His father was Mag(ister). Johann Andreae, a Lutheran minister. He was pastor at Hagelloch (1576-1578), pastor at Moessingen (1578-1582), superintendant at Herrenberg (1582- 1591), and an evangenical abbot at Koenigsberg (1591-1601). He is said to have neglected his family and his ministry to pursue his interest in alchemy. He died in 1601.

After the death of his father, his mother, Maria Moser Andreae, moved the family to Tuebingen where she supported her children by her pharmaceutical activity, especially in her position of court apothecary.

3. Nationality

Birth: Herrenberg, Wuerttemberg, Germany

Career: (Primarily Calw), Wuerttemberg, Germany

Death: Stuttgart, Wuerttemberg, Germany

4. Education

Schooling: B.A., Tübingen; M.A., Tübingen.

Early education at home in Koenigsbronn.

1601, entered the University of Tuebingen. Received his B.A. (1601), and M.A. (1605). He began to study theology, but was expelled in 1607 for associating with students found guilty of having relations with prostitutes.

1607-12, Wanderjahre: visited Strasbourg (then the center of alchemical publishing) in 1606, then Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Mainz, Lauingen (1607), and Dillingen. 1608, returned to Tuebingen, and spent two years as a tutor to two young noble brothers. By 1610, he was preparing for a theological disputation under Andreas (II) Osiander, when the city was hit by plague. He then travelled to Bern, Fribourg, Lausanne, and arrived finally at Geneva (1611). He then visited Lyon, Paris, Zuerich, Basel, Tuebingen (where he served for a short time as a tutor), Venice, Padua, Verona, Rome, and Augsburg.

1612-14, returned to Tuebingen and studied theology at the Tuebingen Stift. He was ordained in 1614.

1641, made doctor of theology at Tuebingen (honorary).

5. Religion

Affiliation: Lutheran (Lutheran)

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Alchemy

Subordinate: Astrology, Mathematics

7. Means of Support

Primary: Church Life

Secondary: Schoolmastering

1607-12, period of extensive travel interrupted stints at tutoring in Teubingen.

1614-20, "deacon" (roughly: assistant parson) at Vaihingen/Enz.

1620-38, Spezialsuperintendent (chief pastor) at Calw.

1639-50, Hofprediger (court preacher) and Konigstorialrat (councillor) at Stuttgart, where he was in charge of rebuilding the church after the terrible destruction wrought by Catholic forces.

1650, withdrew to Bebenhausen as Generalsuperintendent and evangelical abbot.

1654, given the titulary appointment of abbot of Adelberg, which had been destroyed. This permitted him to retire to Stuttgart.

8. Patronage

Type: Court Official

1638, Eberhard III, whose return to Wuerttemberg Andreae had negotiated the previous year, offered him the choice of a chair of theology at Tuebingen or the position of constitorial councillor and court preacher at Stuttgart. He accepted the offer (the latter position) after hesitation.

Primary patron: Duke August of Braunschweig-Lueneburg. Andreae dedicated his Rei Christianae and Literariae subsidia (1642) to him. August underwrote his doctoral promotion, and upon receiving the dedication he responded with a gift of 100 imperials and shortly thereafter appointed Andreae as one of his ecclesiastical councillors at a salary of 400 imperials per year. In the summer of 1553, August sent a special litter in the hope that the terminally-ill Andreae would make it from Bebenhausen to the court at Wolfenbuettel. When Andreae finally retired in Stuttgart, August provided a house for his use.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: None

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Sources

1. John Warwick Montgomery, Cross and Crucible: Johann Valentin Andreae (1586-1654), Phoenix of the Theologians, vol. 1 )The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973), section two: "Andreae's Life from the Sources," pp. 23-111. [BR350.A55 M78 v.1]

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University