Cordus, Euricius

1. Dates

Born: Simtshausen bei Marburg (Siemershausen), Hesse, 1486 (DSB, Greene, Leake) or 1484 (Neue deutsche Biographie)

Died: Bremen, Germany, 24 Dec 1535

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 49

2. Father

Occupation: Peasant/Small Farmer, Magistrate

A farmer in the village of Frankenberg, of which he was Burgermeister.

He is said to have been well to do; I'm willing to accept

prosperous.

3. Nationality

Birth: German

Career: German

Death: German

4. Education

Schooling: Erfuhrt, M.A.; Ferrara, M.D.

Secondary: probably attended schools in Wetter and Frankenberg.

University: ca 1505-7 studied at Erfurt.

after interruption, MA Erfurt 1516.

after interruption, MD Ferrara 1521 or 1522.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic, then (by 1527) ardent Lutheran

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Botany

7. Means of Support

Primary: Medicine, Academia, Government

Secondary: Schoolmastering

1511, headmaster of a school in Kassel.

1514, married pharmacist's daughter; occupation unknown, in great poverty (within a year had second son).

1517, studied and lectured at Leipzig, then.

1517, became rector of the Abbey School of St. Mary in Erfurt, which he had founded with the humanists Eobanus Hessus and Joachim Camerarius.

1521, the school closed, and because "his income was not nearly adequate" he decided to study medicine; an Erfurt physician named Sturtius lent him the money to go to Italy.

Returned to Erfurt, practiced medicine for 4 - 5 years.

1523, accepted an appointment as municipal physician for Brunswick.

1527, Hessian Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous made him professor of medicine at newly founded Univ. of Marburg.

Twice rector of the Philippina.

1533, resigned from Marburg to accept appointment as municipal physician in Bremen; also professor at the Gymnasium there.

8. Patronage

Types: Court And Magistrates

Landgraf Phillip the Magnanimous of Hesse.

Dedicated his Botanilogicon to the Senate and Citizens of Bremen.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Informal contact with various humanists.

Formal: none.

Sources

1. Helmut Dolezal, Neue deutsche Biographie, 3, 358 - 359.
2. E. L. Greene, "Landmarks of Botanical History," in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 54.1 (1909), 263-314. Q11.S65
3. C. D. Leake, "Valerius Cordus and the Discovery of Ether", Isis, 7 (1925), 14 - 24 -- Q2.I8

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. All other sources in DSB not in library. (He is sometimes mentioned in sources about his son, Valerius, not all of which I have yet read.)

Compiled by:

Richard S. Westfall

Department of History and Philosophy of Science

Indiana University

Note: the creators of the Galileo Project and this catalogue cannot answer email on geneological questions.