Cordus, Valerius

1. Dates

Born: Hesse (maybe Erfurt) Germany, 18 Feb 1515

Died: Rome, Italy, 25 Sep 1544

Dateinfo: Dates Certain

Lifespan: 29

2. Father

Occupation: Physician And Professor

I assume prosperous.

3. Nationality

Birth: born: German.

Career: German. died: Italy.

Death:

4. Education

Schooling: Marburg, Leipzig, Wittenberg, M.D.

1527 - 1533, studied botany and pharmacy under his father, Euricius Cordus.

1527, enrolled in Univ. of Marburg.

1531, BA Marburg.

1533 - 9? completed his training at his uncle Johannes (or Joachim) Ralla's apothecary shop in Leipzig, where he enrolled in the University.

1539-44, studied medicine and lectured on materia medica at U Wittenberg; his lectures were very popular; received MD from Univ. of Wittenberg.

1542-4, made trips to Italy to study.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Protestant ("evangelisch")--i.e, Lutheran

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Botany And Pharmacy

7. Means of Support

Primary: Apothecary, Academia

1533-9? worked in an apothecary shop.

1539-44, "developed close ties to apothecary shop of Lucas Cranach."

Lectured on materia medica at Univ. of Wittenberg; his lectures were very popular.

8. Patronage

Type: City Magistrates

1542, made a short visit to Nuremburg to present his Dispensatorium to the city council, which gave him 100 gold guilders and published the book in 1546.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Pharmacology

Worked with apothecaries.

Wrote first official Dispensatorium north of the Alps.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Informal: much admired by contemporaries; visited various scholars in Italy.

Konrad Gesner published many of Valerius' works after he died.

Formal: none.

Sources

1. E. L. Greene, "Landmarks of Botanical History," in Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 54.1 (1909), 263-314. Q11.S65
2. C. D. Leake, "Valerius Cordus and the Discovery of Ether", Isis, 7 (1925), 14-24. Q2.I8
3. Rudolf Schmitz, DSB, 3, 413 - 415.
4. Hermann Ziegenspeck, Neue deutsche Biographie, 3, 359

Not Available and Not Consulted

1. O. Bessler, "Valerius Cordus und der medizinisch-botanische Unterricht," in 450 Jahre Martin-Luther-Universität Halle Wittenberg, (Halle Wittenberg, 1952), 1, 323 - 333 -- LF 2763 . A53 T. Irmisch, "Einige Mittheilungen über Valerius Cordus," Botanische Zeitung, 22 (1864), 315-17. Bio Lib QK1 . B76 H. Peters, "Die älteste Pharmakopoee in Deutschland," in his Aus pharmazeutischer Vorzeit (Berlin, 1886), pp. 129 -153. -- Stacks RS 61 . P 482 T. Robinson, "On the Nature of Sweet Oil of Vitriol," Journal of the History of Medine, 14 (1959), 231-3. R151.T48
2. R. Schmitz, "Zur Bibliographie der Erstausgabe des Dispensatoriums Valerii Cordi," Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften, 42 (1958), 260 - 270. Q3 . S 94 Most of the sources listed in the DSB are not in the library.

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.