Crollius [Croll], Oswald

1. Dates

Born: Hesse-Kassel, c.1560

Died: Prague, 25 Dec. 1609

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 49

2. Father

Occupation: Magistrate

Mayor of the village of Wetter; no other information about occupation.

No information about financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: German

Career: France, Germany, Czechoslovakia

Death: Czechoslovakia

4. Education

Schooling: Marburg, M.D., Strassburg, Geneva, Heidelberg

Matriculated in Univ. of Marburg, 1576. I assume B.A.

Apparently early M.D. in 1582.

Later studied at Strasbourg, Geneva, and Heidelberg.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Certainly Protestant; apparently Calvinist

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Iatrochemistry And Alchemy

7. Means of Support

Primary: Medical Practice And Patronage

He was tutor to the d'Esnes family in Lyon, 1583-90.

Tutor then to Count Maximilian von Pappenheim, 1593-7.

From 1593 until his death, medical practice in Prague and Brno.

Rudolf II sometimes consulted him, and also princes.

Croll cured Christian of Anhalt-Bernburg and became his personal physician and then his diplomatic agent in Prague. Christian supported Croll's chemical research. Croll dedicated the Basilica chymica to him.

As agent of Christian, he was in extended close contact with the Czech magnate Wok Ursinus, Herr von Rosenberg, who was also interested in chemistry. Rosenberg financed the publication of the Basilica.

8. Patronage

Types: Court, Aristocracy

In addition to above, Croll met della Porta in travelling as a tutor and dedicated a book to him. As I now know, Porta had no money, and this dedication could not have been related to patronage.

9. Technological Involvement

Types: Medical Practice, Pharmacology

Also developed pharmaceuticals.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

However, he was part of the circle of occult scientists around Rudolf in Prague.

Sources

1. Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.
2. Neue deutsche Biographie.
3. Owen Hannaway, The Chemists and the Word, (Baltimore, 1975), especially pp. 1-3.
4. Gerald Schroeder, "Oswald Croll," Pharaceutische Industrie, 21 (1959), 405-8.

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.