Guinter, [Winther von Andernach] Joannes

1. Dates

Born: Andernach, Germany, ca. 1505 [not 1487]

Died: Strasbourg, Germany, 4 Oct 1574

Dateinfo: Birth Uncertain

Lifespan: 69

2. Father

Occupation: Unknown

Nothing is known of his family except that it was obscure and impoverished.

3. Nationality

Birth: Andernach, Germany

Career: Belgium, France, and Strasbourg, Germany

Death: Strasbourg, Germany

4. Education

Schooling: Leipzig, Louvain, Liège; Paris, B.A., M.D.

Nothing is known of his early education.

He studied at Utrecht and Deventer (i.e., pre-university).

At some undetermined time he studied medicine at Leipzig (see below).

He then studied at Louvain, and then Liège (but the stay at Liège could not have been long).

About 1527, he went from Liège to Paris, where he received his baccalaureat (1528) after two witnesses had sworn to the fact of his previous study at Leipzig. He was later promoted to licentiate (1530), and received an M.D. (1532). He was accepted as a regent doctor by the Paris faculty of medicine (1533).

5. Religion

Affiliation: Catholic, Lutheran

1538, due to the pressure of religous orthodoxy he left France for Germany.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Anatomy, Medicine

Guinter wrote several works on medicine, but especially he was the translator of Galen (and some other lesser ones) into Latin.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Accademic Position, Medical Practice

At Louvain he did some teaching of Greek.

1534-1538, he was named one of the two professors of medicine by the Paris faculty of medicine at a salary of 25 livres.

1538- ca. 1540, lived in Metz.

About 1540, he received the chair of Greek at the gymnasium at Strasbourg. He simultaneously developed a medical practice. Criticism of his double occupation forced him to relinquish his chair in 1556.

8. Patronage

Types: Aristrocrat, Eccesiastic Official, Court Official, Physician

He dedicated his translations of three books of Galen (1528) to the Count of Beaulieu.

He dedicated a book on medicine in 1528 to the Abbé de Saint-Marc.

He dedicated a translation of Galen (1530) to Francis I.

He dedicated a translation of Galen (1533) to Poblation, physician to the Queen and professor of mathematics (sic) at the Collège royale. (I categorize him as Physician.)

He dedicated a translation of Galen (1534) to the Spanish aristocrat Rodrigue Manrique.

He dedicated a medical book (1549) to Archbishop Cranmer.

He dedicated a translation of Alexander de Tralles to the Landgrave William of Hesse.

He contacted his fatal illnes while attending Baron Lazare de Schwandy.

9. Technological Involvement

Type: Medical Practice

He concentrated more and more on practice as he went on, eventually abandoning an accademic position for his practice. Also, after about 1556, most of his publications reflect a practical rather than a theoretical interest.

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Vesalius was Guinter's student in Paris.

Sources

1. M.-L. Concasty, ed., Commentaires de la Faculté de médecine de l'Université de Paris (Paris, 1964), passim. [R506.P3 P32]
2. Edouard Turner, "Jean Guinter d'Andernach, 1505-1574," Gazette hebdomadaire de médicine et de chirurgie, 2nd ser., 18 (1881), 425-34, 441-8, 505-16.
3. Not consulted: J.J. Hoeveler, "Ionnes Guinterius Andernachus," Jahresbericht ueber des Progymnasium zu Andernach fuer das Schuljahr 1898-99 (Andernach, 1899), 3-21.

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.