Keckermann, Bartholomew

1. Dates

Born: Danzig, 1571/73

Died: Danzig, 25 August 1609 (some sources say 1608)

Dateinfo: Both Dates Uncertain

Lifespan: 38

2. Father

Occupation: Government Official, Schoolmaster

George Keckermann was for years an official in the court of the Duke of Pomerania. He was then conrector of a school in Danzig, and then later apparently a merchant. Bütner says that Keckermann came from a merchant family, but this seems, from the other sources, to describe only the father's final years.

No information on financial status.

3. Nationality

Birth: German. I am treating Danzig as essentially. German.

Career: German

Death: German

4. Education

Schooling: Wittenberg, Leipzig; Heidelberg, M.A., D.D.

Privately educated by Jacob Fabricius, rector of Danzig Gymnasium.

1590 (NDB says 1598, but this seems impossible), went to Wittenberg, then to Leipzig for a semester in 1592 (NDB: 1600), then to Heidelberg in the same year (NDB: 1600). I assume B.A. at one place or another.

1595, M.A., Heidelberg.

1602, D.Div., Heidelberg.

5. Religion

Affiliation: Calvinist

Keckermann is known as a leading reformed theologian in Germany. However, he does not appear to have been entirely an orthodox Calvinist.

6. Scientific Disciplines

Primary: Geography

Subordinate: Astronomy, Mathematics, Optics

Though primarily a philosopher and theologian, Keckermann wrote a piece that holds an important place in the history of geography. He also published on astronomy, geometry, and optics, but in all cases only university lectures that contained nothing original.

7. Means of Support

Primary: Academia

ca. 1595, tutor, then lecturer in Philosophy, Heidelberg.

1600, professor of Hebrew, Heidelberg.

1602 (NDB and Adam say 1601), professor of philosophy, Danzig Gymnasium.

8. Patronage

Types: Court Official, City Magistrate

Elector Frederick IV named Keckermann to the positions in Heidelberg.

The Senate of Danzig offered him a position as early as 1597, but he stayed in Heidelberg until he had finished the D.Div. The Senate then appointed him professor in the Gymnasium (which I am treating as an academic position).

9. Technological Involvement

Types: None

10. Scientific Societies

Memberships: None

Sources

1. Joachim Staedtke, "Keckermann," in Neue Deutsche Biographie, 11, (Berlin, 1977), 388-9. [ref. CT1053.N47 v.11]
2. Melchior Adam, Vitae germanorum philosophorum (Frankfurt, 1663), pp. 499-502.
3. Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, 15, 518.
4. Emil Menke-Glückert, Die Geschichtschreibung der Reformation und Gegenreformation. Bodin und die Begründung der Geschichtsmethodologie durch Bartholomus Keckermann, (Leipzig, 1912).
5. Manfred Büttner, "Die Neuausrichtung der Geographie im 17.
6. Jahrhundert durch Bartholomus Keckkermann," Geographische Zeitschrift, 63 (1975), 1-12.

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.