{{short description|German humanist and book collector (1485–1547)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2025}} thumb|Beatus Rhenanus '''Beatus Rhenanus''' (22 August 1485{{snd}}20 July 1547), born as '''Beatus Bild''', was a German humanist, religious reformer, classical scholar,<ref>The modern monograph is John F. D'Amico, ''Theory and Practice in Renaissance Textual Criticism. Beatus Rhenanus Between Conjecture and History''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.</ref> and book collector.<ref name=staikos2012>{{Citation |isbn = 9781584561828 |publication-place = New Castle, DE |publisher= Oak Knoll Press |year= 2012 |title = History of the Library in Western Civilization: From Petrarch to Michelangelo |author = Konstantinos Staikos }}</ref>
== Early life and education == thumb|centre|350px|School workbook of Beatus Rhenanus
Rhenanus was born on 22 August 1485 in Schlettstadt (Sélestat) in Alsace.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Rhenanus |first=Beatus |title=Rhenanus, Beatus. Epistulae Beati Rhenani. La Correspondance latine et grecque de Beatus Rhenanus de Sélestat. Édition critique raisonnée, avec traduction et commentaire. Vol. 1 (1506–1517). |publisher=Brepols |year=2013 |isbn=9782503513584 |editor-last=Hirstein |editor-first=James |pages=IX}}</ref> He was the third of three brothers.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Holzberg |first=Niklaus |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMXNvwEACAAJ |title=Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus |publisher=Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste |year=1985 |pages=22 |language=fr}}</ref> His father, Anton Bild, was a butcher from Rhinau<ref name=":1" /> (the source of his name "Rhenanus", which Beatus Latinised from his father, who was known as the "Rhinauer", the "man from Rheinau"). His grandfather Eberhard emigrated to Schlettstadt from Rheinau, and his son Anton was a member of the local council and acted as Schlettstadt's Mayor between 1495 and 1512.<ref name=":1" /> Beatus lost his mother, Barbara Kegler, at the age of three and was raised by his father and his uncle Reinhart Kegler, a priest.<ref name=":2" /> His father would not remarry, and focused on providing his only surviving son with an excellent education.<ref name=":2" /> Between 1491 and 1503 Rhenanus attended the Latin school of Schlettstadt.<ref name=":6">Rhenanus, Beatus (2013). Hirstein, James (ed.), p.3</ref> His classmates in Schlettstadt were the sons of Johann Amerbach, Basilius and Bruno.<ref name=":7">{{Citation |last=Mundt |first=Felix |title=Beatus Rhenanus: Rerum Germanicarum libri tres (1531): Ausgabe, Übersetzung, Studien |date=19 December 2008 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783484970755/html?lang=de |work=Beatus Rhenanus: Rerum Germanicarum libri tres (1531) |pages=440 |access-date=26 July 2023 |publisher=Max Niemeyer Verlag |language=de |doi=10.1515/9783484970755 |isbn=978-3-484-97075-5|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
== Paris == On 25 April 1503, Rhenanus left Schlettstadt for Paris where he arrived on 9 May 1503.<ref name=":6" /> In Paris he entered the College du Cardinal Lemoine,<ref name=":6" /> where he came under the influence of Jacobus Lefèvre Stapulensis, an eminent Aristotelian.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1 |wstitle=Rhenanus, Beatus |volume=23 |page=233 }}</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Barral-Baron |first=Marie |date=2016 |title=Rhenanus, Beatus. Epistulae Beati Rhenani. La Correspondance latine et grecque de Beatus Rhenanus de Sélestat. Édition critique raisonnée, avec traduction et commentaire. Vol. 1 (1506–1517). Édité, par James Hirstein avec la collaboration de Jean Boës, François Heim, Charles Munier†, Francis Schlienger, Robert Walter† et d'autres collègues |url=https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/renref/2016-v39-n3-renref06781/1086535ar/resume/ |journal=Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Réforme |language=fr |volume=39 |issue=3 |pages=208–209 |doi=10.33137/rr.v39i3.27744 |issn=0034-429X|doi-access=free }}</ref> He assisted Lefèvre in publishing a commented Politika and a treatise on the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle in the print of Henri Estienne.<ref name=":3">Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).pp.23–24</ref> After having graduated he returned to Schlettstadt in 1507.<ref name=":3" />
== Strasbourg == In the same year he moved to Strassburg (Strasbourg), where he worked for the printer Mathias Schürer and made the acquaintance of prominent Alsatian humanists, including Jakob Wimpfeling,<ref name=":4">Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).pp.24–25</ref> Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg and Sebastian Brant. The works he was involved with at Schürer were poems and treatises by contemporary Italian humanists and are seen as a preparation for his later work on texts by Aristotle and the Fathers of the Church.<ref name=":4" /> One was a book by Fausto Anderlini, who was a teacher of his in Paris.<ref name=":4" />
== Basel == [[File:Sélestat (Bas-Rhin) - Bibliothèque Humaniste - Collection de Beatus Rhenanus.jpg|300px|thumb|Sélestat (Bas-Rhin), at the Bibliothèque Humaniste. From the personal library of Beatus Rhenanus, Rhenanus' edition of Tertullian]] After having also evaluated Orleans for his further studies, he eventually chose to come to Basel in July 1511.<ref name=":5">Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).p.26</ref> He sought to become a student of the teacher of the Greek language Johannes Cuno.<ref name=":5" /> Rhenanus would become the favourite student of Cuno, who would later bequeath his library to him.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Sicherl |first=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMXNvwEACAAJ |title=Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus |publisher=Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste |year=1985 |pages=141 |language=fr}}</ref>
The 1512 edition of the Decretum Gratiani from the printers Johann Amerbach, Johan Petri and Johann Froben is the first known book he edited in Basel.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hieronymus |first=Frank |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MO1EAQAAIAAJ |title=1488 Petri-Schwabe 1988: eine traditionsreiche Basler Offizin im Spiegel ihrer frühen Drucke |date=1997 |publisher=Schwabe |isbn=978-3-7965-1000-7 |page=55 |language=de}}</ref> In Basel he also befriended Desiderius Erasmus and played an active role in the publishing enterprises of Johann Froben.<ref name=":5" /><ref>Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).pp.26–27</ref> Many of the authors he worked on were historians. While he was staying in Basel, he usually lived several months a year in Schlettstadt.<ref name=":5" /> In 1519/1520, when the plague raged in Basel, he stayed in Schlettstadt for over twelve months.<ref name=":5" />
In 1521, his ''editio princeps'' first edition of Tertullian was published.
== Schlettstadt == Beatus Rhenanus returned to Schlettstadt in 1528<ref name=":5" /> to devote himself to a life of learned leisure. In the early 1530s he edited works of the Roman historians Tacitus and Livy.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Allen |first=Walter |date=1937 |title=Beatus Rhenanus, Editor of Tacitus and Livy |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2848636 |journal=Speculum |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=382–385 |doi=10.2307/2848636 |jstor=2848636 |s2cid=161708620 |issn=0038-7134|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Tacitus was published in 1533 by Froben in Basel.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Allen |first=Walter |date=1937 |title=The Yale Manuscript of Tacitus (Codex Budensis Rhenani) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40856969 |journal=The Yale University Library Gazette |volume=11 |issue=4 |pages=81–86 |jstor=40856969 |issn=0044-0175}}</ref> He continued a lively correspondence with many contemporary scholars, including his friend Erasmus, and supervised the printing of many of Erasmus's most important works.<ref name="EB1911" />
== Death and legacy == He fell ill around Pentecost 1547 following which he travelled to Wildbad to cure himself.<ref name=":122">{{Cite book |last=Meyer |first=Hubert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMXNvwEACAAJ |title=Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus |publisher=Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste |year=1985 |pages=86 |language=fr |chapter=Propose sur la bibliothèque de Beatus Rhenanus}}</ref> The stay was not successful and, still gravely sick, he eventually arrived in Strasbourg on 14 July.<ref name=":122" /> He eventually arrived at the Abbey of Ebersmunster, where he died on 20 July.<ref name=":122" /> [[File:Bibliothèque humaniste de Sélestat 21 janvier 2014-97.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|left|The library of Beatus Rhenanus as preserved in Sélestat in eastern France]] Rhenanus's own publications include a biography of Johann Geiler von Kaisersberg (1510),<ref>Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).p.25</ref> the ''Rerum Germanicarum Libri III'' (1531), and editions of Velleius Paterculus (Froben, Basel, 1520), based on the sole surviving manuscript, which he discovered in the Benedictine monastery at Murbach, Alsace.<ref>A.J. Woodman, ed., ''Paterculus: The Tiberian Narrative'' 2004:3ff.</ref> He also wrote works on Tacitus (1519), Livy (1522), and a nine-volume work on his friend Erasmus (1540–1541).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
Beatus Rhenanus's collection of books went into the ownership of his hometown on his death, and can still to be seen in its entirety in the Humanist Library of Sélestat. Four years after his death, Johannes Sturm wrote a biography of him.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Weiss |first=James Michael |date=1981 |title=The technique of faint praise: Johann Sturm's "Life of Beatus Rhenanus" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20676335 |journal=Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance |volume=43 |issue=2 |pages=289–302 |jstor=20676335 |issn=0006-1999}}</ref>
== Personal life == His father Anton Rhinau (Bild) was a member of the council in Schlettstadt from 1479, and he became its mayor in 1497.<ref name=":7" /> He had two elder brothers, both of whom died during childhood.<ref name=":1" /> His mother died when he was three years of age<ref name=":1" /> on 21 July 1487.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Kubler |first=Maurice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kMXNvwEACAAJ |title=Annuaire: Spécial 500e anniversaire de la naissance de Beatus Rhenanus |publisher=Les Amis de la Bibliothèque Humaniste |year=1985 |pages=35 |language=fr |chapter=Beatus Rhenanus Selestadiensis}}</ref> He died on the way back from Wildbad in Strasbourg on 20 July 1547 while still in hope of a treatment for his sickness.<ref>Holzberg, Niklaus (1985).p.32</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *https://web.archive.org/web/20120211132805/http://www.uni-giessen.de/gloning/at/beatus-rhenanus_1531_rerum-germanicarum-libri-tres.pdf
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhenanus, Beatus}} Category:1485 births Category:1547 deaths Category:People from Sélestat Category:German Renaissance humanists Category:German book and manuscript collectors Category:16th-century German male writers