{{Infobox person | name = Thomas Platter | image = Gw11 0002830 19950606 s01.jpg | caption = ''Thomas Platter'' (1581) by Hans Bock | birth_date = February 10, 1499 | birth_place = Grächen | death_date = January 26, 1582 | death_place = Basel | children = Felix Platter and Thomas Platter the Younger }} {{Short description|Swiss scholar and writer}} '''Thomas Platter the Elder''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|l|ɑː|t|ər}}; {{IPA|de|ˈplatɐ|lang}}; 10 February 1499, in Grächen, Valais – 26 January 1582, in Basel) was a Swiss humanist scholar and teacher. He was an early follower of the Protestant Reformation.
==Biography== Thomas Platter (the Elder) grew up in poverty. As a child, he wandered through Germany, Poland, and Hungary, begging for money and struggling to find an education. He ultimately mastered several languages, including Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ladurie|1997|p=34}}</ref>
After his return to Switzerland, he became an assistant to the Protestant leader Huldrych Zwingli in Zurich. In 1531, Zwingli was killed in the Battle of Kappel. In view of the political situation in Zurich after the war, Platter left for Basel, together with his friend and mentor, the Protestant theologian Oswald Myconius.<ref>{{Harvnb|Rabb|1993|p=85}}</ref>
In Basel, Platter earned a reputation as a teacher of ancient languages and literature. From 1535 to 1544, he led a printing house with Johannes Oporinus and Ruprecht Winter, publishing various classical texts. They published the first edition of John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ladurie|1997|p=129}}</ref>
In 1544, Platter was invited to become the principal of the {{Interlanguage link|Gymnasium am Münsterplatz|lt=Gymnasium|de||WD=}} at the Münsterplatz in Basel. He demanded a high salary, which was approved on condition that he would not disclose it to the public.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBXveCQtgYIC&q=Platter|last=Burckhardt-Biedermann|first=Theophil|title=Geschichte des Gymnasiums zu Basel|publisher=Birkhäuser|year=1889|isbn=|location=Basel|pages=34–35}}</ref> In 1549, Platter bought and renovated Gundeldingen Castle in Basel.
Platter's autobiography includes a detailed account of his youth and of how he became a humanist scholar. It is considered a classic of autobiographical writing in German.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/deutscheselbstbe00mahruoft/page/48/mode/2up|author-first=Werner|author-last=Mahrholz|title=Deutsche Selbstbekenntnisse: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Selbstbiographie von der Mystik bis zum Pietismus|location=Berlin|year=1919|publisher=Furche|page=48}}</ref>
His sons Felix Platter and Thomas Platter the Younger both studied medicine, a thwarted ambition of Platter's own early life.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/literatureoftrav0002unse|author-first=Jennifer|author-last=Speake|author-link=Jennifer Speake|title=Literature of Travel and Exploration|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|year=2004|pages=967–8}}</ref> All three Platters left memoirs and travel diaries, which have been used for a joint biography by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ladurie|1997}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|25em}}
==Bibliography== * {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/beggarprofessors00lero|title=The Beggar and the Professor: a Sixteenth-Century Family Saga|author-first=Emmanuel Le Roy|author-last=Ladurie|author-link=Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie|translator=Arthur Goldhammer|translator-link=Arthur Goldhammer|publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1997|location=Chicago|orig-year=1995|isbn=0-226-47323-6}} * {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/b28742734/page/n5/mode/2up|translator=Elizabeth Anne McCaul Finn|translator-link=Elizabeth Anne Finn|author-first=Thomas|author-last=Platter|title=The autobiography of Thomas Platter, a schoolmaster of the sixteenth century|year=1839|publisher=B. Wertheim|location=London}} * {{Cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010982177|editor-first=Alfred|editor-last=Hartmann|author-first=Thomas|author-last=Platter|title=Lebensbeschreibung|year=2006|orig-year=1944|publisher=Schwabe|location=Basel, Stuttgart|edition=3rd|isbn=978-3-7965-1372-5}} * {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/renaissancelives00rabb/page/84/mode/2up|title=Renaissance Lives: Portraits of an Age|author-first=Theodore K.|author-last=Rabb|author-link=Theodore K. Rabb|publisher=Pantheon Books|year=1993|location=New York|isbn=0-679-40781-2}}
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=36739}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Platter}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Platter, Thomas}} Category:1499 births Category:1582 deaths Category:People from Visp (district) Category:Swiss Renaissance humanists Category:16th-century educators Category:16th-century Swiss writers Category:Swiss educators