Johannes Reuchlin

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Reuchlin, Johannes (Pforzheim, 1455-1522, Bad Liebenzell), was, together with his friend Erasmus, the driving force in early German humanism. He studied in Freiburg, Paris, and Basel, and was from 1484 to 1496 a lawyer prominent in the service of Eberhard im Bart, Duke of Württemberg (1450-90). From 1502 to 1513 he was a judge of the Swabian League (see Schwäbischer Bund). His main interests, however, were philological; in 1519 he became a professor at Ingolstadt University, and in 1521 at Tübingen.

Reuchlin contributed to the encouragement of Greek studies, and he is the founder of Hebraic studies in Germany with Rudimenta hebraica (1506) and De accentibus et orthographia linguae hebraicae (1518). His attainments in Hebrew, coupled with his judicious and tolerant personality, led to his involvement in a controversy with the anti-Semitic J. Pfefferkorn of Cologne, to whose abuse Reuchlin replied with Der Augenspiegel (1511). Pfefferkorn's backers, the Dominicans of Cologne University, sought to accuse him of heresy, but his high standing as a scholar and diplomat rendered him virtually immune to serious attack. In defence he published the Epistolae clarorum virorum (1514). An outcome of the controversy was the Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515-17), directed by Reuchlin's supporters against his opponents.

Reuchlin wrote two Latin comedies, Sergius oder Capitis caput (1496), a satire, and Scena progymnasmata sive Henno (1497), which is reckoned to be an important step in the development of German comedy; it resembles La Farce de maistre Pierre Pathelin (1470), but it is improbable that Reuchlin knew the French play.

Reuchlin also dabbled in cabbalistic philosophy in De arte cabbalistica (1517). Like Erasmus an indefatigable correspondent, he spread his views by letters and personal contact, in which his integrity, tolerance, and intelligence influenced a wide circle of notable scholars and men of affairs. Komödien. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des lateinischen Schuldramas, ed. H. Holstein, appeared in 1888 (reissued 1973) and Briefwechsel, ed. L. Geiger, in 1875 (reissued 1962).