Christopher Besoldus (Christoph Besold) (1577 – September 1638) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

and

publicist A publicist is a person whose job is to generate and manage publicity for a company, a brand, or public figure – especially a celebrity – or for work or a project such as a book, film, or album. Publicists are public relations specialists wh ...

whose writing is seen as important for the history of the causes of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

Life

He was born of

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

parents in 1577 at

Tübingen Tübingen (; ) is a traditional college town, university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer (Neckar), Ammer rivers. about one in ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...

. He studied jurisprudence, and in the early 1590s was a close friend of

Johannes Kepler Johannes Kepler (27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best know ...

. Besold asked permission of the classical scholar Vitus Müller (Veit Müller, 1561–1626) to defend theses based on Kepler's dissertation (on astronomical topics); he was denied the chance. Later, when Katharina Kepler, Johannes Kepler's mother, was prosecuted on

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

charges, Besold was one of the jurists dealing with the case, which was dropped. He graduated as Doctor of Law in 1598; and in 1610 became professor of law at Tübingen. Among his pupils was

Johannes Valentinus Andreae Johannes Valentinus Andreae (17 August 1586 – 27 June 1654), a.k.a. Johannes Valentinus Andreä or Johann Valentin Andreae, was a German theologian, who claimed to be the author of an ancient text known as the ''Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Ro ...

. Besold was one of the influences on Andreae's later

Rosicrucian Rosicrucianism () is a spirituality, spiritual and cultural movement that arose in early modern Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts announcing to the world a new Western esotericism, esoteric order. Rosicruc ...

writings, along with

Tobias Hess Tobias Hess (31 January 1558 – 24 November 1614) was a German lawyer based in Tübingen. He practised as a Paracelsian physician. Hess was influenced by Simon Studion. He has been identified, alongside Christoph Besold and Johannes Valentinus ...

. His advice was frequently sought in juridical questions by the civil administration. He read the Scriptures, the writings of the

Church Fathers The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical peri ...

, and of the medieval mystics. He was publicly converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...

in 1635. Two years later, he accepted the chair of Roman Law at the

University of Ingolstadt The University of Ingolstadt was founded in 1472 by Louis the Rich, the Duke of Bavaria at the time, and its first Chancellor was the Bishop of Eichstätt. It consisted of four faculties: theology, law, artes liberales and medicine, all of w ...

. He was considering the offer of a professorship at the University of Bologna, tendered him by

Pope Urban VIII Pope Urban VIII (; ; baptised 5 April 1568 – 29 July 1644), born Maffeo Vincenzo Barberini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 6 August 1623 to his death, in July 1644. As pope, he expanded the papal terri ...

, when he died at

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

Works

He knew 9 languages including

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

. His works are numerous, with 102 scholarly writings known. His theory of

federalism Federalism is a mode of government that combines a general level of government (a central or federal government) with a regional level of sub-unit governments (e.g., provinces, State (sub-national), states, Canton (administrative division), ca ...

was influential in explaining the workings of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

. He was one of the earliest writers on

public finance Public finance refers to the monetary resources available to governments and also to the study of finance within government and role of the government in the economy. Within academic settings, public finance is a widely studied subject in man ...

, with Eberhard von Weyhe, Georg Obrecht, and

Jacob Bornitz Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

. The ''Thesaurus Practicus'' (1629), an alphabetical and encyclopedic work defining legal and other terms, ran to many editions, being taken up by his student Johann Jacob Speidel (died 1666) and others. His publication of three volumes of documents from the Stuttgart archives was tendentious. Their contents suggested that the immediate dependency of the Württemberg monasteries on the Empire (''Reichsunmittelbarkeit'') implied for the local dukes the obligation of restoring the confiscated religious property. He translated the satirical ''Ragguagli di Parnaso'' of

Trajano Boccalini Trajano Boccalini (155616 November 1613) was an Italian satirist. Biography Boccalini was born in Loreto, the son of an architect; he himself adopted that profession, and it appears that he commenced late in life to apply to literary pursuits ...

.R. J. W. Evans, ''Rudolf II and his World'' (1973), p. 281. * ''Signatura temporum'', 1614. * ''Axiomatha philosophica-theologica'', Strasburg 1616. * ''Politicorum libri due'', Frankfurt 1618. * ''De verae philosophiae fundamento discursus'', Tübingen 1619. * ''Pentas Dissertationum philologicarum'', Tübingen 1620.

Notes

External links

WorldCat for Christophorus BesoldusOpen Library page
* :de:s:ADB:Besold, Christoph * https://books.google.com/books? d=mzknkKS1jqQC&pg=PA9 Biography in Ferdinand Elsener, ''Lebensbilder zur Geschichte der Tübinger Juristenfakultät'' (1977) * http://www.ubs.sbg.ac.at/sosa/besold.htm
CAMENA at uni-mannheim.de
* https://web.archive.org/web/20110721160903/http://www.his-data.de/zedler/0/3/14/99/zedler-3-1499-8-daten.htm
At idref.fr
;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Besoldus, Christopher 1577 births 1638 deaths Canon law jurists Jurists from Baden-Württemberg People from Tübingen People from the Duchy of Württemberg Christian Kabbalists 16th-century German jurists 17th-century German jurists