Georg Fabricius (; 23 April 1516– 17 July 1571) was a

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 ...

German

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

who wrote in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

during the

German Renaissance The German Renaissance, part of the Northern Renaissance, was a cultural and artistic movement that spread among German thinkers in the 15th and 16th centuries, which developed from the Italian Renaissance. Many areas of the arts and sciences ...

Life

Fabricius was born as Georg Goldschmidt in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt (); ; ) is the third-largest city in the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden, and the fourth-largest city in the area of former East Germany after (East Be ...

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

on 23 April 1516.. He was educated at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

. In 1546 he was appointed rector of Saint Afra in

Meissen Meissen ( ), is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden and 75 km (46 mi) west of Bautzen on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, th ...

. Travelling in Italy with one of his pupils, he made an exhaustive study of the antiquities of

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

. In 1549 Fabricius edited the first short selection of Roman inscriptions focusing specifically on legal texts. This was a key moment in the history of classical

epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...

: for the first time in print a humanist explicitly demonstrated the value of such

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

remains for the discipline of law, and implicitly accorded texts inscribed in stone as authoritative a status as those recorded in manuscripts. He published fuller results in his ''Roma'', in which the correspondence between every discoverable relic of the old city and the references to them in ancient literature was traced in detail. In his sacred poems he affected to avoid every word with the slightest savour of paganism; and he blamed the poets for their allusions to pagan divinities. He encouraged music at his school, although he was not himself a musician. Some of his writings were set to music by composers such as Martin Agricola, Johann Walter, Mattheus Le Maistre, Antonio Scandello, and Wolfgang Figulus. Fabricius died at

on 17 July 1571.

Works

Fabricius was a prolific author. Editions of Fabricius's own works include: * , Wittenberg 1545, Basel 1552. * , Strasburg 1546, 1551, Köln 1561, 1564, Leipzig 1560. * , Leipzig 1547, Basel 1550. * , Leipzig 1548, 1563, 1565, 1572, 1575, 1576, 1582, Köln 1555, 1562, 1565, Dortmund 1565, Nürnberg 1556. * , Basel 1549, 1560 ( Johannes Oporinus). * , Strasburg 1549. * , Leipzig 1549, 1560, 1562, 1564, 1570, Köln 1573, Düsseldorf 1558. * , Basel 1551. * , Leipzig 1551. * , Leipzig 1553. * , Leipzig 1552, Basel 1553. * , Leipzig 1553. * , Leipzig 1553. * , Leipzig 1554, 1560, 1571, 1589, Basel 1555. * , Leipzig 1556, 1560. * , Basel 1560. * , Basel 1560. * , Basel 1562, 1564. * , Leipzig 1564, 1571, 1572, 1580, 1582, 1590. * , Basel 1564. * , Leipzig 1565. * , Basel 1565. * , Leipzig 1566. * , Leipzig 1566, 1571, 1578, 1580, 1584, 1589. * , Basel 1567. * , Leipzig 1568. * , Leipzig 1569, Jena 1598. * , Leipzig 1569. * , Dresden 1570. * , Dresden 1570. * , Leipzig 1574, 1580, 1582. * , Leipzig 1584, Strasburg 1584. * , Leipzig 1597, posthumous. * , Leipzig 1609, posthumous. He also produced editions of the following works with his own commentaries: *

Vergil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the ''Eclogues'' ...

. Leipzig 1548, 1551, 1553, Basel 1561. *

Terence Publius Terentius Afer (; – ), better known in English as Terence (), was a playwright during the Roman Republic. He was the author of six Roman comedy, comedies based on Greek comedy, Greek originals by Menander or Apollodorus of Carystus. A ...

. Strasburg 1549. * Seneca's ''Tragödien''. Leipzig 1566. *

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

. Leipzig 1571. *

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

. Köln 1576. His letters have also been posthumously published. His "In Praise of Georgius Agricola" includes the quote "Death comes to all but great achievements raise a monument which shall endure until the sun grows old."

Legacy

A life of Georg Fabricius was published in 1839 by D. K. W. Baumgarten-Crusius, who in 1845 also issued an edition of Fabricius's ''Epistolae ad W Meurerum et alios aequales'' with a short sketch ''De Vita Ge. Fabricius de gente Fabriciorum''. See also F. Wachter in Ersch and Gruber's ''Allgemeine Encyclopädie''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fabricius, Georg 1516 births 1571 deaths Archaeologists from Leipzig 16th-century German historians German poets German Protestants People from Chemnitz People from the Electorate of Saxony German male poets German male non-fiction writers 16th-century antiquarians