View source for Theodor Zwinger

==Life and work==

Zwinger was the son of Leonhard Zwinger, a furrier who had become a citizen of [[Basel]] in 1526. His mother was Christina Herbster, the sister of [[Johannes Oporinus]] (Herbster) the famed humanist printer. After Zwinger's father's death, Christina married the noted humanist [[Conrad Lycosthenes]] (Wolffhart).

Zwinger studied at the Universities of [[University of Basel|Basel]], [[University of Lyon|Lyon]], and [[University of Paris|Paris]] before taking a doctorate in medicine at the [[University of Padua]] with [[Bassiano Landi]], the successor of [[Johannes Baptista Montanus]].<ref>{{MathGenealogy|id=125148|title=Theodor Zwinger}}</ref> In Paris he studied with the iconoclastic philosopher [[Petrus Ramus]]. He joined the faculty of the University of Basel as a member of the ''consilium facultatis medicae'' from 1559. At Basel he held successively chairs in Greek (1565), Ethics (1571), and finally theoretical medicine (1580).<ref>Miescher, Friedrich (1860), ''Die medizinische Facultät in Basel und ihr Aufschwung unter F. Plater und C. Bauhin: mit dem Lebensbilde von Felix Plater: zur vierten Säcularfeier der Universität Basel'', 6. September 1860. Basel: Schweighauser. pp. 18–19.</ref> While originally hostile to [[Paracelsus]], in his later career he took an interest in [[Paracelsian]] [[medical theory]] for which he experienced some hostility. He associated with Paracelsians such as [[Thomas Moffet]], [[Petrus Severinus]]<ref>Shackelford, Jole, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=D8Lf_NBW3TIC&pg=PA288 A Philosophical Path for Paracelsian Medicine: The Ideas, Intellectual Context, and Influence of Petrus Severinus (1540/2–1602)]'' (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2004), pp. 287–288.</ref> and [[Claude Aubery]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Heubi |first=William |date=1916 |title=L'Académie de Lausanne à la fin du XVIe siècle : étude sur quelques professeurs d'après des documents inédits |url=http://archive.org/details/lacadmiedelaus00heub |access-date=2021-03-05 |location=Lausanne |publisher=F. Rouge |language=fr}}</ref>

Zwinger was the editor of the early encyclopedia ''Theatrum Humanae Vitae'' (editions 1565, 1571, 1586, 1604). The work is considered "perhaps the most comprehensive collection of knowledge to be compiled by a single individual in the early modern period."<ref>Helmut Zedelmaier, "Navigieren im Text-Universum: Theodor Zwingers Theatrum Vitae Humanae," ''Metaphorik'' 14 (2008): 113: "Theodor Zwingers Theatrum vitae humanae ist die vielleicht umfangreichste Wissenssammlung, die ein einzelner Mensch je in der frühen Neuzeit erstellte."</ref> He was able to draw on the knowledge base of his stepfather Conrad Lycosthenes in compiling the ''Theatrum Humanae Vitae''.

A Catholicized version of the ''Theatrum'' entitled the ''Magnum theatrum vitae humanae'' (1631) by [[Lawrence Beyerlinck]] was one of the largest printed [[commonplace book]]s of the early modern era. These two works "may fairly be described as the early modern ancestors of the great ''dictionnaire raisonné'' of the eighteenth-century [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], the ''[[Encyclopédie]]'' of [[Denis Diderot|Diderot]]."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Havens |first1=Earle |title=Commonplace Books: A History of Manuscripts and Printed Books from Antiquity to the Twentieth Century |date=2001 |publisher=Yale University |page=52 |edition=first}}</ref>

=== Personal life ===
He seemed to have a difficult to read handwriting and [[Casiodoro de Reina|Casiodoro de Reyna]] once would have liked to travel from Frankfurt to Basel in order for Zwinger to read de Reyna his own letters.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gilly |first=Carlos |title=Die Manuskripte in der Bibliothek des Johannes Oporinus |publisher=Schwabe Verlag |year=2001 |location=Basel |pages=10 |language=de}}</ref> The house he resided in, is named [[Zwingerhaus|Zwingerhouse]] in his memory.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Möhle |first=Martin |date=2010 |title=Das Zwingerhaus am Nadelberg |url=https://www.e-periodica.ch/cntmng?pid=bzg-002:2010:110::336 |website=[[E-Periodica]] |publisher=Basler Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Altertumskunde |pages=209–211}}</ref> Zwinger's son, [[Jakob Zwinger]], briefly served as his successor as editor of the ''Theatrum''. His descendant [[Theodor Zwinger the Younger]] (1597–1654) was a prominent preacher and theology professor.