courses of classical learning, but who will follow that step with great pleasure.4 In it there are quotations of CiceroCicero, MartialMartial, Plato’s RespublicaPlatonResp., Apostle PaulPaulus (Apostel), PindarPindar, DemosthenesDemosthenes and CallimachusKallimachos. His vocabulary is relatively pure from medievalisms and imitates ordinary classical style in the Humanistic era. We have to bear in mind that, although at the previous century students in conservative university curricula were usually required to limit their active vocabulary in prose to words employed by CaesarCaesar, Gaius Iulius, Cicero, and LivyLivius, and this standard provided a certain academic discipline, it is seldom sought in an age in which positivistic notions of scholarship have become so prevalent that a man may be accounted a distinguished scholar of Latin without having produced ten lines of original composition in that language. But when Latin is used as an instrument of communication, as it was in humanistic era, it becomes obvious that classical clarity cannot always be attained in the discussion of post-Classical subjects without the use of post-Classical words: for instance editio, versio, typotheta etc. Beyond Camerarius’ great qualification as an eminent writer in Latin language and Ciceronian style, we may again underline the failure of Humanism to establish a literary tradition of its own. Many scholars, by ignoring their own precursors, glanced at their contemporaries and meditated the ancients. Camerarius’ was a conflated style, formed, it would seem, almost entirely by subjective standards, whenever he imitated what pleased him mostly. Anyway, a display of polymatheia and an adhortatio to adolescent pupils to insist on the study of both classical languages but with dignity and pleasure, distill the hardship of literary studies. The most stimulating issue concerning Camerarius’ OratioCamerarius d.Ä., JoachimOratio de studio bonarum literarum atque artium et linguae Graecae ac Latinae is the pending ideological and philological argument aspiring to override pedagogical and aesthetic notions of virtue: the anthem of active Humanism and irreversible optimistic study of classical literature. The whole speech seems addressed to those that were nurturing preparatory schools as entrance to the university tuition, so that they might improve learning through philological acquaintance. It is known that under the names of Lyceum or Gymnasium those German schools gave a more complete knowledge of the two classical languages and perhaps a new thrust to philosophy. The new treatments expanded on many of Erasmus Erasmus von Rotterdam, Desiderius’ ideas and transposed them into different contexts with theological presuppositions. Again for Camerarius the study of classical texts in an academic sense could in no way be separate from their study for reasons of aesthetic appreciation and particularly moral instruction.
This moral signification of classical knowledge enables the transition to the second part of my paper, which could be phrased in the form of a twofold rhetorical question: Should we estimate the biographical events of Camerarius’ life and ascribe him an eminent position in the history of German classical scholarship or render his achievements in a brief note tractable in the pages of a biographical lexicon meant to describe the Humanistic movement?
If encyclopedically lemmatized, Camerarius (actually Joachim Kammermeister) is known as a German Humanist and poet, who came from the family of the Bamberg aldermen Liebhard, but he was generally called Kammermeister, since previous members of his family had held the office of chamberlain (camerarius) to the bishops of Bamberg. He quickly developed a particular interest in Greek, which he studied at Leipzig with the Englishman Richard CrokeCroke, Richard (1489–1558) and the German Petrus MosellanusMosellanus, Petrus (1493–1524), and also at Erfurt and Wittenberg, where he became intimate with Philipp MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp (1497–1560), who remained a lifelong friend. He began studies in Leipzig in 1513 (facultas artium), in Erfurt in 1518 (magister artium 1521) and in Wittenberg in 1521, where he enjoyed a close friendship with MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp and, thus, became a follower and pioneer of the Reformation. In 1526 he went into Prussia, and in the year following was nominated by Melanchthon to fill the office of Greek and Latin professor at the newly-founded college (Egidiengymnasium) in Nuremberg.5 He became professor of rhetoric in 1522, although he often spent long periods in Bamberg and travelling, in 1524 with MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp to Bretten and as LutherLuther, Martin’s emissary to ErasmusErasmus von Rotterdam, Desiderius in Basel. In 1525 he became professor of Greek in Wittenberg, in 1526 rector in Nuremberg, in 1535 professor of Greek at Tübingen, and in 1541 at Leipzig, chiefly teaching Greek and Latin. He evinced an extraordinary passion for that language, and in 1524 put forth his first work, a Latin translation of one of the orations of DemosthenesDemosthenes. Apart from playing an important part in the Reformation movement, his advice was frequently sought by leading men in the economic and scholarly circles of Leipzig in the 16th century. Camerarius’ biography should be treated with respect to that perfect balance between Humanistic teaching and protestant liberalistic views of reorganizing Humanistic discussions about religion and knowledge.6 After being sent as deputy for Nuremberg to the diet of Augsburg, where he helped MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp in drawing up the Augsburg Confession, he was commissioned by Duke Ulrich of WürttembergUlrich (Herzog von Württemberg) in 1535 to reorganize the university of Tübingen and raise the quality of education there, while avoiding the mainstream of the controversies swirling around Württemberg between Reformed and Lutheran fractions, since he was not a major Protestant dogmatician7; in 1541 he rendered a similar service at Leipzig,8 where the remainder of his life was chiefly spent.9 Camerarius was a close friend and student of MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp,10 and was in contact at various times with the circle of classical scholars that included Conrad Mutianus RufusMutianus Rufus, Konrad, Crotus RuveanusRubeanus, Crotus, and Eobanus HessusHessus, Helius Eobanus.11Humelius, Johannes He also maintained a sporadic epistolary friendship with Desiderius ErasmusErasmus von Rotterdam, Desiderius after their meeting in Basel in the summer of 1524,12 but this friendship seems to have been strained but not broken by a conflict between the two in 1535 stemming from a letter (now lost) that ErasmusErasmus von Rotterdam, Desiderius wrote to Eobanus HessusHessus, Helius Eobanus in which he severely criticized Camerarius’ editions of the works of Greek astrologers.13 He produced the first printed Greek edition of Ptolemy’s astrology text, the TetrabiblosPtolemaeus, ClaudiusTetrabiblos, in 1535. It was printed in a quarto format by the publisher FrobenFroben, Johann at Nuremberg along with Camerarius’ translation to Latin of Books I, II and portions of Books III and IV, accompanied with his notes on the first two books, the Greek text of the Centiloquium (Καρπός) and a Latin translation from Iovianus PontanusPontano, Giovanni. An avid believer in astrology, he followed it with a second edition of the TetrabiblosPtolemaeus, ClaudiusTetrabiblos in Greek in 1553, with an accompanying Latin translation by MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp and the Centiloquium (Καρπός) in Latin and Greek. This was printed in Basel, Switzerland in octavo format by Johannes OporinusOporinus, Johannes. During his lifetime Camerarius published widely on a range of subjects, including editions of HomerHomer, SophoclesSophokles, CiceroCicero, and PlautusPlautus; a recent estimate of his output puts the number of books published under his name at “at least 183”, not including minor revisions of works and reprintings.14 He bequeathed his pupils the seal of scholarship and his contemporaries admired his manifold Humanistic activities. For example, the French eminent scholar Adrianus TurnebusTurnebus, Adrianus (1512–1565) seems to have thought highly of Camerarius and their correspondence is an attested evidence of scholarly intercourse between France and Germany; adjusting to StählinStählin, Friedrich’s observation that the progressive influence of the new scholarship in France upon scholarship in Germany and in other countries was a decisive fact. Rudolf Pfeiffer extended this observation by presenting two exemplary cases about MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp’s pupils and friends, and more specifically those of Camerarius and of Hieronymus WolfWolf, Hieronymus,15 both teachers of distinction and heads of the newly founded Protestant schools in Nuremberg and Augsburg respectively; both scholars superior to MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp, and both great editors. Surprisingly the histories of classical scholarship do not provide the readers with a certain evaluation of Camerarius’ philological greatness: Wilamowitz mentions Camerarius’ friendship with MelanchthonMelanchthon, Philipp,16 Conrad Bursian Camerarius’ major works and John Edwin Sandys offers a short cv along with the mentioning of Camerarius’ major works.17 But Camerarius was the most important German philologist of the 16th century. His first editions are still important today, as are his editions based on manuscript material much improved in comparison to others’ earlier attempts. His editio
