Camerarius (Camermeister), Joachim

CAMERARIUS, cɑ̄´´mê-ra´ri-us (CAMERMEISTER), JOACHIM: Protestant humanist; b. at Bamberg Apr. 12, 1500; d. at Leipsic Apr. 17, 1574. He was descended from an old Bamberg family and was educated there till his thirteenth year, when his parents sent him to the University of Leipsic, where he devoted himself chiefly to the study of Greek under Richard Crocus, Johann Metzler, and Peter Mosellanus. Subsequently he removed to the University of Erfurt, where he joined the circle of the humanists, became master of arts (1520), and was highly esteemed and admired for his knowledge of Greek. In 1521 he went to the University of Wittenberg, where he became intimately acquainted with Melanchthon. In 1525 he accompanied Melanchthon on his journey to the Palatinate, and thence proceeded to Basel to pay homage to Erasmus. In the same year he left Wittenberg and went to Bamberg. From here he accompanied Canon Fuchs on a journey to Prussia (1525) and in 1526 was called, upon recommendation of Melanchthon, to the gymnasium of Nuremberg as teacher of Greek and expounder of the Latin historians. A visit to Melanchthon at Speyer in 1529 during the diet held at that city brought him into immediate contact with the ecclesiastical and political affairs of the time; he also took part in the Diet of Augsburg in 1535. Conditions at Nuremberg did not satisfy him, although he had intercourse with men like W. Pirkheimer, W. Linck, Osiander, Lazarus Spengler, and Albrecht Dürer. As early as 1528 he complained of the coldness and indifference toward the humanistic sciences on the part of his contemporaries. His school also did not make progress, and in 1535 he gladly followed a call to Tübingen, where he found a fruitful field for his activity as teacher. In 1541 he removed to Leipsic. Although Camerarius took part in the ecclesiastical dissensions of the time, his chief importance lies in the field of humanism and pedagogics. In his first pedagogical treatise Præcepta honestatis atque decoris puerilis (1528) he emphasized as a true disciple of Melanchthon humanistic education as a necessary preparation for all later vocations, but humanistic education, as he holds, has its foundation in the reverence of God. In accordance with his view that the Christian religion should be taught alongside of the rudiments of the languages, he edited the chief articles of Christianity in Greek hexameters, translated the Augsburg Confession into Greek and composed a catechism in the same language. His biographical works are of great value as sources, and show that he was a keen observer, especially his Narratio de Eobano Hesso, etc. (Nuremberg, 1553), Narratio de Georgio Principe Anhtaltino (Leipsic, 1555), and his famous writing De Philippi Melanchthonis ortu, totius vitæ curriculo et morte, implicata rerum memorabilium temporis illius hominumque mentione . . . narratio (Leipsic, 1566; best ed. with copious notes by S. T. Strobel, Halle, 1777; the text reprinted by A. F. Neander, Berlin, 1841). Another prominent work, measured by the standards of his time, is his Historica narratio de Fratrum Orthodoxorum ecclesiis in Bohemia, Moravia et Polonia, which was first edited in 1605 by his grandson Joachim Ludwig Camerarius and is still valuable. Camerarius also edited (though badly) the letters of Melanchthon (Leipsic, 1569), and rendered great services to historical research by his collection of letters from the time of the Reformation, which was continued by his son.

(T. Kolde.)

Bibliography: E. C. Bezzel, Joachim Camerarius, Nuremberg, 1793; H. J. Kämmel, Joachim Camerarius in Nürnberg, Zittau, 1862; F. Seckt, Ueber einige theologischen Schriften des J. Camerarius, Berlin, 1888; KL, ii. 1758–1761; ADB, iii. 720 sqq.