Adam Lonicer

Adam Lonicer, Adam Lonitzer or Adamus Lonicerus 10 October 1528 Marburg - 29 May 1586 Frankfurt-am-Main, was a German botanist, noted for his 1577 revised version of Eucharius Rösslin’s herbal.

The son of a theologian and philologist [http://books.google.com/books?id=XeqWOkKYn28C&pg=PA138&lpg=PA138&dq=%22adam+lonicer%22&source=web&ots=hdEp0a9vcP&sig=_aqik5k2onJJZ3CCOJJKPTUGcU8] , Lonicer studied at Marburg and the University of Mainz, was a student of Conrad Gessner, and obtained his Magister degree at sixteen years of age. He became professor of Mathematics at the University of Marburg in 1553 and Doctor of Medicine in 1554, becoming the town physician in Frankfurt-am-Main. His true interest though was herbs and the study of botany. His first important work on herbs, the "Kräuterbuch", was published in 1557, a large part dealing with distillation. Lonicer acknowledged his sources for the book, crediting Jean Ruelle (1474-1537), Valerius Cordus, Pietro Andrea Mattioli, Hieronymus Braunschweig and Conrad Gessner.

Lonicer married Magdalena Egenolff, the daughter of his Frankfurt publisher, Christian Egenolff. Christian Egenolff died in 1555, and Lonicer became a director of the firm, publishing no fewer than four editions of the "Kräuterbuch" between 1557 and 1577.

The genus "Lonicera" in the family Caprifoliaceae is named in his honour.

Publications

1557 "Kräuterbuch und Künstliche Conterfeytunge der Bäume, Stauden, Hecken, Kräuter, Getreyde, Gewürtze . . .", Frankfurt: Christian Egenolff

External links and sources

* [http://www.cultor.org/Gallery/ArteOccidentale/Coturnix/Coturnix.html ArteOccidentale]
* [http://www.sil.si.edu/imagegalaxy/imageGalaxy_MoreImages.cfm?book_id=SIL30-01 Smithsonian Institution Libraries]

References

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