Thomas Platter
Encyclopedia
Grächen
Grächen is a municipality in the district of Visp in the canton of Valais in Switzerland.The village is situated at an altitude of on a terrace above St. Niklaus in the Mattertal, north of the Mischabel range .-History:...
, Valais
Valais
The Valais is one of the 26 cantons of Switzerland in the southwestern part of the country, around the valley of the Rhône from its headwaters to Lake Geneva, separating the Pennine Alps from the Bernese Alps. The canton is one of the drier parts of Switzerland in its central Rhône valley...
– 26 January 1582, Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
) was a Swiss humanist
Renaissance humanism
Renaissance humanism was an activity of cultural and educational reform engaged by scholars, writers, and civic leaders who are today known as Renaissance humanists. It developed during the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth centuries, and was a response to the challenge of Mediæval...
scholar and writer.
His sons Felix Platter and Thomas Platter the Younger
Thomas Platter the Younger
Thomas Platter the Younger was a Swiss-born physician, traveller and diarist, the son of the humanist Thomas Platter the Elder....
both studied medicine, a thwarted ambition of Platter's own early life. Platter the Younger also kept a diary of travels in England which provided Shakespearean scholars with evidence for the dating of certain Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
plays. He wrote: "England is a woman's paradise and a servant's prison" (a quotation from publication by Thomas Platter the Younger, written in October 1599).
Thomas Platter (the Elder) was a master of several languages, knowing Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, among others. He grew up in poverty and, as a student, made a prolonged tour through Germany. After his return he first lived in Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, where he was an assistant to reformator Huldrych Zwingli
Huldrych Zwingli
Ulrich Zwingli was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland. Born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system, he attended the University of Vienna and the University of Basel, a scholarly centre of humanism...
. In 1531 he was an eye-witness of the Battle of Kappel, when Huldrych Zwingli was killed. Considering the political situation in Zürich after this war, he left for Basel, together with his paternal friend and mentor, the Protestant theologian Oswald Myconius
Oswald Myconius
Oswald Myconius was a follower of Huldrych Zwingli.He was born at Lucerne, Switzerland. His family name was Geisshüsler, and his father was a miller; hence he was also called Molitoris...
. In Basel he earned himself a reputation as an early teacher of ancient languages and humanist studies. Together with Johannes Oporin and Ruprecht Winter he led a printing house and published a large variety of classical editions.
His autobiography mostly deals with his youth and the history of how he became a well-known humanist scholar. It was read by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...
, and is one of the finest examples of the German autobiography of this time.