Petrus Ryff

Petrus Ryff
Born May 8, 1552
Basel, Swiss Confederacy
Died May 19, 1629
Basel, Swiss Confederacy
Nationality Swiss
Alma mater University of Basel (M.D. 1584)
Thesis De affectibus cordis (1584)
Doctoral advisor Felix Plater[1]
Doctoral students Emmanuel Stupanus
Influences Theodor Zwinger

Petrus Ryff (or Ryffius) (Basel German pronunciation: [rif]; May 8, 1552 – May 19, 1629) was a Swiss mathematician, physician and chronicler from Basel.

Life and work

Petrus Ryff was born in Basel, Switzerland. He was the son of Daniel Ryff (1529–1612), and Ursula Zimmermann,[2] and the grandnephew of Basler chronicler Fridolin Ryff.

Petrus Ryff enrolled in the University of his hometown in 1569; he received the Baccalaureus in 1572 and the Magister Philosophiae degree in 1576. He continued to study Medicine, following the lectures of Theodor Zwinger, Thomas Erastus, Felix Plater, and Johann Nicolaus Stupanus. He was awarded the degree of Medical Doctor in 1584. After that he practiced medicine for a few years, until he succeeded Christian Wursteisen as Professor of Mathematics at the University of Basel in 1586, a position he held until his death in 1629. In 1596 he became a Consultant of the School of Medicine, where he was an active member and 7 times Dean.[3]

He was the author of several books of mathematics, astronomy, and astrology. Among the last is a prognostication for 1594.[4] However, Petrus Ryff is best remembered for continuing and publishing the Basler Chronicles his granduncle Fridolin Ryff maintained between 1514 and 1541.[5][6] After Fridolin died the chronicles were bequeathed to his daughter Magdalena, who passed them on to Petrus Ryff. He continued the chronicles from 1543–1585, and in 1585 he published the chronicles. The Basler Chroniken were edited and re-published in 1872 by the Historische und Antiquarische Gesellschaft zu Basel. They provide an invaluable source of information about the history of Basel, and that part of Europe in the 16th century.

Selected works

References

  1. ↑ Petrus Ryff's Neurotree profile
  2. ↑ Stroux, Ulrich. "Genealogie der Familie Stroux - Speiser" (PDF). Retrieved 10 December 2008.
  3. ↑ Miescher, Friedrich (1860). Die Medizinische Facultät in Basel und ihr Aufschwung unter F. Plater und C. Bauhin, mit dem Lebensbilde von Felix Plater. Basel: Schweighauser. p. 28. OCLC 245533138.
  4. ↑ Thorndike, Lynn (1943). "Chapter XXXIII Astrology after 1550". A History of Magic and Experimental Science: Volumes V and VI, the Sixteenth Century. Columbia University Press. p. 143. ISBN 0-231-08795-0.
  5. ↑ Vischer, Wilhelm; Alfred Stern (1872). Basler Chroniken. Leipzig: Hirzel, Historische und Antiquarische Gesellschaft zu Basel. p. 13. OCLC 19455191.
  6. ↑ Thommen, Rudolf (1889). Geschichte der Universität Basel, 1532-1632. Basel: C. Detloffs. p. 279. OCLC 3548482.

Further reading

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