After studying theology and philosophy at the University of Mainz, Brunfels entered a Carthusian monastery in Mainz and later resettled to another Carthusian monastery at Königshofen near Straßburg. In Straßburg he got in contact with a learned lawyer Nikolaus Gerbel (they met in person in 1519). Gerbel drew Brunfels' attention to the healing powers of plants and thus gave the impetus to the further botanical investigations.
Helloborus niger from Herbarum vivae eicones
After the conversion to the protestantism (he was supported by Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten), upon the insistence of the Dean of Frankfurt Johann Indagine, Brunfels became a minister at Steinau an der Straße (1521) and later, in Neuenburg am Rhein. After that he served for eight years as the head of a Carmelite school in Straßburg. In the list of most important heretics published by the order of the Emperor by the University of Leuven (1550), Brunfels was listed first.
In one of his works he defended Ulrich von Hutten against Erasmus of Rotterdam and published the manuscripts from the Jan Hus heritage. Brunfels' Catalogi virorum illustrium1527 is considered to be the first book on the history of evangelical Church.
After his friend Ulrich von Hutten had died (1523), Brunfels' religious views brought him into a controversy with Martin Luther and Huldrych Zwingli. Later on he began to study medicine at the University of Basel, (M.D.1530). In 1532 Brunfels became a City physician in Bern, where he stayed till the end of his life.
Besides of his numerous theological works, Brunfels published treatises on pedagogics, Arabic language, pharmaceutics, and botany. He is often called a father of botany, because, in his botanical writings, he relied not so much on the ancient authors as on his own observations and described plants according to the latter. In his Herbarium vivae icones (1530 and 1536, in three parts) and Contrafayt Kräuterbuch (1532-1537, in two parts), the German plants he himself found during his botanical studies are represented with woodcuts (by Hans Weiditz) under their Germanvernacular names. However, Duane Isely attributes much of Brunfels' popularity to Weiditz, whose woodcuts set a new standard technically, and were done from life, rather being copied from previous works. Brunfels also introduced information about German plants not found in Dioscorides, and described them independently of their medical values, although the descriptions are often poorly-written.
A plant genus Brunfelsia (Solanaceae) is named after him.
Works
Plate from Herbarium vivae eicones
Othonis Brvnfelsii Pro Vlricho Hutteno defuncto ad Erasmi Roter. Spongiam Responsio (1523)
Processus consistorialis Martyrii Io. Huss (1524); German edition: Geistl. Bluthandel Iohannis Hussz zu Constenz (1524 or 1525)
Catalogi virorum illustrium veteris et novi testamenti (1527)
Catechesis puerorum in fide, in literis et in moribus (1529)
Herbarum vivae eicones, 3 Bde. (1530-36)
Catalogus illustrium medicorum seu de primis medicinae scriptoribus (1530)
Iatron medicamentorum simplicium (1533)
Contrafayt Kreüterbuch (mit naturgetreuen Abb. v. Hans Weiditz), 2 Vol., (1532-1537)
Onomastikon medicinae, continens omnia nomina herbarum, fruticum etc. (1534)
Epitome medices, summam totius medicinae complectens (1540)
In Dioscoridis historiam plantarum certissima adaptatio (1543)
Sources
Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888-1889
Jahn, I. Geschichte der Biologie. Spektrum 2000
Mägdefrau, K. Geschichte der Botanik. Fischer 1992
Duane Isely, One hundred and one botanists (Iowa State University Press, 1994), pp. 17-19
