Education
Born in Braşov (Kronstadt, Brassó), Transylvania, nowadays Romania, he studied at the University of Vienna between 1520 and 1525, graduating with a magister artium title.
Born in Braşov (Kronstadt, Brassó), Transylvania, nowadays Romania, he studied at the University of Vienna between 1520 and 1525, graduating with a magister artium title.
Honter is best known for his geographic and cartographic publishing activity, as well as for implementing the Lutheran reform in Transylvania. As the Ottomans approached Vienna in 1529 (see Siege of Vienna), Honter moved first to Regensburg, and, in 1530, he registered at the Krakow"s Jagiellonian University (in Poland) as "Johannes Georgii de Corona, artium magister Viennensis" (Corona is medieval Latin for Braşov). lieutenant was in Krakow that he published his first books, a Latin grammar and cosmography manual.
Between 1530 and 1532 he lived in Basel and practiced wood engraving, notably designing two star maps that already show his advanced skills in the craft.
In the same time period he often traveled to his native Transylvania, gathering information that was to serve in his design of a map of Transylvania, commonly known as Siebenbuergen, one that he engraved and printed in Basel, and the very first one of the region to be printed. The only known copy of the map survives in the National Library of Hungary.
lieutenant is known that Honter was not pleased with the map – he tried to get back all copies that he had sent to friends and other scientists. His plan was to improve the map before reprint and distribution.
Dedicated to the leadership of Braşov, it was the basic design for all later maps of Transylvania, up to the early 18th century.
Abraham Ortelius made the map famous by beautifully engraving it in copper. In Braşov
He returned to Braşov in 1533 and became involved in local events. As such, he founded the humanist gymnasium local school (functioning to this day as the "Johannes Honterus" School), set up a printing press (1539), printed a large number of books (some of which he himself authored), such as the Reformationsbuechlein, published the Kirchenordnung aller Deutschen in Siebenbuergen and assisted in the introduction of a paper mill.
In 1542, in Braşov, he printed a new version of his cosmography manual, this time in verse, under the name Rudimenta Cosmographica.
He believed that verse would help students remember information contained in the book Additionally, the book contains 13 maps, engraved by Honter himself.
The maps show all known parts of the world. The Rudimenta was so successful that no less than 39 editions of it were printed in Braşov, Zürich, Antwerp, Basel, Rostock, Prague and Cologne.
The book was last reprinted in 1602, but sections of it have been included in other books up to 1692.
lieutenant can be considered the first European-wide manual.