Background
Cordus was born in 1486, in Simtshausen, Germany. The youngest of thirteen children of a well-to-do farmer, Euricius took as his surname the nickname “Cordus” (“last-born”).
Valerius Cordus
Nordhäuser Str. 63, 99089 Erfurt, Germany
Cordus studied liberal arts at Erfurt (about 1505 to 1507). In 1516 he received a Master of Arts degree.
Via Savonarola, 9, 44121 Ferrara FE, Italy
In 1521 Cordus went to Ferrara, where that autumn Leoniceno conferred a doctor’s degree on him.
Botanist humanist physician scientist poet
Cordus was born in 1486, in Simtshausen, Germany. The youngest of thirteen children of a well-to-do farmer, Euricius took as his surname the nickname “Cordus” (“last-born”).
Cordus probably attended the schools of Wetter and Frankenberg before beginning his studies in liberal arts at Erfurt (about 1505 to 1507). In 1516 he received a Master of Arts degree.
In 1521 he went to Ferrara, where that autumn Leoniceno conferred a doctor’s degree on him.
In 1517, Cordus became rector of the Abbey School of St. Mary in Erfurt, where he gave lectures on poetry, rhetoric, and the New Testament. His income, however, was not nearly adequate; and so in 1519 he decided to study medicine. In 1521 he went to Ferrara, where that autumn Leoniceno conferred a doctor’s degree on him. He returned to Erfurt and in 1523 accepted an appointment as municipal physician for Brunswick. Four years later he accepted the offer of the Hessian landgrave Philip the Magnanimous and became a professor of medicine at the newly founded (1527) University of Marburg.
In addition to his work at the university and as a general practitioner, Cordus devoted himself to botany, laid out a botanical garden, and was the first German university professor to organize excursions for studying plants. Even though Cordus was twice rector of the Philippina and his position seemed assured, there were repeated disputes with colleagues - partially due, no doubt, to his lively temperament. Weary of the continuous hostility, Cordus resigned in 1533 to spend the last years of his life in Bremen as municipal physician and professor at the Gymnasium.
Even from his work it is difficult to be sure whether Cordus should be regarded more as a poet, as a physician interested in the natural sciences, or as a botanist. His work can be divided in two parts: his poetry, particularly the ten eclogues of pastoral poems (“Buclioca”) written in the style of Vergil and the ironic-humorous epigrams; and his medical and botanical writings, especially his work on the “English sweat” (sweating sickness), the booklet on the preparation of theriaca, and the Botanologicon, as well as the posthumously published De urinis. The Botanologicon is generally considered to be the first attempt at a scientific systematization of plants.
(Latin Edition)
1520In 1508 Cordus married Kunigunde Dunnwald, a daughter of a Frankenberg pharmacist, who bore him eight children. His son, Valerius Cordus, was a botanist, physician, pharmacologist, and naturalist. He wrote the first German pharmacopoeia - a list of medicines with rules on their preparation, composition, and use.