Johann Philipp Abelin
Encyclopedia
Johann Philipp Abelin was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 chronicler whose career straddled the 16th and 17th centuries. He was born, probably, at Strasbourg
Strasbourg
Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

, and died there between 1634 and 1637. He wrote numerous histories under the pseudonyms of Abeleus, Philipp Arlanibäus, Johann Ludwig Gottfried and Gotofredus.

He worked mainly as a translator for the publishing house of Lucas Jennisius, Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian
Matthäus Merian der Ältere was a Swiss-born engraver who worked in Frankfurt for most of his career, where he also ran a publishing house.-Early life and marriage:...

 and Friedrich Hulsius in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

. Some of his works, such as a history of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, proved later to be mere translations. His own works consisted mainly of compilations of historical records, but met the likings of the time.

Publications

Translations:
  • Historia Antipodum, 1655, a history of the West Indies
  • Archontologia Cosmicum, translation and revision of Petrus d'Avirth's Monde.

Proprietary works:
  • Arma Suecica, 1631–1634, in 12 parts, describing the history of the wars of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
    Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden
    Gustav II Adolf has been widely known in English by his Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus Magnus and variously in historical writings also as Gustavus, or Gustavus the Great, or Gustav Adolph the Great,...

  • Inventarium Sueciae, 1632


Both are compilations of the contemporary records and letters about the events of the war without further historical commentary.
In the same style, he later published his best known work
  • Theatrum Europaeum, a series of chronicles of the chief events in the history of the world down to 1619, reedited, updated and republished several times, including a translation into Dutch
    Dutch language
    Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...

    .


He was himself responsible for the first two volumes. It was continued by various writers and grew to twenty-one volumes (1633–1738), including illustrations by the beautiful copperplate engravings of Matthäus Merian (1593–1650).

Sources

  • Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie - online version at Wikisource
    Wikisource
    Wikisource is an online digital library of free content textual sources on a wiki, operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aims are to host all forms of free text, in many languages, and translations. Originally conceived as an archive to store useful or important historical texts, it has...

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