Richard Šípek (National Museum Library, Czech Republic)
This paper explores the diary entries of Andreas Aurifaber (1513–1559), a Silesian-born theologian, physician, and professor, who served as personal doctor to Duke Albert of Prussia and taught at the University of Königsberg. His handwritten notes, inscribed into printed astronomical ephemerides, offer a rare autobiographical account from a learned sixteenth-century professional navigating the academic, religious, and political currents of Reformation Europe.
Aurifaber’s annotations span over two decades and include records of personal milestones—his birth, education, family life, professional appointments, and travels. They provide insight into his close ties with leading figures such as Philipp Melanchthon, Katharina Luther, and Joachim Rheticus, and reflect his involvement in contemporary humanist, medical, and astronomical discourses. The blending of Latin and vernacular German in his entries mirrors the multilingual reality of early modern scholarship.
By examining these notes, the paper reconstructs the life and networks of a figure who moved from Wittenberg to Padua and ultimately Königsberg, embodying the mobility and intellectual ambition of his age. Aurifaber’s use of a scientific print medium for recording deeply personal information also sheds light on the intersection of early modern book culture and self-representation.
Rather than presenting a fully developed autobiography, Aurifaber’s diary fragments reveal a scholar negotiating identity, memory, and posterity—leaving us with a vivid, if partial, image of an educated life in motion.