The Correspondence of Amand Polan von Polansdorf

Amand Polan von Polansdorf (1561–1610), known also as Amandus Polanus, was a Calvinist theologian born in Silesia and author of a number of important theological works. He studied in his native Troppau (Opava) and in Breslau (Vratislavia, Wrocław), Tübingen, Basel and Genf (Genève, Geneva) between 1577 and 1584. He later worked as tutor in the Žerotín’s family during the studies of Jan Diviš of Žerotín in Heidelberg and Basel (1584–1590). He also taught briefly at the Brethren school in Ivančice and subsequently travelled to Strasburg and Basel as the teacher of Ladislav Velen of Žerotín. He spent most of his life in Basel, where in 1596 he became professor of the interpretation of the Old Testament. Between 1598-1600 and 1601–1609 he was Dean of the Faculty of Theology and in 1600 and 1609 also Rector of Basel University. His wife was the daughter of the Calvinist divine Johann Jakob Grynaeus, with whom Polan closely cooperated. He corresponded not only with Karel the Elder of Žerotín and Václav Budovec of Budov, but also many scholars of European significance, such as for example the botanist Caspar Bauhin, the theologian Theodor Beza, and the philologist Isaac Casaubon. The aim of the project is to map the correspondence network of this scholar and his links with the Bohemian lands.

The catalogue of the correspondence of Amand Polan von Polansdorf was published for the first time online on the pages of the international database of scholarly correspondence Early Modern Letters Online in 2015 with the support of Miranda Lewis and Marc Kolakowski http://emlo-portal.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/collections/?catalogue=amandus-polanus . The transfer of the catalogue from EMLO to HIKO runs in cooperation with the Oxford University project Cultures of Knowledge sponsored initially by the Andrew W. Melon Foundation and, subsequently, by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council. Its significant expansion and development are supported by the project LINDAT/CLARIAH.CZ. The project team of the Institute of Philosophy of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic consists of Iva Lelková and Marcela Slavíková.