Hieronymus Balbus

Who was Hieronymus Balbus?

Hieronymus Balbus was a Renaissance Humanist, poet, diplomat, and Bishop of Gurk in Carinthia, b. about 1450 in Venice; d. there, probably 1535.

He was a pupil of Julius Pomponius Laetus, the founder of the Roman Academy. As a young man, he was reportedly of a quarrelsome disposition, and, for a time, led a very loose life. But in later years he was highly respected and came to be regarded as one of the most accomplished men of his day. In 1485 he was professor at the University of Paris. His overbearing manner here soon brought him into conflict with various scholars, and in consequence of the attack which these men made on his character, he was obliged to leave Paris in 1491. A few years later, at the invitation of Emperor Maximilian I, he went to the University of Vienna, where he lectured on poetry, the Roman classics, and jurisprudence. He was again in Paris, for a short period, in 1495, and visited London in 1496, but resumed his professorship in Vienna in 1497. Here he became a member of the Danube Society, and lived on terms of close friendship with its founder, Conrad Celtes the Humanist, at that time professor and librarian at the University of Vienna. In little less than a year, renewed contentions with his colleagues forced him to quit Vienna. Balbus next went to Prague, where he accepted a professorship which had been obtained for him by his Viennese friends. But his irregular conduct, scandalous writings, and disputatious temper soon drove him from the city. On leaving Prague he withdrew to Hungary, and remained in retirement for a period of fifteen years, during which time he changed his manner of life completely, and even took religious orders. His subsequent career as an ecclesiastic was one of considerable distinction. He became provost of the Cathedral Chapter in Waizen, 1515, later also of that in Bratislava, and, for some years, held an important position at the Court of Hungary, where he was tutor of the royal princes, and private secretary to the king, Ladislaus VI.