Theodor Zwinger

Theodor Zwinger the Elder was a Swiss physician and Renaissance humanist scholar of the sixteenth century, the first distinguished member of a prominent academic family of Basel. He studied at Basel, Lyon and Paris and took his doctorate in medicine at Padua. From 1559 he belonged to the medical faculty at Basel, where he held chairs in Greek, ethics and finally theoretical medicine. Although first hostile to Paracelsus, he later took an interest in Paracelsian medical theory. He edited the encyclopedia Theatrum Humanae Vitae, which appeared in several editions between 1565 and 1604 and was a large collection of knowledge, and he also contributed to reference and travel literature.