Johann Alexander Brassicanus (c.1500 – 25 November 1539) was a German Catholic humanist, author and prominent professor. Family and early life He was born probably at Cannstatt, 1500, as a member of an ancient family of Konstanz, named Köl or Köll, Latinized Brassicanus (both meaning 'cabbage'), his father was Johannes Brassicanus, the Württemberg humanist who taught in the Latin school at Urach up to 1508, and later in the pedagogium at Tübingen, but was chiefly known as a leader in the movement for the promotion of the humanities and as the author of a grammar then widely used, "Institutiones grammaticae", thirteen editions of which were issued between 1508 and 1519. From his father, who died at Wildaad in 1514, Johann Alexander received an excellent education, which brought his intellectual powers to at early maturity, enabling him to matriculate at the University of Tübingen 13 January 1514 and take his degree as Master of Arts in 1517. His younger brother was Johann Ludwig Brassicanus, an advisor to the Habsburgs. Literary work About the time of his graduation he first gave evidence of his fertile poetic powers, and in 1518 he received the title of Poeta et orator laureatus. His coronation as poet must have taken place early in 1518, Emperor Maximilian at the same time granting him a coat of arms. The greatest humanists of the time kept in correspondence with Brassicanus and praised his intellectual powers. He lectured for a short time before the Faculty of Arts on the Latin poets; he also edited the eclogues of Calpurnius and Nemesianus which he had discovered. Career When, after Bebel's death in 1516, a reaction once more set in against humanism, he availed himself of the first opportunity to absent himself temporarily from the scene of his former labours. In 1519 he attached himself to the suite of the royal orator Maximilian von Bergen, who was sent on various diplomatic missions by the king. After a sojourn in the Netherlands (1520) Brassicanus returned to Tübingen (1621) to pursue his study of law in connection with his work as a teacher. In this way he was brought into intimate relations with Ingolstadt, he received there the degree of Doctor of Laws, also succeeding Reuchlin in the important chair of philology (1522). His position in this stronghold of Catholicism soon became untenable, as he, like so many orthodox minds of the time who openly