Wissenburg, Wolfgang

Wolfgang Wissenburg (1496 - 1575) was a German-Swiss religious reformer, professor, and geographer. He is one of the most important figures of the Basel Reformation. He was the son of weaver and councilor Jakob Suter. He was trained to be a monk, and entered the University of Basel to study theology and Biblical languages; at the recommendation of humanist and geographer Heinrich Glareanus, he added mathematics and geography to his studies. Upon completion of his doctorate, he became a priest and professor, also in Basel. His familial connections to the weavers' guild, a stronghold of the Reformation, brought him in contact with the Reformed Church, and by 1529 we see him as a reformed pastor, a professor of the New Testament at the University, and several times as rector of the university. He was the first clergyman in Basel to celebrate Mass in German. He wrote extensive works, both pertaining to the structure of the Church as well as on strictly theological issues. He is thought to have produced an edition of Ptolemy, with a set of maps worked out by himself, although such a book has not survived. His cartographic work has survived, however, in Descriptio terrae sanctae, a 1536 biblical geography produced in conjunction with Jakob Ziegler, and a map of the Holy Land produced the following year based on the prior work, Descriptio Palestinae nova per Wolfg. Wissenburg Basiliens. Wissenburg's map survives in but a single example, but it provided the basis for copies produced by Matteo Pagano, Giovanni Vavassore, Giovani Micheli, Ferrando Bertelli, and Giovanni Camocio.