Johannes Schefferus

Johannes Schefferus (February 2, 1621 - March 26, 1679) was born in Strassburg, the present Strasbourg, in present-day France (at that time it was part of the Holy Roman Empire, and outside of France).

Schefferus came from a patrician German family (Scheffer), studied at university there and briefly in Leiden, and was in 1648 made professor Skytteanus of Eloquence and Government at Uppsala University, a post he held until his death in 1679.

He was one of the most important Swedish humanist at that time. Schefferus also spend time on old texts and archaeology studies. His De orbibus tribus aureis became the first publication on Swedish archaeology. The story of Saami, Acta Lapponica / Lapponia (1673) became popular around Europe but was not translated into Swedish before 1956. His postum publication, Suecia literata / The Learned Sweden (1680) is a Swedish history of science bibliography.

He was late in life involved in an intellectual dispute with (in particular) Olof Verelius (1618-1682) over the localation of the Temple at Uppsala. He argued that the temple should be found near the current location of Helga Trefaldighets kyrka (Church of the Holy Trinity) in Uppsala. It is today known that his opponents usually used forgery to meet his argumentation (this was presumably the cause parts of the the largest survived Gothic text, Codex Argenteus, were retouched.)

He married 1648 with Regina Loccenia and had two sons (see Scheffer). He died in March 26, 1679.

sv:Johannes Schefferus