Agricola, Rudolf (1444–1485)

A Dutch scholar and humanist, Rudolf Agricola was born in the town of Bafflo, in the Low Countries (comprising present-day Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands), as Rudolf Huysmann. He studied the works of Cicero and Quintilian at the universities of Erfurt in Germany and Louvain in Belgium, where he became a skilled critic and debater. In 1468, he began study at the University of Pavia, in northern Italy, and in 1475 joined the court of Duke Ercole of Ferrara, who also employed him as a musician. Agricola befriended the leading humanists of Italy, studying and disputing the works of ancient Latin and Greek authors. His first allegiance was to Germany and the Low Countries, however, and he left the duke's court in 1479 to spread his enthusiasm for classical authors to northern Europe. Agricola's restless life was typical of Renaissance scholars and humanists, many of whom wandered from one state, princely court, and university to the next in search of patrons and appointments.

Agricola is best known for his treatise De inventione dialectica (On Dialectical Invention), a manual for teachers of logic and rhetoric. After his death, this work grew popular with scholars and students throughout northern Europe. At the invitation of John of Dahlberg, the Bishop of Worms, in 1482 he became a lecturer at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Over the years Agricola added Hebrew to his knowledge of Greek and Latin, and took up the study of the Old Testament in its original language. He traveled to Rome in 1485 to accompany the embassy of John of Dahlberg to Innocent VIII, the newly elected pope. On this journey Agricola was struck with an illness and died soon after returning to Germany.