Hermann von dem Busche (also Hermannus Buschius or Pasiphilus; 1468–1534) was a German humanist writer, known for his Vallum humanitatis (1518). He was a pupil of Rudolph von Langen.^[1] Vallum humanitatis, sive Humaniorum litterarum contra obrectatores vindiciae (1518) was in effect a manifesto for the humanist movement of the time.

Life

He was born at Sassenberg. He studied at Heidelberg, at Tübingen, and in Italy, where he became versed in Latin.^[2] Among his teachers were Alexander Hegius, Rodolphus Agricola, Pomponius Laetus, and Filippo Beroaldo. He moved back to Munster and the prince-bishop Heinrich von Schwarzburg, but decided to become a jurist and went to study in Cologne.^[3] He was dismissed from teaching posts, in Leipzig (1505) and Erfurt (1507).^[4]

He became involved in controversy in 1509 around Ortwin, a conservative figure of the older generation, with whom he had clashed over textbooks, wanting to use Aelius Donatus.^[5] He has been thought to be one of the authors of the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, an anonymous work that includes satirical attacks on Ortwin; but this is not now generally agreed.^[3][6]

He joined the leaders of the Reformation, was a friend of Ulrich von Hutten, and in 1527 was appointed first professor of classical literature at the University of Marburg, founded in that year by Landgrave Philip the Magnanimous.^[2]

In addition to Vallum Humanitatis, a defense of humanistic studies, he wrote three books of epigrams, and other works.^[2]