Johannes Oporinus

Johannes Oporinus (also Johannes Oporin; Latinised from the original German name: Johannes Herbster or Hans Herbst) (25 January 1507 – 7 July 1568) was a humanist printer in Basel.

Life Johannes Oporinus, the son of the painter Hans Herbst, was born in Basel. He completed his academic training in Strasbourg and Basel. After working as a teacher in the Cistercian convent of St. Urban, he returned to Basel, where he taught at the school of Leonhard.

The most important publication of his workshop was the anatomical atlas De humani corporis fabrica by the humanist physician Andreas Vesalius, in 1543. In October 1546 a book on the assassination of the Spanish Protestant Juan Díaz, entitled Historia vera de morti sancti viri Ioannis Diazii Hispanics [...] by Claudium Senarclaeum, was published by his workshop, which is attributed to Francisco de Enzinas.

In addition, his press published numerous polemical theological works, classics, and historiographical works. His fine knowledge of ancient languages served the quality of consistently correct textual editions. Oporinus later printed a work on church history by Matthias Flacius Illyricus: Catalogus testium veritatis (1556) and the first eleven (1559–1567) of Wigand's thirteen Magdeburg Centuries. In 1559 he published the complete editio princeps of Diodorus Siculus' Bibliotheca historica. Before he died, he planned to publish the first Bible in the Spanish language, for which Casiodoro de Reina paid 400 guilders in advance. But Oporinus died before the bible was able to go into print. He was married four times, each time with a widow. The third wife was a sister of the publisher Johan Hervagius the younger (died 1564) and the fourth a sister of Basilius Amerbach. Theodor Zwinger was his nephew. His manuscript collection and his extensive correspondence are preserved in the Basel University Library.