Matthias Garbitius

Matthias Garbitius or Matija Grbić (also Matthias Illyricus; around 1505 – 1559) was a German humanist, classical philologist and translator. Born in Istria, he emigrated to Nuremberg. Between 1545 and 1557 he was the dean of the philosophical faculty at the University of Tübingen.

Because of his evangelical sentiments, he had to put up with professional criticism at a church visit in Tübingen. Nevertheless, he remained in office until the end of his life. Between 1545 and 1557 he was the dean of the philosophical faculty (facultas artium) at the University of Tübingen.

He helped Matthias Flacius when the latter moved to Tübingen, receiving him into his house. Flacius, who was from Labin (Albona), Istria, called him "fellow countryman" (conterraneous) in his writings. Melanchthon referred to him as a compatriot of Jerome, who is believed to have been born in the Istrian peninsula. He tried to assist his young protégé in the same way as Melanchthon and Camerarius had assisted him, introducing Flacius to many prominent people. Both he and Camerarius saw potential in Flacius, and together they decided to send him to Wittenberg to continue his studies there.

He didn't take sides in the conflict between Flacius and Melanchthon of the 1550s, but rather "stayed neutral, and therefore exercised a more irenic spirit."

He translated Hesiod's poem Works and Days into Latin (Basel 1559), and Aeschylus' Prometheus (Basel 1559) with extensive philological and cultural commentaries. He translated and commented two other works from Greek into Latin, which were published posthumously: Aristeae, De Legis Divinae et Hebraica lingua in Graecam translatione (Basel 1561) and Dionysius Halicarnasseus, De Thucydidis historia (Basel 1579). He composed occasional speeches, of which he published an introduction to his lectures on morality, Oratio et docrina morum et vitae (Tübingen 1545), and a speech on Hippocrates, Oratio de vita, moribus, doctrina et professione Hippocratis (Tübingen 1546).