been tutor of John II’s son, the future Charles V. Partly
because of his royal connections, Oresme obtained
church offi ces, becoming canon at Rouen (1362), canon
at the Sainte-Chapelle (1363), dean of the cathedral of
Rouen (1364), and bishop of Lisieux (1377).
Oresme’s writings demonstrate his wide learning.
His mathematical and scientifi c works, such as De
proportionibus proportionum, De confi gurationibus
qualitatum et motuum, and De commensurabilitate vel
incommensurabilitate motuum celi, are important for
their treatment of fractional exponents, their graphic
representation of mathematical functions, and their
sophisticated discussions of mechanics and astronomy.
Oresme also used his learning, in such treatises as Con-
tra judiciarios astronomos, Livre de divinacions, and De
causis mirabilium, to attack the “misuse” of science,
especially by the astrologers.
Certain of Oresme’s works were written explicitly for
the royal family. His economic treatise, De mutationibus
monetarum, was composed during the 1350s for John II.
In the late 1360s, Charles V asked Oresme to translate
the Latin versions of four Aristotelian texts, the Ethics,
the Politics, the pseudo-Aristotelian Economics, and
De caelo et mundo. Oresme’s vernacular translations
helped to create a fl exible French prose and to expand
the French vocabulary, introducing as many as 1,000
new words.
Oresme has often been seen as anticipating modernity:
in certain ways, his astronomy foreshadows Copernicus,
Galileo, and Kepler, and his mathematics Descartes; his
economics may anticipate Gresham’s Law. But Oresme
is perhaps most impressive in his ability to summarize
and synthesize logically and intelligently, all the while
advancing the important theories of his age.
See also Charles V the Wise
Further Reading
Oresme, Nicole. De proportionibus proportionum and Ad pauca
respicientes, ed. and trans. Edward Grant. Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press, 1966.
——. Le livre de politiques d’Aristote, ed. Albert Douglas Menut.
Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1970.
——. Nicole Oresme and the Medieval Geometry of Qualities
and Motions: A Treatise on the Uniformity and Difformity of
Intensities Known as Tractatus de confi gurationibus quali-
tatum et motuum, ed. and trans. Marshall Clagett. Madison:
University of Wisconsin Press, 1968.
Hansen, Bert, ed. and trans. Nicole Oresme and the Marvels of
Nature: A Study of His De causis mirabilium with Critical
Edition, Translation, and Commentary. Toronto: Pontifi cal
Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1985.
Menut, Albert Douglas. “A Provisional Bibliography of Oresme’s
Writings.” Mediaeval Studies 28 (1966): 279–99; supplemen-
tary note, 31 (1969): 346–47.
Steven F. Kruger
OSWALD VON WOLKENSTEIN
(1376 or 1377–1445)
No other medieval German poet is better known to us
today than the South Tyrolean Oswald von Wolkenstein.
Apart from amazingly concrete autobiographical refer-
ences contained in his large oeuvre of 133 songs, the
poet also left a vast number of historical traces in more
than one thousand still extant documents. Even though
the poetic statements about his own life have often to be
taken as tongue-in-cheek and as topical in nature, recent
research by Anton Schwob and others who have studied
the archival material has confi rmed most of Oswald’s
claims in his songs regarding his personal experiences.
Born as the second son of an aristocratic South Tyro-
lean family, Oswald had to struggle for many years to
establish his own existence both on the local and the
international level. In 1401 he participated in a military
campaign in Italy of the German King Ruprecht of the
Palatinate; in 1410 he went on a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land; between 1413 and 1415 he served Bishop Ulrich
of Brixen and subsequently joined the diplomatic service
of King Sigis-mund, with whom he traveled through
western Europe. In 1417 Oswald married Margaretha
von Schwangau and thus gained the rank of an impe-
rial knight. In 1420–1421 he participated in one of the
several wars against the always victorious Hussites,
but in one of his songs (“Kl[ein]. [no.] 27”) Oswald
ridiculed the opponents. In the following years the poet
was involved in many struggles and military confl icts
with his neighbors, both peasants and aristocrats, and so
also with the duke of Tyrol, Frederick IV of Habsburg.
A major bone of contention was the castle Hauenstein
in Seis am Schlern, to which Oswald had only a partial
claim but which he took in his total possession after his
marriage. At one point he even ended up in the ducal
prison (1421–1422) and had to pay a huge ransom to be
released. Although Oswald’s power position improved
over the next years to some degree, he was imprisoned
again in 1427 and then had fi nally to submit under the
centralized government of Duke Frederick. In 1429
Oswald joined the secret but highly infl uential court
of justice, Feme, which was active all over Germany,
and he also managed to consolidate his power base
back home through manifold political connections and
public services. In recognition of his accomplishments
as diplomat and imperial servant, Oswald was inducted
into the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In 1432 King Si-
gismund, while he stayed in northern Italy, called him
into his service again and soon after sent him as one
of his representatives to the Council of Basel. In 1433
Oswald probably witnessed the coronation of Sigismund
as emperor at the hand of Pope Eugene IV in Rome. In
1434 Oswald participated in the imperial diet of Ulm,
where Sigismund commissioned him to collect fi nesOSWALD VON WOLKENSTEIN