Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/133

 UNIVERSITIES AND OTHER CENTRES OF LEARNING 121 example of old-fashioned morality and virtue. His conduct and behaviour are, throughout, of Christian purity. None ever part from him without feeling stirred to greater piety by his conversation. I have never come across a nobler or purer soul in Germany. He is a grand man, and Germany can scarcely possess a second like him. If any is worthy of immortality, it is he.' Gregory Eeisch, prior of a Carthusian convent, equally renowned for his theological and philo- sophical learning, was the intimate friend of Zasius. He lectured on cosmography and mathematics, and also gave instruction in the Hebrew language to young men particularly anxious to learn it. He belonged to the school of Eealists, which, through the influence of his friend, George Nordhofer, had gained preponderance at Freiburg from the year 1489. Gregory Eeisch obtained world-wide fame by a work, first published in 1503, under the title of 'Pearls of Philosophy,' and of which the ' Naturspiegel ' (' Mirror of Nature ') of Vincent von Beauvais, the ' Buch der Natur' ('Book of Nature') by the Eatisbon priest, Conrad of Meygenberg, and the ' Weltbild ' (' World's History') by Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, may be considered progenitors. This work of Eeisch's was the first ency- clopaedia of philosophy, and for some time it continued to be reprinted every two or three years, and during half a century it contributed in a remarkable manner to the spread of learning. 1 It dealt principally with mathematical subjects, but music also had a consider- able share of its attention. Eeisch's writings on mine- ralogy, meteorology, and orthography show that he 1 The Hebrew grammar was used in the university in 1461.