Konrad Pellikan - Works

Works

Pellikan wrote the Chronikon and also translated Hebrew works into Latin, such as Bechji Ben Asher's commentary on the Torah and the work of Pirqe Rabbi Eliezer (Eliezer filius Hircani), the Liber sententiarum Judiacarum, in 1546.

Pellikan's autobiography describes the gradual multiplication of accessible books on the subjects, and he not only studied but translated a vast mass of rabbinical and Talmudic texts, his interest in Jewish literature being mainly philological. The chief fruit of these studies is the vast commentary on the Bible (Zürich, 7 vols., 1532–1539), which shows a remarkably sound judgment on questions of the text, and a sense for historical as opposed to typological exegesis. Pellikan's scholarship, though not brilliant, was really extensive; his sound sense, and his singularly pure and devoted character gave him a great influence.

He was remarkably free from the pedantry of the time, as is shown by his views about the use of the German vernacular as a vehicle of culture (Chron. 135, 36). As a theologian his natural affinities were with Zwingli, having grown up to the views of the Reformation, by the natural progress of his studies and religious life. Thus he never lost his sympathy with humanism and Erasmus.

Pellikan's Latin autobiography (Das Chronikon des Konrad Pellikan) is one of the most interesting documents of the period. It was first published by Riggenbach in 1877, and in this volume the other sources for his life are registered.

Early modern imprints

• De modo legendi et intelligendi Haebrarum. Strasbourg, 1504.
• Quadruplex Psalterium. Basel, 1516.
• Quadruplex Psalterium Davidis. Strasbourg, 1527.
• Comentaria bibliorum. 7 volumes. Zurich, 1532-1539.
• Explicatio libelli Ruth. Zurich, 1531.
• Index bibliorum. Zurich, 1537.
• Ruth: Ein heylig Büchlin des alten Testament, mit einer schoenen kurtzen außlegung. Zurich, 1555.

Modern editions

• Die Hauschronik Konrad Pellikans von Rufach. trans. Theodor Vulpinus, Strasbourg: Heitz, 1892.
• Das Chronikon des Konrad Pellikan, ed. Bernhard Riggenbach. Basel, 1877

Bibliography

• See Erich Wenneker, "Pellikan, Konrad" in Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol. VII, Herzberg, 1994, col. 180-183, online article