, author of the Annals ofBavaria, was born of mean parentage, in 1466,
, author of the Annals ofBavaria,
was born of mean parentage, in 1466, at Abensperg in the
country just named. He studied first at Ingolstadt, and
afterwards in the university of Paris. In 1503, he privately
taught eloquence and poetry at Vienna; and in 1507,
publicly taught Greek at Cracow in Poland. In 1509, he
read lectures on some of Cicero’s pieces at Ingolstadt and
in 1512, was appointed to be preceptor to prince Lewis
and prince Ernest, sons of Albert the Wise, duke of Bavaria. He also travelled with the latter of those two princes.
After this he undertook to write the “Annals of Bavaria,
”
being encouraged by the dukes of that name; who settled
a pension upon him, and gave him hopes that they would
defray the charges of the book. This work, which gained
its author great reputation, was first published in 1554, by
Jerome Zieglerus, professor of poetry in the university of
Ingolstadt but, as he acknowledges in the preface, he
retrenched the invectives against the clergy, and several
stories which had no relation to the history of Bavaria. The
Protestants, however, after long search, found an uncastrated manuscript of Aventin’s Annals, which was published
at Basil in 1580, by Nicholas Cisner.