CUSPINIAN, JOHANN. - The family surname varies: Spieshaym, Spiessham, Spiessheimer; humanist, politician, physician, and imperial archivist, b. at Schweinfurt in 1473, d. at Vienna on 19 Apr. 1529. In 1493 poeta laureatus; from 1500 rector of the University of Vienna and imperial historiographer. Massimiliano I, Carlo V, and Ferdinando I entrusted him with important diplomatic missions.
A devotee of classical antiquities and collector of ancient manuscripts, he published, among other works, those of Lucio Floro (1511), the Chronicle of Ottone da Frisinga (1515), and the Fasti consulares (of the Chronographer of 354), as well as the Chronica of Cassiodoro, published posthumously in 1553. His De Caesariibus atque imperatoribus romanis opus insigne (1512-1522, published posthumously in 1540) is extensive but lacking in depth. His Austria (1553) is a geographical description. His Diary was published in the Fontes rerum austriacarum, I (1885; cf. H. Ankwicz, Das Tagebuch C., in Mitteilungen des Instituts f. österr. Geschichte, 30 [1929], pp. 280-326).