PEUTINGER, KONRAD. — One of the most notable humanists of Germany during the period of the Reformation. Born in Augsburg on 16 October 1465, died there on 28 December 1547. He attended the universities of Padua and Bologna and also studied in Rome.
In 1490 he entered the service of his native city, then one of the most flourishing commercial centres, holding from 1490 to 1534 the very important position of Stadtschreiber (chief municipal secretary for politics, administration, and commerce). He was a close friend of Emperor Maximilian I, who employed him on various diplomatic missions. He was in contact with many other humanists, artists (Dürer), and figures in the political and cultural life of the time.
A great collector of all kinds of antiquities, in 1507 he received from his friend Celtes the famous Peutinger Table, a Roman itinerary map (v. ITINERARI). A follower of Platonic philosophy, he was a staunch opponent of Scholasticism and initially favoured Luther’s work; however, soon realising the disastrous political and religious consequences (Augsburg, with its imperial diets, was at the centre of the Protestant movement), he distanced himself from it and remained faithful to the religion of his ancestors. Among many other works, he published in 1505: Romanae vetustatis fragmenta in Augusta Vindelicorum et ejus dioecesi (Augsburg 1520, 2nd ed.); and the Gothic history of Jordanes as well as the Lombard history of Paul the Deacon.