Jakob Wimpfeling

He went to the school at Schlettstadt, which was run by Ludwig Dringenberg, the founder of the Humanist Library of Sélestat.

After Martin Luther's excommunication he took part in the attempt to prevail upon the Curia to withdraw the ban.

In 1524 he added to Jerome Emser's dialogue against Huldrych Zwingli's Canonis missae defensio in an open letter to Luther and Zwingli, in which he exhorted them to examine the scriptures carefully in order to discover for themselves that the Canon of the Mass contains nothing contrary to the doctrines and customs of the early Church.

Wimpfeling's literary career began with a few publications in which he urged the more frequent holding of synods, the veneration of the Blessed Virgin, and an improvement of the discipline of the clergy.

The Elegantiarum medulla (1493) is an extract from Lorenzo Valla's books on the elegance of the Latin language.

His Epitome rerum germanicarum (1505) is a short history of the Germans, drawn in some particulars from other historians.

Wimpfeling bequeathed several of his books and manuscripts to the Humanist Library of Sélestat, where they are still kept today.