[2] Concordantly he worked as a proofer in the workshop of Johann Froben, the most important printer of Basel the early 16th Century.

In 1542, he attempted to print the first Quran in Latin, edited by Theodor Bibliander from a translation made by Robert of Ketton in Spain in 1142–1143.

The municipal authorities imprisoned Oporinus for a short while, but a letter from Martin Luther convinced them to permit the printing.

[3] The most important publication of his workshop was the anatomical atlas De humani corporis fabrica by the humanist physician Andreas Vesalius, in 1543.

Oporinus later printed a work on church history by Matthias Flacius Illyricus: Catalogus testium veritatis (1556) and the first eleven (1559–1567) of Wigand's thirteen Magdeburg Centuries.

Before he died, he planned to publish the first Bible in the Spanish language, for which Casiodoro de Reina paid 400 guilders in advance.

[5] Looking at title page or at the colophon of an Oporinus edition, the printer's device shows the mythological lyre player Arion of Lesbos, which is supported by a Dolphin on the sea.