author
Johann Heinrich Meibom
1590–1655
A 17th-century German physician and scholar, he moved between university medicine and city practice while writing on subjects ranging from diagnosis to drinking customs. His career links the learned medical world of Helmstedt with everyday public health in Lübeck.
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About the author
Born in Helmstedt in 1590, Johann Heinrich Meibom was a German doctor, professor, and prolific Latin author. He earned his medical doctorate at Basel in 1619 and soon became a professor of medicine at the University of Helmstedt, where he taught semiotics, the branch of medicine concerned with signs and symptoms.
The upheavals of the Thirty Years' War shaped the course of his life. After leaving Helmstedt, he settled in Lübeck, where he practiced medicine for many years and served as the city's first municipal physician. Alongside his medical work, he also acted as physician to the bishop and built a reputation as a learned writer.
Meibom wrote widely on medicine and historical-philological subjects. He is especially remembered for scholarly works that mixed practical observation with curiosity about everyday life, including writing on beer and other intoxicating drinks. He died in Lübeck in 1655.