Dietrich v. Plieningen (1453-1520)

Dietrich von Plieningen was born in 1453, probably in the town of Dillingen on the River Danube.

Dietrich began his studies at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, but from 1473 he studied Roman civil law with his brother Johannes in Pavia.

The brothers moved to the University of Ferrara in 1476 and Dietrich obtained his PhD there in 1479. He married Anna von Memmersweiler, who, like him, had literary interests.

He lived chiefly at Heidelberg, at the Court of the Elector Palatine, and had a close relationship with local humanists and scholars.

Dietrich was responsible for illustrated first translations of Latin and Greek authors including Seneca, Sallust, Cicero, Juvenal, Horace and Lucian. These were important documents for the reception of classical antiquity in Germany.

After the death of his first wife in 1510, he married the much younger Felicitas von Freyberg. He died in Augsburg in 1520.