Graes (Gratius), Ortwln van de°

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GRAES (Gratius), ORTWLN VAN DE°

GRAES (Gratius), ORTWLN VAN DE ° (1480–1542), Dominican friar and fanatic anti-Jewish polemicist. He was coauthor (or translator) of Victor von *Carben'sDe vita et moribus Judaeorum (1509) and translated into Latin some of the polemics of Johann *Pfefferkorn, to whose Judenfeind (1509) he wrote an introductory poem De pertinatia Judaeorum ("On the Obstinacy of the Jews"). In 1513 Johannes *Reuchlin directed his defense in his controversy with Pfefferkorn mainly against Graes who was also the principal target of Epistolae obscurorum virorum (1515 and 1517). Graes's wordy reply (Lamentationes obscurorum virorum, Cologne, 1518) was no match for this savage satire. The Praenotamenta (1514) and Defensio (1516) against Reuchlin's Augenspiegel are also considered Graes's work.

bibliography:

Graetz, Hist, index; M. Brod, Johannes Reuchlin und sein Kampf (1965), 178ff.; J. Kracauer, Geschichte der Juden in Frankfurt…, 1 (1925), 247ff.; D. Reichling, Ortwin Gratius… (Germ., 1884).