Lorenz Fries

Life & Legacy

Lorenz Fries, also called Lorenz Phryes, Latinized Laurentius Frisius or Phrisius (born c. 1490; died 1531/32 in Metz) was a German physician, astrologer and cartographer, who worked mainly in Alsace. His most famous work is the “Spiegel der Arznei” (Mirror of Medicine) (twelve editions 1518–1557), one of the earliest works on medicine in the German language. His cartographic work continued that of Martin Waldseemüller in assimilating recent discoveries in the New World and Asia into the classical Ptolemaic framework.