Johann Boemus

Who was Johann Boemus?

Johann Boemus was a German humanist, canon of Ulm Cathedral, traveller, and Hebraist. He was compiler and author of the first ethnographic compendium of the Early Modern period in Europe.

His Omnium Gentium Mores, Leges et Ritus was published in 1520. It was reprinted multiple times in the sixteenth century, including a 1571 edition. There were later editions, accumulating related treatises by other scholars. It influenced Sebastian Muenster's Cosmography, and helped inspire the Hauptchronik of Sebastian Franck. It helped set the stage for subsequent investigations of the connections of law to culture, including Paul Henri Mallett's Northern Antiquities.

There were English translations by William Waterman and Edward Aston, The Manners, Lawes and Customs of all Nations. This book is cited as the first scientific approach to ethnography available in English.