Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes (1459–1508), born Konrad Pickel near Schweinfurt in Franconia, was the foremost German humanist of his age. Educated at Cologne and Heidelberg, he published his Art of Writing Verses in 1486 and was crowned poet laureate by Emperor Frederick III at Nuremberg in 1487. He lectured across Germany and Italy and founded a chain of humanist literary societies.
In 1494 he rediscovered the plays of Hrotsvitha at Regensburg. Summoned to Vienna by Maximilian I in 1497, he founded the Collegium Poetarum there in 1502 and died in Vienna in 1508.