Vita clarissimi viri D. Iosiae Simleri Tigurini, S. Theologiae in Schola Tigurina Professoris fidelissimi

praise for some years extraordinarily, along with his ordinary duty: until finally Johann Wilhelm Stucki, who had previously been a Professor of Dialectic and Rhetoric, was made the ordinary expositor of the Old Testament and colleague of Simler by unanimous consent in the place of Bibliander, who died of the plague on the 26th of November in the year 1564. Nor, indeed, to return to our Simler, did he teach only publicly and ordinarily, but also extraordinarily and privately, within domestic walls, to many who were eager to learn, and among them some noble and generous men, teaching both sacred and profane (which they commonly call liberal) letters with great study. These lectures of his, both public and private, and ordinary and extraordinary, were frequent, and were witnesses and indices of his singular diligence, industry, piety, learning, eloquence, judgment, and memory. And indeed, many learned men were often great authors and persuaders for him to publish those public lectures of his so that they might come into the light (of which they seemed most worthy): but he, such was his modesty, preferred to publish the writings of others from which some fruit could return to students of learning than to publish his own writings. Yet he could hardly be induced at last to write commentaries on Exodus, which, I hope, will one day come into the light. Furthermore, he had no need of long premeditation for these lectures of his. For it was very easy for him to speak excellently and extemporaneously about the most serious and greatest matters, in either the Latin or German language. For he used memory—which Cicero most truly calls the treasure of things and words; and Pliny, a good thing most necessary for life—as such a faithful keeper of everything that had been read or heard by him long before, that when questioned about them, he was accustomed to answer as promptly as if he had perceived them by reading and hearing them on that very day. He also seems to have held in his memory the entire library of Gesner, which he increased and enriched in a wonderful way, for when questioned about the name of any author or writing, he was accustomed to answer about it most promptly, as I and many others who have associated with him familiarly have experienced many times with the highest admiration. And relying on the goodness of this admirable memory and judgment, he did not use an ordered and accurate reading of books or writings, but often a wandering and tumultuous one, such that he often began his reading of a book in almost reverse order from the last part, and was accustomed not so much to read through as to look through this or that page as if through a lattice, and to note nothing. And yet, nevertheless, he was able to see, understand, and explain to others the sum of the whole book, the principal chapters, and the extremities