Beatus, one of the revivers of learning in Germany, was the son of a wealthy butcher, and was born at Schlettstadt in 1485. From his youth upwards, the greatest facilities for acquiring knowledge were enjoyed by him. He studied at Paris under the ablest teachers of which that city could boast. He then resided for some time at Basel, in the learned society of Erasmus and Gélenius. His succession to his father's fortune in 1520 increased his advantages. Retiring to his native city, he was enabled to devote the remainder of his life exclusively to the quiet and congenial pursuits of his study. The result of this propitious career was, that Rhenanus at his death, in 1547, left a long list of publications. Among these was the Editio Princeps of Paterculus, the manuscript of which he discovered in the monastery of Murbach. There was also an original work entitled Rerum Germanicarum Libri Tres, folio, Basel, 1531, a work which has been often reprinted.