Born in
Vienna, his family moved to
Wittenberg when he was twelve. He studied philosophy first, then medicine at the Universities of
Wittenberg,
Leipzig and
Jena. Doctor of Medicine in 1700, he began to practice the medical profession; for a time he also taught philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. From
1709 he was professor of medicine in the same university (the chair gave close connection between medicine and medicinal herbs, also included the teaching of botany). He participated in the founding of the
Wittenberg Botanical Garden, the first catalog of which was published in
1711. He created collections of medical preparations. He took care of the renovation of the
anatomical theatre of the
Saxon city. In
1713 he became a personal physician to
Augustus II the Strong,
King of Poland and
Elector of Saxony, Until his death, which took place in Dresden in 1747, he was appointed General and Special Director of the Scientific Galleries; in this capacity, he also took care of the arrangement of the print cabinet, which was separated from the collections of paintings and also exhibited at the Zwinger. In
1729 he was admitted to the
Royal Society and was ennobled by the Emperor. A year before his death, in 1746, he sold his private library of about 4,000 volumes - many valuable scientific texts - to the royal library. He wrote works of some importance in the fields of anatomy, botany and mineralogy. ==Honours==