Johannes Heinrich Ursinus

Johannes Heinrich Ursinus (also known as Johannes Henricus Ursinus, Iohannes Henricus Ursinus, Johann Heinrich Ursin and even John Henry Ursinus) (26 January 1608 in Speyer – 14 May 1667 in Regensburg) was a learned German author, scholar, Lutheran theologian, humanist and dean of Regensburg.

Ursinus studied the Oriental roots of western philosophy and was the author of a scholastic encyclopaedia. He was a Rector in Mainz, preached in Weingarten, Speier and Regensburg, and had been a student in Straßburg.

His ''Arboretum Biblicum,'' which appeared in 1663, was the first attempt of note to create a concordance of botanical references in the Bible, and predated the ''Hierozoicon'', a zoological compendium of biblical animals, of Samuel Bochart. In all Ursinus published 137 works in 153 publications in 3 languages.

The plant genus ''Ursinia'' was named after Ursinus by the German botanist, Joseph Gaertner. Provided by Wikipedia