Johann Daniel Major

Johann Daniel Major (16 August 1634, Breslau – 26 July 1693, Stockholm) was a German professor of theoretical medicine, naturalist, collector and the founder of museology.

Johan Daniel Portrait

From 1654 to 1658 Johann Daniel Major studied at the University of Wittenberg and in 1659 graduated as a magister medicine at the University of Wittenberg and journeyed to Italy gaining from the University of Padua another degree for a dissertation "Description of the bird Albatros and other curious observations". From 1661 to 1663 he practiced as a physician in Wittenberg moving in 1663 to Hamburg, where he was a plague physician and wrote medical publications. In 1666 he conducted the first public dissection of a human corpse now in Kiel. Four years later in 1667 he was appointed supervisor of the botanic garden of the University of Kiel. From 1673 to 1682 he devoted himself to also antiquities and natural history making large collections and from 1685 to 1692 founded the Museum of the Cimbrici conducting archaeological excavations and studying the regions fauna and flora. Called to Sweden for the treatment of the queen he caught her infection and died. As may be seen from the list of his publications Major was a polymath.