Christoph Jacob Trew

Christoph Jacob Trew (1695 to 1769) was a German physician and botanist who described numerous plants and published several richly illustrated works. He also assembled a large collection of medical books, nearly 34,000 volumes, which were donated to the University of Altdorf and later moved to the library of Erlangen University. Born at Lauf near Nuremberg, the son of a chemist, he graduated in medicine from the University of Altdorf in 1717 with a dissertation under the surgeon and botanist Lorenz Heister. He then spent three years on a grand tour of Europe, making friends in Switzerland, Leiden, Danzig and Königsberg. Heister recommended him as his replacement at Helmstedt in 1720, but the offer was not accepted, and he returned to practise as a general practitioner in his home town. In 1721 he settled in Nuremberg as a physician, in 1723 he married a wealthy widow ten years older than himself, and in 1728 he acquired a large house where he grew plants and his library. He was elected to the local Collegium Medicum and supervised the Theatrum Anatomicum and the Hortus Medicus of Nuremberg.