Mark Welser
Mark Welser was a German banker, politician, and astronomer, who engaged in learned correspondence with European intellectuals of his time. Of particular note is his exchange with Galileo Galilei, regarding sunspots.
Biography
Welser belonged to a rich family of the old German nobility that had emerged in the city of Augsburg. His uncle Bartholomeus Welser was one of the originators of the family wealth; with the Fugger family he financed the imperial election of Charles V, whose counselor he became. He was a commercial leader in Portuguese spices and in the economic growth of Antwerp. He also had an economic relationship with the French crown. In 1528, Bartholomeus, who had outfitted a fleet to the Americas, took control of the colony of Venezuela, obtaining from the emperor the right to retain ownership of it via an annual payment. His descendants kept it until 1555, when Spain took control of Venezuela.At the age of 16, Mark was sent to Padua, where he studied for ten years. Three years later he studied rhetoric with Muretus at Rome together with Marco Antonio Bonciari. He traveled often to France, and stayed in Paris in 1572. He became duumvir of Augsburg in 1611, but was also distinguished for his scholarship and his writings. He also traveled to Italy, and in 1612 in Rome, he was named a member of the Accademia dei Lincei; the following year, he was elected to the Accademia della Crusca.
Mark was familiar with the Italian language and interested in historical research, and in the study of Greek and Latin authors, whose dissemination he promoted by financing the publishing house "Ad Insignia Pinus". The most important of his many works is his Rerum Boicarum libri quinque, dealing with the early history of the Bavarians, which was translated into German by the author's brother Paul. His collected works, under the title Marci Velseri opera historica et philologica, were collected and published in 1682 with a biography of Mark by C. Arnold.