Renward Cysat (Cusatus; 1545–1614) was an apothecary, advocate, cartographer and city councillor of Lucerne. He is the father of mathematician and astronomer Johann Baptist Cysat.
Cysat published works about the history and folklore of Lucerne, as well as a number of theatrical plays, and a book about (then-recently discovered) Japan. He was responsible for the first map of the canton of Lucerne, published in 1613. Cysat was given the honorary title of count palatine by pope Gregory XIII in 1576.
References
- Heinz Horat und Thomas Klöti, Die Luzernerkarte von Hans Heinrich Wägmann und Renward Cysat, 1597-1613. In: Der Geschichsfreund 139 (1986), 47-100. Die älteste Karte des Kantons Luzern von Hans Heinrich Wägmann und Renward Cysat, 1597-1613: die Originalzeichnung und die Nachbildungen. In: Cartographica Helvetica, 1990, Heft 2, 20-26.
- Anton Dörrer (1957), "Cysat, Renward", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 3, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 455–456; (full text online).
- Theodor von Liebenau (1876), "Cysat, Renward (Polyhistor)", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 4, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 669–670
- Fritz Glauser: Cysat, Renward in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- Renward Brandstetter, Renward Cysat, 1545-1614: der Begründer der schweizerischen Volkskunde (1909).
- E. Hoffmann-Krayer, "Cysatiana. Volkskundliches aus dem Kanton Luzern um die Wende des 16. Jahrhunderts", Schweizerisches Archiv für Volkskunde = Archives suisses des traditions populaires 14 (1910), 198–245.