Petrus Plateanus (1495–1551) was a German-Belgian educator, theologian, rector of the grammar school in Zwickau, and from 1547 a preacher in Aschersleben. Around 1524, he went to Germany to the university in Wittenberg, probably because the Protestant thinking he had adopted could not be freely expressed in Brabant. In 1525, at the recommendation of Philipp Melanchthon, he obtained the position of rector of the municipal school in Jáchymov, which he held until 1531. Under the influence of Georgius Agricola, who worked there as a physician from 1527, Plateanus became interested in natural sciences and, without the knowledge of the modest author, arranged for the publication of Agricola’s work Bermannus sive de re metallica liber in 1528. When Agricola moved to Chemnitz as the municipal physician in the autumn of 1530, Plateanus left for Marburg in 1531, probably to study medicine. However, he soon began working there as a professor of ethics and rhetoric and obtained a master’s degree in 1533. A few years later, on the recommendation of his friend Agricola, he returned to Saxony, specifically to the position of rector of the grammar school in Zwickau. In 1546, he resigned as rector and became superintendent in Oelsnitz in Vogtland. In August 1547, he was appointed pastor of St. Stephani and superintendent in Aschersleben.
