Compendium philosophicum, exhibens methodum, definitiones, canones, distinctiones & quaestiones per universam philosophiam.

Johann Heinrich Alsted (1588–1638) was a German-born Calvinist theologian, philosopher, and educator. He is best known for his works on theology, philosophy, and encyclopedic knowledge. Alsted was born in Hesse, Germany, and studied at several universities across Europe, including Marburg, Herborn and Heidelberg. He was deeply influenced by the Protestant Reformation and the scholastic traditions.

“The majority of Alsted’s writings were on theology, and in them he displayed the same logical and encyclopedic approach found in the philosophical writings. Throughout the areas of Calvinist influence, form Transylvania to New England, Alsted’s systematic treatises on educational theory, theology, and philosophy exerted great influence in the universities during most of the seventeenth century. His writings covered the whole spectrum of natural philosophy: commentaries on the cabala, the Ars magna of Lull, mnemonics, traditional and Ramist logic, physics, mathematics, and astronomy.” (DSB).