Froben Christoph von Zimmern

Count Froben Christoph of Zimmern (19 February 1519 – 27 November 1566) was the author of the Zimmern Chronicle and a member of the von Zimmern family of Swabian nobility. This article is based primarily on Beat Rudolf Jenny's biography of him. Youth and student years Froben Christoph was born at Mespelbrunn Castle in the Spessart as the son of Johann Werner and his wife Katharina of Erbach. He was raised there and in Aschaffenburg by his step-grandfather Philipp Echter and his grandmother, the Countess of Werdenberg. He did not visit Meßkirch (Zimmern) until 1531. During a short stay at Falkenstein Castle, he had a conflict-charged meeting with his father. After that meeting, he moved in with his uncle Gottfried Werner in Meßkirch. In 1533, Froben Christoph and his elder brother Johann began studying at the University of Tübingen. After a stay in Strasbourg, he studied from early 1534 to 1535 in Bourges. During the winter of 1536/37, he studied in Cologne, and from Easter 1537, without his brother, in Leuven, where he remained until July 1539.