Tschudi
EGIDIUS, or, as he wrote himself, GILG SCHUDI, the father of Swiss history; born in Glarus in 1505, of a family of which several members were distinguished in war, politics and science. He studied under Glarean in Basel and Paris; was in 1533 and 1549 high baliff at Baden, and for some time a captain in the French service; afterward traveling much among the Swiss mountains in search of materials for his historical studies. He several times acted as a mediator in the religious disputes of his time, but himself continued a Roman Catholic. In 1558 he became "Landammann" of Glarus; in 1559 was envoy to the Kaiser Ferdinand I. The chief of his numerous historical works is the "Chronicon Helveticum," embracing the period 1000-1470. The dramatic description of this book Schiller declared to be "both homely and Herodotean, nay Homeric," and used amply in giv giving local color to his "Wilhelm Tell." Rilliet notes that it was Tschudi who first gave TUAMOTU ISLANDS precision to the circumstances, dates and persons of the Tell legend. Many unpublished MSS. of Tschudi are preserved in the libraries of St. Gallen and Zürich.
He died in Glarus, Feb. 28, 1572.