FROBEN [FxoBENivs], JOANNES (c. Ger man printer and scholar, was born at Hammelburg in Bavaria. After completing his university career at Basel, where he made the acquaintance of the famous printer Johannes Auerbach 1513), he established there about 1491 a printing house which had a European reputation for accuracy and for taste. In 1500 he married the daughter of the bookseller Wolfgang Lachner, who entered into partnership with him. He was a friend of Erasmus (q.v.), who not only had his own works printed by him, but superintended Frobenius's editions of St. Jerome, St. Cyprian, Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers and St. Ambrose. His Neues Testa ment in Greek (1516) was used by Luther for his translation. Frobenius employed Hans Holbein to illuminate his texts. It was part of his plan to print editions of the Greek Fathers. He did not, however, live to carry out this project, but it was very creditably executed by his son Jerome and his son-in-law Nikolaus Epis copius. Frobenius's work in Basel made that city in the 16th century the leading centre of the German book trade. An extant letter of Erasmus gives an epitome of his life.