Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin (also spelled ''Nikodemus'') (22 September 1547 – 29 November 1590) was a German

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, and

astronomer An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who focuses their studies on a specific question or field outside the scope of Earth. They observe astronomical objects such as stars, planets, natural satellite, moons, comets and galaxy, g ...

, born at Erzingen, today part of

Balingen Balingen (; Swabian: ''Balenga'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, capital of the district of Zollernalbkreis. It is located near the Swabian Jura, approx. 35 km to the south of Tübingen, 35 km northeast of Villingen-Schwenn ...

Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Hohenzollern, two other historical territories, Würt ...

, where his father was parish minister.

Life

He was educated as a scholar of ''"

Tübinger Stift The Tübinger Stift () is a hall of residence and teaching; it is owned and supported by the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg, and located in the university city of Tübingen, in South West Germany. The Stift was founded as an Augusti ...

"'' at the

university of Tübingen The University of Tübingen, officially the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen (german: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen; la, Universitas Eberhardina Carolina), is a public research university located in the city of Tübingen, Baden-Wü ...

, where in 1568 he was promoted to the chair of poetry and history. In 1575 for his comedy of ''Rebecca'', which he read at

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

before the

emperor Maximilian II Maximilian II (31 July 1527 – 12 October 1576) was Holy Roman Emperor from 1564 until his death in 1576. A member of the Austrian House of Habsburg, he was crowned King of Bohemia in Prague on 14 May 1562 and elected King of Germany (King ...

, he was rewarded with the laureateship, and in 1577 he was made an imperial count palatine (''Comes palatinus Caesareus'') or ''Pfalzgraf''. In 1582 his unguarded language and reckless life made it necessary that he should leave Tübingen, and he accepted a mastership at Laibach in Carniola (nowadays

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

), which he held for about two years. Shortly after his return to the university in 1584, he was threatened with a criminal prosecution on a charge of immoral conduct, and the threat led to his withdrawal to

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

in 1587. For eighteen months he taught in the Brunswick gymnasium, and he appears also to have resided occasionally at

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label=Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...

and

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

. From the last-named city he wrote certain

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

ous letters, which led to his being arrested in March 1590. He was imprisoned in the fortress of Hohenurach, near

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; Swabian: ''Reitlenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it has a population of 115,818. Reutlingen has a university of applied sciences, which ...

, where, on the night of 29 November 1590, he was killed by a fall in attempting to let himself down from the window of his cell.

Work

Frischlin's prolific and versatile genius produced a great variety of works, which entitle him to some rank both among poets and among scholars. In his

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

verse he often successfully imitated the classical models; his comedies are not without freshness and vivacity; and some of his versions and commentaries, particularly those on the ''

Georgics The ''Georgics'' ( ; ) is a poem by Latin poet Virgil, likely published in 29 BCE. As the name suggests (from the Greek word , ''geōrgika'', i.e. "agricultural (things)") the subject of the poem is agriculture; but far from being an example ...

'' and ''

Bucolics The ''Eclogues'' (; ), also called the ''Bucolics'', is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil. Background Taking as his generic model the Greek bucolic poetry of Theocritus, Virgil created a Roman version partly by offer ...

'' of

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, though now well-nigh forgotten, were important contributions to the scholarship of his time. There is no collected edition of his works, but his ''Opera poetica'' were published twelve times between 1535 and 1636. Among those most widely known may be mentioned: *the ''Hebraeis'' (1590), a Latin epic based on the ''Scripture history of the Jews'' *the ''Elegiaca'' (1601), his collected

lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...

, in twenty-two books *the ''Opera scenica'' (1604) consisting of six comedies and two tragedies (among the former, ''Julius Caesar redivivus'', completed 1584) *the ''Grammatica Latina'' (1585) *the versions of

Callimachus Callimachus (; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works in a wide variety ...

and

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; grc, Ἀριστοφάνης, ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme In Ancient Greece, a deme or ( grc, δῆμος, plural: demoi, δημοι) was a suburb or a subdivision of Athens and other city-states ...

*the commentaries on

Persius Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satires, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his ...

and Virgil See the monograph of

David Friedrich Strauss David Friedrich Strauss (german: link=no, Strauß ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature he ...

(''Leben und Schriften des Dichters und Philologen Frischlin'', 1856).

Literature

* D. F. Strauß, ''"Leben und Schriften des Dichters und Philologen Nicodemus Frischlin"'', 1856. * S. Holtz, D. Mertens (Hsg.), ''"Nicodemus Frischlin (1547 - 1590), poetische und prosaische Praxis unter den Bedingungen des konfessionellen Zeitalters"'', Stuttgart, Bad Cannstatt 1999. * Gustav Bebermeyer: Nicodemus Frischlin. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Bd. 5, S. 620

References

External links

Online Galleries, History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries
High resolution images of works by and/or portraits of Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin in .jpg and .tiff format. {{DEFAULTSORT:Frischlin, Philipp Nicodemus 1547 births 1590 deaths People from Balingen 16th-century German poets German philologists 16th-century German mathematicians 16th-century German astronomers People from the Duchy of Württemberg Imperial counts palatine German male poets German male dramatists and playwrights 16th-century German writers 16th-century German male writers