Joannes Burmeister (1576–1638) was a

Neo-Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

poet laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

of the German Baroque period, famed for his Christian adaptations of the classical Roman poets Martial and

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the ...

Life

He was born in

Lüneburg Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also called ...

and was related to the musical theorist Joachim Burmeister. After studying theology at

Rostock University The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in contin ...

, in July 1600 he was crowned an Imperial Poet Laureate of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. He spent the next 25 years as

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

of the village of Gülzow. During that time he composed nearly all his works, some of which enjoyed the patronage of the Estorff family. In 1635 he became Provost of

Uelzen Uelzen (; officially the ''Hanseatic Town of Uelzen'', German: ''Hansestadt Uelzen'', , Low German ''Ülz’n'') is a town in northeast Lower Saxony, Germany, and capital of the county of Uelzen. It is part of the Hamburg Metropolitan Region, a ...

, where three years later he died and was buried.

Major works

# ''Martialis Renati. Parodiarum Sacrarum M. Val. Martialis Epigrammata'' (Goslar and Lueneburg: Hans Stern and Johann Vogt, 1612). 3 volumes. # '' Saturnaliorum Christianorum Libri septem'' (Goslar, Johann Vogt, 1619). # ''M. A. Plauti Renati sive Sacri Mater-Virgo, comoedia prima ex Amphitruone ad Admirandum Conceptionis et Incarnationis Filii Dei Misterium inversa'' (Lüneburg, Andreas Michaelis, 1621). # ''M. A. Plauti renati sive sacri

Aulularia ''Aulularia'' is a Latin (language), Latin play by the early Ancient Rome, Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus. The title literally means ''The Little Pot'', but some translators provide ''The Pot of Gold'', and the plot revolves around a lit ...

, comoedia tertia ex fabula ethnica ad biblicam de Achanis furto historiam inversa'' (Hamburg, Joannes Mose, 1629).

References

*Fontaine, Michael. 2015
''Joannes Burmeister: Aulularia and Other Inversions of Plautus''
Leuven: Leuven University Press. {{DEFAULTSORT:Burmeister, Joannes 1576 births 1638 deaths People from Lüneburg German poets Writers from Lower Saxony Baroque writers