Georg Philipp Harsdörffer (1 November 1607 – 17 September 1658) was a Jurist, Baroque-period

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and translator.

Life and career

Georg Philipp Harsdörffer was born in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

on 1 November 1607 into a patrician family. He studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

at Altdorf and

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. He received a broad classical education in the home of his family before pursuing studies at the

University of Strassburg The University of Strasbourg (, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. Founded in the 16th century by Johannes Sturm, it was a center of intellectual life during ...

where he studied under professor

Matthias Bernegger Matthias Bernegger (, also ''Matthew'';Jerzy Dobrzycki: ''The reception of Copernicus' heliocentric theory'', International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science. Nicolas Copernicus Committe/ref> born 8 February 1582 in Hallstatt, Salzkamm ...

. After completing his studies, he traveled through the

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and

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. While he was in Italy, he came into contact with members of learned academies. He shared his desire for reform in literary and

linguistic Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

for the improvement of moral and culture of the society. Harsdörffer returned to Nuremberg in 1634. There he worked as a government assessor until 1655 when he was elected to the Nuremberg city council. During that time he became a vocal advocate for the purification of the German language. His knowledge of languages earned him the appellation "the learned." He was well-versed in contemporary

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and

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

. As an innovative poet, he was receptive to ideas from abroad. He is still known for his "Germanizations" of foreign-language terms. As a member of the

Fruitbearing Society The Fruitbearing Society (German Die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, lat. ''Societas Fructifera'') was a German literary society founded in 1617 in Weimar by German scholars and nobility. Its aim was to standardize vernacular German and promote it ...

(Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft) he was called ''der Spielende'' (the player). In 1644 jointly with Johann Klaj he founded the , a

literary society A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newslet ...

, in Nuremberg. He was known by the name Strephon among the members of this order. His writings in

and

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fill fifty volumes, and a selection of his poems, which are mostly interesting for their form, can be found in Müller's ''Bibliothek deutscher Dichter des 17ten Jahrhunderts'', vol. ix (Leipzig, 1826). Widmann (Altdorf, 1707) wrote a biography of him. His eight volume work, ''Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele'' (published from 1641-1649) contains a variety of literary works by Harsdörffer. Some of these texts are important to German music history; including Harsdörffer's libretto to '' Seelewig'' which is the oldest surviving German-language

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

. That opera used music by composer Sigmund Theophil Staden who also used Harsdörffer as his librettist for the musical pageant ''Tugendsterne''. The text to this work is also contained in the ''Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele''. In his ''Treatise to Protect the Work on the German Language (1644)'', he asserted that German ‘speaks with the tongues of nature.' He was the father of Karl Gottlieb Harsdörffer (1637–1708).

Selected works

* ''Frauenzimmer Gesprächspiele'', 8 Bde. (1641–1649) * ''Das geistlich Waldgedicht oder Freudenspiel, genant Seelewig'' (1644) * ''Poetischer Trichter-die Teutsche Dicht- und Reimkunst ohne Behuf der lateinischen Sprache, in VI Stunden einzugießen'' (1647–1653) * ''Hertzbewegliche Sonntagsandachten'' (1649–1652) * ''Der Grosse Schau-Platz Jämmerlicher Mord-Geschichte'' (1649–1650) * ''Der Grosse Schau-Platz Lust- und Lehr-reicher Geschichte'' (1650–1651) * ''Nathan und Jotham'' (1650–1651) * ''Ars Apophthegmatica'', 2 Bde. (1655–1656) File:Harsdoerffer-Icones Mortis.gif, Emblem in his book ''Icones mortis''

References

* This work in turn cites: ** Julius Tittmann, ''Die Nürnberger Dichterschule'' (Göttingen, 1847) ** Hodermann, ''Eine vornehme Gesellschaft, nach Harsdörffers "Gesprächspielen"'' (Paderborn, 1890) ** T. Bischoff, "Georg Philipp Harsdörffer" in the ''Festschrift zur 1600 jahrigen Jubelfeier des Pegnesischen Blumenordens'' (Nuremberg, 1894) ** Krapp, ''Die asthetischen Tendenzen Harsdörffers'' (Berlin, 1904). * S. Taussig, C. Zittel (éds.), ''Japeta. Édition et traduction'', Brepols Publishers, 2010, * Stefan Manns, ''Grenzen des Erzählens. Konzeption und Struktur des Erzählens in Georg Philipp Harsdörffers "Schauplätzen"''. Berlin 2013 (= Deutsche Literatur. Studien und Quellen; 14); (zugl. Univ. Dissertation, FU Berlin 2010).

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harsdorffer, Georg Philipp 1607 births 1658 deaths German poets Writers from Nuremberg German male poets Poets from the Holy Roman Empire Baroque writers Opera librettists