Gottfried Christian Free Life

Gottfried Christian Freiesleben (born April 7, 1716 in Altenburg ; † June 27, 1774 in Gotha ) was a German librarian , translator and writer who used the pseudonym Michael Nostradamus the Younger , among other things .

Life

Signature as Michel Nostradamus in the dedication copy of New Prophecies and Calendar Practice to Ernst II of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg , 1760

Title page New Prophecies and Calendar Practice , 1760

Free life was the son of an Altenburger Kammersekrekärs. After studying law at the University of Jena , he first worked as a private secretary and librarian for the von Friesen family in Dresden from 1736 . In 1738 he took over the same position with Gustav Adolf von Gotter (1692–1762), where he opened the Gotters library in Molsdorf Castle . In 1740 he was appointed Saxon-Gotha Court Councilor.

He appeared as a translator for Voltaire and as a writer of French-language occasional poems . Free life published a translation of Nostradamus under the pseudonym Michael Nostradamus the Younger , concerning the years 1760 to 1860.

Works (selection)

• L'huitre et les douris. Fable. Dediée a son altesse serenissime Madame la Duchesse de Saxe-Gothe et Altenbourg . Gotha 1750 ( digitized version of the SLUB Dresden, accessed on November 17, 2019)
• Ode sur le retour de son altesse serenissime Monseignieur le Prince hereditaire de Saxe-Gothe et Altenbourg . Gotha 1750 ( digitized version of the Göttingen SUB, accessed on November 17, 2019)
• Falsehood of the new prophets . 5 volumes. Richter, Altenburg 1751–1758.
• [as translator]: Voltaire: Micromegas . Georg Conrad Walther, Dresden 1752 ( digitized version of the Bavarian State Library, accessed on November 17, 2019)
• Maximes de morale tirées de poesies d'Horace et re duites en forme de jeu . Gotha 1759. ( Digitized from Google Books, accessed November 17, 2019)
• Small gleanings from the famous Herr Professor Gottsched's necessary stock of the history of German dramatic poetry . Johann Michael Teubner, Leipzig 1760. ( Digitized from Google Books, accessed on November 17, 2019)
• [Under the pseudonym Michael Nostradamus the Younger Foreword and translation]: New prophecies and calendar practice for the next hundred years, from 1760 to 1860. Drawn from a French manuscript by the famous Michael Nostradamus . Johann Gabriel Büschel, Leipzig 1760. ( Digitized from Google Books, accessed on November 17, 2019)

literature

• Johann Christoph Adelung : Continuation and additions to Christian Gottlieb Jöcher's general scholarly lexico, in which writers of all classes are described according to their most distinguished living conditions and writings . Volume two: E to J. Johann Friedrich Gleditzsch, Leipzig 1787, Sp. 1224 ( digitized from Google Books, accessed on November 15, 2019)
• Johann Georg Meusel : Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800. Third volume. Gerhard Fleischer, Leipzig 1804, p. 471. ( Digitized version of the Bavarian State Library, accessed on November 15, 2019)
• Friedrich Jacobs , Friedrich August Ukert (Ed.): Contributions to the older literature or oddities of the duke. Gotha public library . First volume, first issue. Dyk, Leipzig 1835, p. 25 f. ( Digitized version of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, accessed on November 15, 2019)
• Gerhard Pachnicke: Gotha librarians. Thirty short biographies in chronological order (= publications of the Gotha State Library 5). Gotha State Library, Gotha 1958, p. 10 f, DNB 455237484 . ( online in the Digital Library Thuringia - DBT, accessed on November 20, 2019)
• Anke Seifert: Reconstruction of a private Enlightenment library using the example of the Molsdorf Palace Library (= Berlin handouts for library and information science 243). Berlin 2008, ISSN  1438-7662 . ( Digitized version of the HU Berlin, accessed on November 20, 2019)

Web links

• Free life, Gottfried Christian in the regional bibliography Saxony-Anhalt , accessed on November 17, 2019
• Free life, Gottfried Christian in manuscripts from the Kalliope database , accessed on November 17, 2019