Jakob Bidermann

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Jakob Bidermann SJ (* 1578 in Ehingen (Danube) ; † August 20, 1639 in Rome ) was a Jesuit poet and playwright of the Baroque era .

Life

At the age of 8, Bidermann was accepted into the Jesuit grammar school in Augsburg in 1586 , where Matthäus Rader was one of his teachers. From 1594 he completed his novitiate in Landsberg and was accepted into the order here in 1596. At the end of the nineties he studied philosophy and theology in Ingolstadt and at the same time directed the school theater there. From 1600 he worked again in Augsburg under Rader's rectorate. During this particularly productive period of his work, some of his most important works were created. His Cenodoxus was also premiered here in 1602. In 1603 he returned to Ingolstadt for theological studies.

In 1607 he was a professor of rhetoric and theater director in Munich. From 1606 to 1614 he was a teacher at the Jesuit College in Munich, where he had the opportunity to stage his own Latin dramas with a great deal of technical innovations. From 1615 he worked as a professor of theology and philosophy in Dillingen . In 1626 he was called to Rome as religious theologian and book censor of his order, where he remained for 13 years until his death. Bidermann is considered to be one of the main representatives of the baroque Jesuit drama.

background

Twelve pieces made between 1602 and 1619 are considered to have been created by Jakob Bidermann, but not all of them have survived to this day. The Cenodoxus performed in Augsburg in 1602 is considered the best known. It represents a tendency piece against the spirit of Renaissance humanism and the emancipation of the individual (1635 German by Joachim Meichel). Bidermann's dramas deal, among other things, with the rise and fall of a pagan mime to become a Christian martyr (Philemon Martyr) or the life of model hermit (Macarius Romanus). His works always contain the same message, namely that true salvation can be found in turning to God, turning away from the world. Contemporaries largely described Bidermann as a neo-Latin poet of poetry and epic poetry, and in addition to sacred poetry, Bidermann also wrote epistles, short stories and poems. Before the dramas he wrote, there was a Herod epic, heroic letters and satirical prose pieces entitled Utopia in print. A collection of his pieces was not published until 1666. Almost without exception, the works of Jakob Bidemann are written in Latin, and when German later developed into a literary language, it was precisely this that blocked the way for Biedermann's poems to be received. This is why his best-known work, the Cenodoxus , is still better known in the contemporary translation than in the Latin original.

Works

Text editions and translations

  • Cenodoxus . German translation by Joachim Meichel (1635). Edited by Rolf Tarot. (= UB 8958). Reclam, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-15-008958-3
  • Cenodoxus Comico-Tragoedia. Translated from Latin and commented on by Christian Sinn. Edition Isele, Konstanz et al. 2004, ISBN 3-86142-305-7 ( Bibliotheca Suevica 10).
  • Christian cosmos. 100 epigrams. Latin-German. Selected and translated by Wilfried Schouwink. Edition Isele, Eggingen 2004, ISBN 3-86142-292-1 ( Bibliotheca Suevica 8).
  • Cosmarchia sive mundi respublica. Desumpta ex parabolâ Barlaami, quam Josaphato dedit in exemplum de bonis in caelum praemittendis. Translated from Latin by Christian Sinn. Edition Isele, Konstanz et al. 2002, ISBN 3-86142-259-X ( Bibliotheca Suevica 1).
  • Heroides: women's letters. Edition Isele, Konstanz 2005, ISBN 3-86142-371-5 (reprint of the Dillingen 1642 edition with German translation by Christian Sinn)
  • Sky bells. That is: Catholic exquisite spiritual chants for all time of the year. Reprint of the 3rd edition Dillingen, Sermodus, 1627. Edited by Wolfgang Schürle. Konrad, Weißenhorn 2000, ISBN 3-87437-447-5 ( Alb and Danube, Art and Culture 27).
  • Margrit Schuster (Ed.): Jakob Bidermann's "Utopia". Edition with translation and monograph. In addition to comparative studies on the plagiarism of Christoph Andreas Hörl von Wattersdorf ( "Bacchusia or Fassnacht-Land ..." ). Lang, Bern et al. 1977, ISBN 3-261-03441-6 ( European university publications . Series 1: German language and literature 794), (At the same time: Zürich, Univ., Diss., 1977).

literature

Overview representations

Others

  • Gerhard Dünnhaupt : Jacob Bidermann S. J. , in: Personalbibliographien zu den Druck des Barock , Vol. 1. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-7772-9013-0 , pp. 550-581 (list of works and references).
  • Helmut Gier: Jakob Bidermann and his "Cenodoxus". The most important playwright from the Jesuit order and his most successful play. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1729-5 .
  • Peter-Paul Lenhard: Religious worldview and didactics in the Jesuit drama. Interpretations of Jacob Bidermann's plays. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1976, ISBN 3-261-02079-2 ( European university publications . Series 1: German language and literature 168).
  • Rolf Günter Tarot: Jakob Bidermann's "Cenodoxus". Triltsch, Düsseldorf 1960 (Cologne, Univ., Diss. From 1960).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bidermann, Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German playwright and Jesuit
DATE OF BIRTH 1578
PLACE OF BIRTH Ehingen (Danube)
DATE OF DEATH August 20, 1639
Place of death Rome