Johann Leonhard Rost

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Johann Leonhard Rost (pseudonym: Meletaon, born August 14, 1688 in Nuremberg ; † March 22, 1727 in Nuremberg) was the author of novels , letter holders and other gallant texts as well as an astronomer .

Bourgeois tradition

Rost's father, Leonhard, only knows the date of death in 1721. His mother, Barbara, was born Schramm, she died in 1703. In the late 17th century, both parents ran the restaurant “zum Hofmann”, which is still in existence today, known as “Essigbrätlein”, which stood for the house sauerbraten . A brother was born in 1690, the later doctor Johann Carl Rost († 1731).

Johann Leonhard initially attended the St. Sebald School in Nuremberg - Latin was one of the subjects taught here. In 1703 he moved to the Egidiengymnasium , whose director, Samuel Faber , won him over for poetry and the " belles lettres ". In the same year - this could be related to the death of his mother - Rost became an assistant at the Nuremberg observatory, which Georg Christoph Eimmart (1638–1705) had set up in the autumn of 1678 at the Vestnertor bastion north of the castle. Eimmart, who surrounded himself with young people, employed an assistant for years, who usually lived with him in the house at Fleischbrücke 2 (today's address). The assistants used the time, as the observatory's publications show, for their first independent scientific work.

Eimmart died on January 5, 1705. The city of Nuremberg then bought the observatory. Johann Heinrich Müller (1671–1731), Eimmart's son-in-law, was appointed director; In 1710 he was to change to the University of Altdorf as a professor of mathematics and physics and pass on his post to Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr (1677–1750).

Rost ceded the assistantship to his brother on December 11, 1705, who held it until 1708. Three years of study in Altdorf followed, during which time Rost was able to stay in contact with the observatory. In May 1706 he observed the solar eclipse from here. Rost is said to have studied in Altdorf “besides the public and special legal colleges also philosophica and curiosa”, whereby he “found not little pleasure in the knowledge and collection of natural objects, according to his affection, and therefore continued them everywhere he went . ”There was still no subject in the natural sciences -“ philosophica und curiosa ”refers to the open accommodation of the entire field of nature observation within philosophy, which also includes mathematics. Until 1709, Johann Wilhelm Baier (1675–1729) taught physics in addition to mathematics in Altdorf.

The years in Altdorf enriched Rost, as far as can be seen in a completely different way: He must have caught up with the gallant students here. There is evidence that he read the novels Talanders and Menantes - he must have finished his own first novel in the Talander style in Altdorf. In 1708 he moved to Leipzig, in January of this year his Bellandra was published by Michahelles in Nuremberg . An Atalanta followed in July. Both were “ Asian novels ” and open references to the most important author in this genre. It makes sense to associate the novels with the move to Leipzig. Students from Halle, Leipzig and Jena determined the parquet on which Rost went.

Student in Leipzig 1708/09

Meletaon, The amiable and gallant Noris (Leipzig: JL Gleditsch / MG Weidmann , 1711).

That Rost brought two titles into business in his first year on the novel market, that he did it in the more conventional genre of Asian novels, not in the modern genre of scandals, with which it is better to make a name for oneself only once secretly, that it is under one Published under a pseudonym, but through a publisher whose name was noted - all of this suggests that he wanted his publications to be understood as a debut and a promise of continued novel writing. As a university lecturer in the 1680s, Christian Thomasius broke the ground for the gallant ideal of behavior in public statements. August Bohse had presented the right German novel production for the current fashion - primarily in the Asian genre, but also with amorous novels more current gesture. At the end of the 1690s there was a generation change. The gallant was no longer an ideal between teachers and students. Students now determined what was really gallant. The incision sat here Christian Friedrich Hunold alias Menantes with the laid in Hamburg lovers and gallant world (Hamburg: G. Dear Nickel, 1700). Six years later, in June 1706, the 26-year-old hero of the current Conduite made himself impossible with his fourth novel in Hamburg. Hunold fled to his home village in Thuringia and two years later began a more middle-class second career as a private lecturer in Halle.

Rost entered the market in 1708, when the famous "Mr. Menantes" fame seemed sealed, and initially stuck to Talander. His first works in the “Asian” genre were primarily aimed at middle-class readers between the ages of 15 and 30. In the 400 to 800-page novels they were able to experience the adventures of princesses who were persecuted and fleeing through antiquity in men's clothes. Meletaon had opened a profitable source of income with both novels. Hunold earned two Reichstaler for the print sheet, possibly Rost alias Meletaon initially earned two thirds of the fee: two gulden for the sheet, that would still have been 96 gulden with the first two titles.

Leipzig was the "gallant" of the three fashionable university cities in the German-speaking area. The trade fair city, with its favorable position in east-west trade and in trade with the northern and southern Protestant cities of the empire, was rich. Citizens built prestigiously and developed a life that rivaled that of Dresden as the royal seat. (Halle was, a day's ride away, the more sober university town. In the smaller Jena, the high proportion of students had a stronger impact. Jena's students drank, smoked and beat each other, according to the popular judgments.) In 1708, Leipzig was the best place to publish fashionable novels - It remains unclear whether Rost had a lot to do with the city's fashionable life.

In Leipzig he completed - this is revealed by the place of printing - the Amiable and Galante Noris (Leipzig: JL Gleditsch / MG Weidmann , 1711), a novel that theoretically entered the terrain of the current bourgeois chronique scandaleuse. In fact, he used the scandalous genre for a questionable contrast program. Nuremberg, Rost's hometown, turned out to be a place of virtue wherever Leipzig, Jena, Halle and Hamburg were exposed by students to the ridicule of foreigners. Gleditsch seems to have seen little reason to push the publications forward. On 18 January 1710, signed Meletaon the preface of Noris, but he could on June 18, the add an attack on Sarcander who just a short novel, his seduction had boasted at the expense of a young lady - apparently lacked the Noris at Explosiveness. Regardless, the title did not go on sale until 1711 and never found a second edition.

Student in Jena, 1709–1712

It is unclear what caused Rost to move his place of study to Jena in 1709. Doppelmayer's posthumous biographical article notes that he turned to mathematics and natural philosophy in Jena - there can be no doubt that he acquired above-average knowledge in these subjects: he later published in both areas at a high technical level. Georg Albrecht Hamberger (1662-1718) taught in Jena, followed by Erhard Weigel (1625-1699). However, if you break down Rost's writing activity into published pages per year, you get volumes of well over 1,000 annual pages - there was hardly any time to study, unless Rost enjoyed no further life outside of writing and studying. There is much to be said for this.

In his letter holder published in 1713, Rost suggests that he did not make any contact with the city's women. In the same book there is also a letter about the advantages of Jena as a place to study with the praise that the students lived together here “as brothers”: “Nobody will look for a præcedentz before the other, even if there are already as large numbers of noble people as small ones there to against. ”In the same letter, Rost praised the leisure activities to which Jena invited, and noted that he found little time for them.

While the Noris in Leipzig was still in the process of printing, he brought out the next novels, and he sent the manuscripts to Nuremberg: on April 5, 1710, there were 770 pages of the Turkish Helena . The preface of the hermit in love - a novel among young heroes of the middle nobility - dates from February 14, 1711 .

At this point, Rost must have already been working on the novel, which was particularly close to his heart compared to the previous ones. The show place of the gallant and learned world - the preface here dates from September 18, 1711 - was supposed to be a novel of “local” subjects, a novel in the scandalous genre, and since Nuremberg was not the place of the action, but the well-known University cities that delivered stories, a novel of much bolder conduite than the Noris .

Menantes now became the model - much praised in the opened novel. To the praise came the game of attacks, this time against Celander , whose novels went from student amours to pornographic. Rost himself tried to keep up here too, for example with the scene from Leipzig's opera house: Here, students testify to a delicate action to which a prostitute in the neighboring box condescends to without paying attention to the stability of the furniture - the students have to start with one Leaning back naps, which lulls the lady and her amanten into a false sense of security:

"Meanwhile, Clelie and her amanten came to the Cavallier, pricked the next box, which had not the slightest news from the sleeping neighbors, which is why she appeared all the more freyer in her performance, and in the manner of a merciful Curtisir sister from him Cavallier was served.

A women's room, which does not make a profession of discipline and shame, it gives its vicious impulses, even at the slightest opportunity, so clearly only that one can see in it an outline of reprehensible follies. And when such nasty minds, their lives -Art of thinking in silence, the most secret vice has sometimes been discovered unexpectedly.

One of the three sleeping people was awakened by a dream, so he straightened up a little to see whether the opera had not started yet, because he was as if he heard someone in the right box, which made him be more attentive, by discovering a secret message when he could hear something new.
The opinion did not fail, and luckily there was still a small scratch on the wall, through which he could see those whose secret conversation had given him cause for attention.

I am hesitant to draw with my pen the insolent and voluptuous posture, which the Cavallier as well as Clelie thinks it would be, then it would be of such a kind that the words would be prevented from describing them, that they should be banished from the world altogether; Yes, I cannot believe otherwise than that at that time between these two indecent persons, all human qualities were lost, so much that one must prefer an unreasonable beast to them in this state.

Those who paid homage to a virtuous and merciful life should not be able to understand that a sensible person would step so far out of the closet that he would have to let himself be shamed by the mindless cattle: alone, who wandering through the difference between people and exploring the various kinds of life, he will have to believe more than he previously imagined.

In addition to the extremely angry posture which Sileno, as the awakened Pursche calls himself, he heard Clelie begin: You are much too sleepy in your desires, and have either lost your strength in other arms, or you know not yet the right way how a woman's room should be contented as it is required. The Cavallier spoke against it: What the devil, Clelie you will then not be able to be satisfied, you are so tired that you can hardly talk anymore, so leave me with peace, or I will [...]

The cavallier couldn't finish his words, then the chair on which they both sat broke, and they fell to the ground with such impetus that the people who were in the other boxes and in par terre did not think otherwise, as if the opera house was about to break. [...] "

Scenes of this kind remained rare in the Schau-Platz and morally neatly rated in bold. In the end, however, Rost seems to have risked his further studies in Jena with the publication. In the letter holder of 1713 he noted that he was no better off with the title than Menante's with the Satyrical Novel (1706). Menantes had to flee Hamburg, Rost found himself back in Nuremberg in 1712.

Further studies in Nuremberg and Altdorf 1712–1715

In the obituary 1727, the New Newspapers of Learned Things noted that on his return to Altdorf, Rost had speculated on “visiting foreign countries with someone.” Non-aristocratic students financed stays abroad to accompany young nobility students. A few semesters of study in the Netherlands would have been conceivable, luxurious, but for foreign policy reasons not so easy to realize until 1715, the further trip to France. However, there was no opportunity.

Instead, Rost continued his work as a novelist and also brought behavioral guides into production, which remained at over 1,000 pages per year. He had already flirted with the exit from the business in 1711, and in 1714 the opportunity arose to do so with a gain in reputation. In 1713, Hunold distanced himself from his novels, and Rost followed suit, albeit with less seriousness. He still had some manuscripts under his pen, he announced them at the moment of his repentance (in the preface to the Curieusen love affairs in 1714).

The hero and love story of these times stood out among the remaining titles . Which, during the fading Spanish War of Accessions, occasionally happened in Evropa (Nuremberg: Buggel, 1715) - a political novel that lacked one thing alone: ​​the political explosiveness of the model La Guerre d'Espagne (Cologne: Pierre Marteau, 1707) whose hero, as the predecessor of James Bond , was equally skilled in love and espionage. Rost left the novel business in 1715 (later titles listed in bibliographies should be checked again for authorship).

The following table provides a calculation of the income that Rost should have had with his titles between 1708 and 1715. A moderate calculation will assume two guilders  (florins) per print sheet (16 octaves each , or 24 pages for Duodez ) for the first titles , the fee from 1710 was probably around 2 Reichstalers (rthl.) Per sheet:

preface publication title publisher pages fl. / rthl.
1708 Bellandra Nuremberg: Michahelles 347 44
1708 Atalanta Nuremberg: Michahelles 414 52
01/18/1710 1711 Noris Leipzig: Gleditsch & Weidmann 1089 138
04/05/1710 1710 Helena [Nuremberg: Michahelles] 770 98
02/14/1711 1711 Hermit in love Nuremberg: Albrecht 442 56
1711 Princess Normanna Nuremberg: Albrecht loss ? 40
September 18, 1711 1711 Show place Nuremberg: Lochner 1131 142
03/07/1712 1712 Tamestris Nuremberg: Albrecht 570 72
01/09/1713 1713 Teutsches Letters Cabinet Nuremberg: Lochner 1542 194
04/18/1713 1713 Usability of the dance Nuremberg: Albrecht 268 34
1713 Nordic court Cölln [Nuremberg: Raspe] 320 40
1714 Curieuse love affairs editorial office Cölln [Nuremberg: Raspe] 284 ? 10
07/16/1714 1714 Hermiontes Nuremberg: Albrecht 701 88
09/12/1714 1715 Beautiful Dutch woman Nuremberg: Albrecht 278 24
06/12/1715 1715 Venda Nuremberg 335 28
1715 1715 Successions war Nuremberg: Buggel 1448 182
9,939 1,252

Astronomer and mathematician, Nuremberg 1715–1727

Johann Leonhard Rost, Astronomical Handbook (Nuremberg: PC Monath , 1718).

Rost's way into a bourgeois existence went through a renewed approach to the observatory. He developed a useful friendship with Johann Philipp von Wurzelbau (1651-1725), who, inspired by Eimmart, had set up his own observatory in his house on Spitzenberg 4. As an assistant to Wurzelbau, he took over parts of his correspondence and also made his own observations - including the sunspots. A series of a good 100 articles, most of which appeared in the Breslau collections founded in 1718 , allows the work to be traced in detail. Book publications on solar and lunar eclipses, northern lights and severe storms were also published. Among them, his Astronomical Handbook , which was brought onto the market at the Michaelmas Mass in 1718 - a work that lived up to its title - gained long-term importance, as the preface explains: “A hand-book, because those who start with it will often pick it up - Reasons to desire to learn from it in Praxi Astronomica. ”The publication was dedicated to the Prussian Academy of Sciences , of which Rost was accepted as a foreign member on February 3, 1723.

Rost's work as an astronomer was largely unspectacular. His profession were introductions to astronomy and the mathematics on which it is based. However, he risked a stir with the "dispute over Easter" of 1724. In 1722, when calculating the calendar reform of 1700, he noticed that Easter 1724 would fall on two different dates according to "Catholic" and "Protestant" calculations. Johannes Gaupp (1667–1738) in Lindau had already noticed this when calculating his ephemeris for the years 1720 to 1750. Rost became the first to publish the deviation. In the course of the conflict, the conflict reached the highest level: the Protestant estates meeting in Regensburg decided that the way of determining Easter using astronomical calculations, introduced in 1700, was correct. In fact, Protestant and Catholic Christians in Germany celebrated on different dates in 1724 and 1744. The astronomical method was not finally abolished until 1775 at the instigation of Frederick II (1712–1786). De facto, this meant the final takeover of the Gregorian calendar, whereby it was avoided to call it by name and spoke of the "improved imperial calendar".

Death and fame

On March 10, 1727, rust - according to the medical findings at the time - was attacked by a "febre catarrhali gravedinosa maligna and anomala" from which he no longer recovered. He died on March 22nd after 11 p.m. and was therefore less than 40 years old.

In an obituary in the New Newspapers of learned things , the astronomer was characterized with all friendliness:

“He was of set disposition, penetrating understanding, and unchangeable in his endeavors, so that it was not easy for him to be annoyed by an effort. Before God and his word he had the deepest admiration and enjoyed it day and night; From what his left-hand supply of spiritual thoughts and poems, composed with his own pen, originated, he possessed a special ability for pure poetry. Incidentally, his conduct was affable, sincere, and service-minded. He loved humility and tolerance; and if a careless opponent worried him, he met him with sympathy and without avenge. "

The fact that Rost alias Meletaon wrote novels in his student days was not mentioned. Having said that, it will come as no surprise that his titles did not gain any further status in literary history. The author himself did not give them any greater place in their own life. The gallant novel shone as a carelessly thrown object that at best ridiculed its critics. Today's literary historiography began with the Gottscheds generation in the 1730s, and they probably still granted some big names to the 17th century. On the other hand, she had nothing to do with the generations from Talander to Meletaon. Rost rose to fame in the 18th century as an astronomer, not as a novelist. The lunar crater Rost is named after him.

Today he is interesting from a literary perspective, since his biography can still be understood halfway alongside that of August Bohse and Christian Friedrich Hunolds . The gap that current literary histories have at this point opens up here as a gap in the middle of an incoherent data situation. The problem, as it turns out, is not a lack of data, but the much more delicate fact that this data can hardly be put together in a satisfactory manner.

literature

List of works and references

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the previous academies. Johann Leonhard Rost. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on June 7, 2015 .
  2. ↑ Possibly also the asteroid (1440) Rostia Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, Volume 1 in the Google book search, but this is considered to be named after Georg Rost .

Web links

Wikisource: Johann Leonhard Rost  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Rost, Johann Leonhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meletaon (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German poet and astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH August 14, 1688
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1727
Place of death Nuremberg