Johannes Mejer (poet)

Johannes Mejer (* 1605/1606 in Hadersleben ; † late 1659 / early 1660 probably in Bordesholm ) was a Danish teacher and poet.

Live and act

Johannes Mejer was the son of pastor Bernhard Mejer and his first wife Botilde, née Tolner. The cartographer of the same age was his cousin. The family's surname is mentioned alternately in sources. In addition to the spelling “Mejer”, Latinized spellings such as Mejerus , Meierus or Meyerus can also be found. Mejer himself mostly referred to himself as "Mejerus".

Mejer attended the Academic Gymnasium in Hamburg from 1624 , which he left with a baccalaureate. He studied from August 1627 at the University of Rostock and in 1628 moved to the University of Copenhagen . In the winter of 1629/30 he was the teacher of Prince Ulrich of Denmark . Accompanied by a letter of recommendation from Johann Lauremberg addressed to Gerhard Johannes Vossius , he enrolled at the University of Leiden in May 1630 . According to a registry entry by his friend Paul Moth , he stayed there until April 1633. During and after his time in Leiden, he went on trips abroad , probably as court master .

Mejer returned to Copenhagen in 1634 at the latest and in April 1635 got a job as a tutor from Johann (1625-1640), the eldest son of Philipp von Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg , whom he accompanied to England in 1636. At the end of the 1630s he lived in the royal residences of Glückstadt , Frederiksborg Castle and Kolding and was therefore probably a member of Christian IV's court . In April 1641 he moved to the cathedral school in Ripen as director . At the end of 1646 or beginning of 1647 he left school without authorization. The reason is said to have been an unhappy love affair. Mejer was then adopted and then occupied himself with private studies for several years.

Otto Sperling wrote that Mejer from Duke Friedrich III. of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf had been commissioned Corfitz Ulfeldt to contact secret and to ask them to make him the successor to King Christian IV.. Mejer was unsuccessful in his mission. From 1650 he worked as vice-principal of the Bordesholmer Fürstenschule under Paul Sperling the Younger, Otto Sperling's brother, whom he had met at the school in Hamburg.

Mejer's date of death is not known exactly. His college friend Zacharias Lund wrote to their fellow student Vincenz Fabricius on March 28, 1660 that Mejer had died some time ago.

Works

Like Lund, Mejer came from a pastor's family, but did not choose a spiritual profession himself. After the death of his teacher Jesper Brochmand , he wrote a poem for him and signed it with what was then the new job title Philologiae Studiosus . This shows that he made a conscious decision not to pursue a spiritual career, although it severely limited his professional prospects. For this reason he worked for a long time as a less secure private educator and later as a teacher. This offered philologists outside the university the possibility of a secure income, although only a few of them were happy there because, in addition to their teaching duties, they could not pursue their scientific and literary interests to the extent desired.

Mejers was looking for social advancement and therefore only dedicated his occasional poems to renowned Danish clergy such as Caspar Bartholin, Jesper Brochmand, Anders Sørensen Vedel or influential nobles such as Jørgen Seefeld, Christian Friis , Corfitz Ulfeldt and others. Christian IV therefore angrily described him as a "arrogant donkey". However, Mejer was clearly unsuccessful in his efforts, as he eventually ended up as a humble vice-principal at Bordesholm.

Mejer can be assigned to late humanism . He was considered an elegant neo-Latin poet. In particular, he wrote elegies and heroes' poems held in hexameters . Because of his works he was appointed Poeta Laureate . But only his occasional poems appeared in print. Mejer also dealt, like Ole Worm and Stephan Stephanius , with the antiquities of Denmark. Obviously he only dealt with theological topics in the last years of his life.

literature

• Dieter Lohmeier: Mejer, Johannes . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pages 160-162.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Dieter Lohmeier: Mejer, Johannes . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , page 160.
2. ↑ Entry in the Rostock matriculation portal
3. ↑ Dieter Lohmeier: Mejer, Johannes . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , pages 160-161.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Dieter Lohmeier: Mejer, Johannes . in: Schleswig-Holstein biographical lexicon . Volume 5. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1979. ISBN 3-529-02645-X , page 161.