Lucas Lossius

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Lucas Lossius (also: Lucas Lotze ; * October 18, 1508 in Vaake ; † July 8, 1582 in Lüneburg ) was a German Lutheran theologian , educator and hymnologist of the Reformation period .

Life

Lossius studied from 1530 to 1532 in Wittenberg , where he met Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon . A letter of recommendation from the two reformers gave him a job as Secretary of Urbanus Rhegius in Lüneburg in 1532 . A year later he became a teacher at the local high school Johanneum , where he worked until his death, from 1542 as vice-principal. He taught ancient languages ​​and as cantor was responsible for liturgical music in schools and churches.

His wife Anna, with whom he had been married since 1542, and three sons survived him: Johannes, who was a teacher in Hamburg, Hieronymus, later pastor of St. Johannis (Lüneburg) , and Lucas, who also became a teacher; one daughter died in childhood, three other daughters, one of whom was married to Maverus, the rector and later pastor of the Michaeliskirche (Lüneburg) , had died before him.

In memory of his life's work, Lucas-Lossius-Strasse was dedicated to Lucas-Lossius-Strasse in his birthplace Vaake, a district of the Reinhardshagen community in the Weserbergland. The adjacent streets were appropriately named after his mentors Martin Luther and Melanchthon. In addition, the Reinhardshagen school has had his name since 1970: Lucas-Lossius-Schule.

plant

As the basis of his teaching in the ancient languages ​​and in the Artes Liberales , Lossius created a series of school books that are based on the method of Philipp Melanchthon and have been reprinted many times. This includes his erotemata ( questions ) in the areas of grammar , dialectics and rhetoric , arithmetic and musica practica . The latter in particular made Lossius widely known as a music theorist.

For his work as a cantor he published the Psalmodia , a collection of church music that was intended as a teaching work for schools and at the same time as a service book for the Lüneburg churches and was distributed throughout northern Germany. The chorale book is a mixture of graduals and antiphonals and contains a large selection of pre-Reformation chants ( antiphonas , responsoria , hymnos , invitatoria , introitus , Halleluia et sequentias ) with only minor changes due to Reformation theology. Its wide distribution ensured that Lutheran church music adhered to the tradition of Latin chant.

In the evangelical hymn book there are:

  • Glory to you, Christe (75, melody and text based on older models)
  • You are three in unity (470, melody based on older models)
  • Holy, holy, holy (North Elbe regional appendix 672.2, melody)

In older hymnal editions as well as in God's praise you can find:

  • A child born in Bethlehem (GL 146) ( Puer natus in Bethlehem )

His Lunaeburga Saxoniae , a collection of Latin poems on the history and shape of the city, which he published in 1564 to celebrate the peace between Lüneburg and the dukes Heinrich and Wilhelm , which had been concluded the year before, became significant for Lüneburg's local history . In addition to poems about the history of the city and epitaphs of the respected Lüneburgers who died at the time, the collection contains descriptions of everything that Lossius found strange in his time in terms of customs and things.

Fonts (selection)

For a complete overview, see the list of prints from the 16th century published in the German-speaking area (VD 16) .

  • Erotemata dialecticae et rhetoricae Philippi Melanthonis, et praeceptionum Erasmi Roterodami ... ad usum scholarum "quas vocant triviales" broad selecta et contracta. 1545
  • Psalmodia, hoc est, Cantica Sacra Veteris Ecclesiae selectae 1553 ( DKL 1553 10 )
    Facsimile of the edition Wittenberg 1561: Stuttgart 1996 (Heilbronner Musikschatz, 12)
  • Arithmetices erotemata puerilia. Eichorn, Frankfurt / Oder 1557 ZV 9868 in the VD 16 . ( Digitized copy of the SLUB Dresden copy )
  • Erotemata musicae practicae 1563 ( RISM B VI 1,517)
  • Lunaeburga Saxoniae. Frankfurt am Main 1566
    reprint: Lunaeburga Saxoniae - Lüneburg in Sachsenland. Translated into German by Hans Dumrese from the original Latin text by Lucas Lossius. Lüneburg, Lüneburg Prints 1956.
  • Fabulae Aesopi . Egenolph, Marburg 1571 ( Google Books )
  • Epitaphia principuum, ducum, nobilium et praecipuorum ecclesiae, reipublicae et scholarum gubernatorum aliorumque in Saxonia inferiore illustrium. Wittenberg 1580
  • Catechism, Hoc Est, Christianae Doctrinae Methodus. Egenolph, Frankfurt 1584 ( digitized version of the Regensburg University Library )

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lossius, Lucas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lucas Lotze
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Lutheran theologian and hymnologist
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1508
PLACE OF BIRTH Vaake
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1582
Place of death Luneburg