Melchior Adam

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Melchior Adam (* around 1575 in Grottkau in the Principality of Neisse ; † March 23 or December 26, 1622 in Heidelberg ) was a pedagogue, lexicographer and literary historian . He became known as a biographer through his scholar biographies, which were written in Latin. The vitae (résumés) printed in the years 1615–1620 deal in five sections with 546 scholars, mainly from the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation during the period from 1400 to 1618.

Live and act

Adam completed his academic training at various universities after eight years of attending grammar school in Brzeg . In 1598 he went to Heidelberg, where he acquired the degree of Magister Artium in 1600 . In 1601 he took on an apprenticeship at the Heidelberg grammar school, became vice rector in 1606 and rector in 1613. Connected to the Silesian culture all his life, the Reformed Adam was a prominent figure in Palatinate Calvinism on the eve of the Thirty Years' War . Ailing for a long time, he died in 1622. His relatively early death in the year Heidelberg was taken by the League is attributed to exhaustion from strenuous work. Since two times of death are mentioned, it remains unknown whether he died before or after the siege of Heidelberg.

After minor academic work in 1601 and 1602, he published his first major work on Heidelberg's inscriptions in 1612 in Heidelberg. It mostly contains epitaphs from Heidelberg and the surrounding area. According to the enclosed index, information on 261 people is recorded. In 1615 the printing of the Vitae , his main work, began. The five departments deal separately with philosophers (including philologists, poets, historians, mathematicians and physicists), physicians, lawyers and politicians, theologians and outstanding foreign theologians. Adam only included deceased people in his collection. Each section is arranged chronologically in ascending order according to the scholar's death date. With the exception of the 20 foreign theologians, only domestic scholars are discussed. A single woman interrupts the ranks of the men, the Heidelberg humanist Olympia Fulvia Morata . Adam justifies her admission with her exemplary character and the fact that her husband was German.

The way of working

Adam's great work is a school man's side work. The Poeta Laureatus from Upper Silesia was a teacher from 1601 and rector at the Heidelberg Paedagogium from 1613. His texts are largely a résumé or paraphrase of the selected sources. Adam's Latin is elegant and lively; the biographer describes the fate and work of his 'heroes' with empathy and an alert intellect. The fact that he falls back on a fixed stock of formulas, points of view and judgments corresponds to the customs of the time and the requirements of his wide-ranging company.

Adam had a rich collection of printed funeral sermons. These texts usually contain a curriculum vitae of the deceased, which of course speaks more of his origin and social environment, of character, virtues and honors as well as of illnesses and death of the honored person than of his learned works. In some vita the structure of this type of source still shines through. Adam was also able to fall back on the holdings of the richest German library of his time, the Heidelberg Bibliotheca Palatina , which its librarian, Jan Gruter , willingly made available to him. He drew from individual biographies, correspondence, regional and contemporary works, literary historical compendia and occasionally even from oral reports. In doing so, he endeavored, as far as the limits of his material fund and his work capacity allowed, to collect and critically examine the sources. He often names the literature used at the end of the article or in marginalia for individual passages.

Works

  • Apographum monumentorum Haidelbergensium . Heidelberg 1612. Full text in the Google book search
  • Vitae Germanorum philosophorum, qui seculo superiori, et quod excurrit, philosophicis ac humanioribus literis clari floruerunt . Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg 1615. Full text in the Google book search, archive.org
  • Disce mori or the art of dying . Neustadt ad H. 1615.
  • Parodiae et metaphrases Horatianae . Frankfurt am Main 1616.
  • Decades duae continentes vitas theologorum exterorum principum, qui Ecclesiam Christi superiori seculo propagarunt et propugnarunt . Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg 1618.
  • Vitae Germanorum jureconsultorum et politicorum, qui superiori seculo, et quod excurrit, floruerunt . Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg 1620.
  • Vitae Germanorum medicorum […] . Frankfurt am Main and (with Jona Rosa) Heidelberg 1620.
  • Vitae Germanorum theologorum, qui superiori seculo Ecclesiam Christi voce scriptisque propagarunt et propugnarunt . Frankfurt am Main and Heidelberg 1620.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Adam, Melchior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue, lexicographer, literary historian and biographer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1575
PLACE OF BIRTH Grottkau
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 1622 or December 26, 1622
Place of death Heidelberg