Nicodemus Frischlin

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Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin after a contemporary woodcut

Philipp Nicodemus Frischlin (born September 22, 1547 in Erzingen , today part of Balingen , † November 29, 1590 in Urach ) was a late humanist philologist , neo-Latin playwright and ennobled lyric poet .

Life

Origin and education

Frischlin's house in Tübingen next to the collegiate church , Clinicumsgasse 18
Memorial plaque for Frischlin on his former home in Tübingen

Nicodemus Frischlin's grandfather Johannes Frischlin came to Balingen from Diessenhofen in 1498 and married Leutgarde, the daughter of the mayor Konrad Metz. Their son Jakob Frischlin (1522–1566) became a pastor in Balingen and married Agnes Ruoff, daughter of a local gunsmith, here in 1546. Nicodemus was their first of eight children. He grew up in Balingen, was a student at the local and the Latin school on the Tübingen Österberg as well as at the monastery schools in Bebenhausen and Königsbronn , whose progressive teachers he later highlighted as important initiators. He then received a scholarship from the Tübinger Stift .

After his father and four siblings fell victim to the plague in 1566 , Nicodemus had to look after his youngest brother Jakob Frischlin (1557–1621) on the side. He received a similar basic education, became a schoolmaster and tried all his life to emulate Nicodemus as the author of prose, poetry and historical compilations. However, literary critics acknowledged his extensive work "as a bad copy".

Professorship in Tübingen

From 1563 Nicodemus Frischlin studied philology , poetry and theology in Tübingen . In 1568 he followed a call as an associate professor of poetry and history . In the same year he married Margarethe Brenz from Weil der Stadt , who was related to the reformer Johannes Brenz , which gave him access to the influential circles of Württemberg honor . He was to have 16 children with Margarethe, but only five of them survived in the long term.

Professor in the chair at the lecture from 1500, on a woodcut from the work Kleines Distillierbuch

During his professorship, Frischlin also made a name for himself outside the country through numerous publications. So he was soon not only in the favor of Duke Ludwig , but was crowned Poeta laureatus as a poet by the young, art-loving Emperor Rudolf II in 1576 and finally made Count of the Court Palatinate ( Comes Palatinus ) in 1577 . However, due to differences of opinion and rivalries, especially with his former sponsor and future arch enemy Martin Crusius , the belligerent genius in his faculty increasingly lost support. He was denied the desired full professorial position, as was the transfer to a university abroad. Because of his 1578 Eloge Oratio de vita rustica , in which he opposed the abundantly reviled landed gentry with the noble peasant, Frischlin struck strong criticism. After he had it printed in 1580, he got into serious trouble because the organized knightly class filed criminal charges, individual knights were even trying to kill him and the duke now withdrew his protecting hand. In the meantime, with a ban on publication and house arrest, Frischlin was only left with an illegitimate departure abroad in 1582.

Exile, arrest and fatal crash

During his traveling years he was the school principal in Ljubljana (today Slovenia) from 1582 to 1584 . From 1584/85 he lived in Strasbourg , 1587 in Wittenberg , 1588 as head of the Latin school in Braunschweig and briefly in 1589 in Marburg , where Margarete gave birth to the sixteenth child, a stillborn. In 1585, Crusius and others knew how to prevent the forgiveness and re-employment at the University of Tübingen, which had been hoped for in the meantime, through intriguing insinuations. Frischlin escaped a threatened process by fleeing to Frankfurt .

After he had written a pamphlet against the Württemberg court in 1590, the chancellery sent an investigator who arrested him in Mainz . After the extradition approved by the Archbishop, he was first placed under house arrest at Wirtemberg Castle and then imprisoned under tougher conditions at Hohenurach Castle. But although his health here deteriorated and he was consumed with worries about his wife, Frischlin refused the expected revocation with a pardon and instead planned the outbreak. During an attempt to escape on the night of November 28th to 29th, 1590, however, the rope made of sheets broke. The stubborn fell down the slope and broke his neck, among other things. On December 4, the only 43-year-old delinquent was not anonymously buried like other prisoners at the Duke's behest, but was buried in the Urach “ churchyard ”.

Bereaved

His wife Margarete, who had stood by him to the last against all odds and had moved near the Urach castle, was from then on looked after by her brother-in-law and her mother in Tübingen. When the two died in 1591, her citizenship was revoked. After Wildberg made, she went here in their need a marriage of convenience, but could be soon divorced and died in 1599 in Tübingen. The biographer David Friedrich Strauss described her "as a woman with a very lively temperament, who not only threatened to scratch her eyes when she was jealous, but could also become very pointed in business and property matters against her relatives". The Brenz biographer Adolf Rentschler complained that “their moral performance, especially in widowhood”, left a lot to be desired.

Even if her son Johann Jakob had to break off his studies in Strasbourg after the death of his father , their remaining five children all found a "livelihood": The families of the painter Johann Jakob and the civil servant Johann Friedrich found themselves in Grüningen , where you also occasionally unsteady Uncle Jakob stopped by. Nicodemus became sub-bailiff and clerical administrator in Liebenzell . Katharina married the deacon Balthasar Moninger from Appetshofen , Anna Maria married the Tübingen tailor Georg Preiß, who in 1603 bought back the former house of the Frischlins.

reception

Nicodemus Frischlin portrayed posthumously for the Tübingen Professorengalerie

Crusius sent the following verse to him in the grave: “Frischlinus lies here, badly sprained by the trap; he was a good head, but he abused him. "

Frischlin was considered a gifted poet, a fun-loving, drinking and at the same time controversial lateral thinker, also an avid advocate of Protestantism and a critic of social conditions. “Protester of Protestantism”, however, was more his self-confident wife, who talked him out of the desired job in the Catholic city of Freiburg and, in a denominational way, helped determine where she stayed in exile. His socially critical polemics were less politically than personally motivated and owed to his disputes with representatives of the attacked circles. According to the Copernicus biography of Pierre Gassendi from 1654, Nicodemus Frischlin was aware of his major work De revolutionibus orbium coelestium , published in 1543, and is said to have been an early follower of this revolutionary worldview. His brother Jakob contributed to Frischlin's popularity by translating some works written in Latin . In high circles he could do little with his defense against the slanderous slander of Crusius and the Brenz family.

His hometown Balingen dedicated an exhibition with a lecture program to the “great Swabian crosshead” on the 400th anniversary of his death and published a comprehensive biography.

Works

  • Callimachus ' hymns and epigrams , translation, 1571
  • De studiis linguarum et liberalium artium , 1575. ( digitized version )
  • Rebecca , biblical drama, 1576. ( digitized version )
  • Oratio de vita rustica , 1578. ( digitized version )
  • Priscianus vapulans , 1578. ( digitized version )
  • Hildegardis Magna , drama, 1579. ( digitized version )
  • Mrs. Wendelgard , German-language comedy, 1579. ( digitized version )
  • Dido , tragedy, 1581. ( digitized version )
  • Venus , tragedy, 1584
  • Julius Caesar redivivus , 1585
  • Graecanica proverbia selectiora cum symbolis veterum quorundam philosophorum, regum et imperatorum , 1588 ( digital copy of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania library )
  • Helvetiogermani , drama, 1589
  • Dialogus logicus contra Ramum , 1590. ( digitized version )
  • Poppysmus tertius , edited by Jakob Frischlin. Tobias Jobin, Frankfurt am Main 1596 (pamphlet directed against Crusius)
  • 62 Facetiae , 1603. ( digitized version )
  • Phasma , 1598. ( digitized version )
  • Hebraeis, continens duodecim libros . 1599. ( digitized version )
  • Operum Poeticorum pars epica . ( Digitized version )
  • Operum poeticorum pars elegiaca, continens viginti duos elegiacorum carminum libros . ( Digitized version )
  • Operum Poëticorum Paralipomena: Continentur hoc Opere, Poemata, maiori ex parte typis ante non excusa; Videlicet, 5th Libri Carminum Heroicorum, & Octo Satyrae adversus Iac. Rabum Apostatam / Ex recensione Valentini Clessii
  • Horologiographia
  • Nomenclator trilinguis, Graecolatinogermanicus: continens omnium rerum, quae in probatis omnium doctrinarum auctoribus inueniuntur, appellationes… Opus nova quadam methodo, secundum categorias Aristotelis… concinnatum. - Et tertio iam… recognitum. Francofurti ad Moenum: Spies, 1591. ( digitized )
  • Seven books from the Fuerstliche Wuertembergischen wedding of the lucid… Mr. Ludwigen / Hertzüge zu Wuertemberg vnd Theck . ( Digitized version )

Text editions and translations

  • Nicodemus Frischlin: Complete Works. Edited by Hans-Gert Roloff, among others, 20 text and 6 commentary volumes. Peter Lang, Berlin 1992 ff .; later Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt
  • Julius Redivivus. In the translation by Jacob Frischlin ed. by Richard E. Schade (Reclams UB 7981). Reclam, Stuttgart 1983.
  • Nicola Kaminski (ed.): Nicodemus Frischlin: Hildegardis Magna. Dido. Venus. Helvetiogermani. Volume 1: Historical-critical edition of the Latin texts and German translation. Peter Lang, Bern 1995, ISBN 3-906755-28-2 .

literature

Overview representations
Overall presentations and investigations
  • Sabine Holtz u. a. (Ed.): Nicodemus Frischlin (1547–1590), poetic and prosaic practice under the conditions of the denominational age. Tübingen lectures (= works and editions on middle German literature , NF, 1). Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1999, ISBN 3-7728-1832-3 .
  • David Price: The political dramaturgy of Nicodemus Frischlin. Essays on humanist drama in Germany (= University of North Carolina Studies in the Germanic Languages ​​and Literatures 111). University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill et al. a. 1990, ISBN 0-8078-8111-2 .
  • Hedwig Röckelein , Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547–1590 (= Publications of the Balingen City Archives , Volume 2). Balingen 1990.
  • Josef A. Kohl: Nicodemus Frischlin: The class satire in his work . Mainz 1967, DNB 482266996 (dissertation University Mainz, 1967).
  • Reinhold Stahlecker: Martin Crusius and Nicodemus Frischlin. In: Journal of Württemberg State History. Volume 7, 1943, pp. 323-366.
bibliography
  • Thomas Wilhelmi , Friedrich Seck: Nicodemus Frischlin (1557–1590). Bibliography (= Tübingen building blocks for regional history , Volume 4). DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2004, ISBN 3-87181-704-X .

Web links

Commons : Nicodemus Frischlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Publications of the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 29ff.
  2. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 62.
  3. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 78ff.
  4. ↑ In order to leave the country, the sovereign's permission was required.
  5. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 56.
  6. ↑ See the poem about the unfortunate end of his attempt to escape Wikisource
  7. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 61.
  8. ^ David Friedrich Strauss : Life and writings of the poet and philologist Nicodemus Frischlin. A contribution to German cultural history in the second half of the sixteenth century. Literary establishment (J. Kütten), Frankfurt am Main 1856.
  9. ^ Adolf Rentschler: On the family history of the reformer Johannes Brenz . Tübingen 1921.
  10. ↑ Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 61ff.
  11. ↑ Doubted by Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 7f.
  12. ↑ Quotation from Mayor Eugen Fleischmann in the preface to the biography of Hedwig Röckelein u. Casimir Bumiller: A restless poet: Nicodemus Frischlin 1547-1590. Published by the Balingen City Archives, Volume 2, Balingen 1990, p. 3.
  13. ↑ Hans Widmann : Author trouble of a scholar in the 16th century. In: Börsenblatt for the German book trade - Frankfurt edition. No. 89, (November 5) 1968, pp. 2929-2940, p. 2930, note 11.
personal data
SURNAME Frischlin, Nicodemus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frischlin, Philipp Nicodemus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Late Humanist philologist, neo-Latin playwright and poet
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1547
PLACE OF BIRTH Erzingen near Balingen
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1590
Place of death Hohenurach