Simon Lemnius

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon Lemnius (actually Lemm-Margadant , also Lemnius Emporicus, Mercatorius, Pisaeus, Lemchen ; * around 1511 in Guad in Val Müstair ; † November 24, 1550 in Chur ) was a Swiss humanist and neo-Latin poet .

Life

Lemnius' father, who came from the Prättigau , which is about 30 km from Chur, ran the Guad farm, a fief of the Chur monastery . His mother came from the high Engadin valley that surrounds the Inn . During the Swabian Wars of 1499, the Lower Engadine was severely affected by pillage and pillage. Lemnius was orphaned at a young age. He received early support from the then Bishop of Chur , Paul Ziegler. After basic training, he went on a hike that took him to Zurich , Basel , Vienne , Augsburg and Munich . In 1533 he began studying at the University of Ingolstadt and in 1534 moved to the University of Wittenberg . There he was promoted by Philipp Melanchthon and obtained the academic degree of master's degree in 1535 . In contact with Georg Sabinus , the young epigrammatist apparently sought a professorship at the Wittenberg University.

In 1538 he published his first volume of poetry, Epigrammaton libri duo , which he dedicated to Albrecht von Brandenburg , the Archbishop of Mainz and - as an advocate of the indulgence trade - one of Luther's most popular opponents . Probably the reason for Luther's violent reaction. Luther then published the serious angry work DML against M. Simon Lemnii Epigrammata . In addition, he arranged for Lemnius' eviction from the University of Wittenberg, the arrest of the printer, the confiscation of unsold copies and placed Lemnius under house arrest. Lemnius fled back to Chur and in 1539 took the position of a Latin teacher at the Nikolaischule . After his expulsion from Wittenberg, he wrote several polemical anti-Lutheran writings, the Monachopornomachia ( monk whores War ), in which he changes the life of Luther, of Justus Jonas and Georg Spalatin attacked and their wives. In Chur he was released in 1542 after the publication of his collection of erotic poems "Amores libri". He went to Bologna, received the poet's crown there in 1543 and was accepted into the Accademia Ermatena. In 1544 he returned to his work in Chur, where he died of the plague in 1550.

Lemnius' oeuvre encompasses the most varied forms of Neo-Latin poetry. In addition to the translation of a Greek geography of the world, the Odyssey, a short version of the Iliad , and erotic poems, Lemnius wrote pastoral poems and his great epic Raeteis about the Swabian War of 1499. He probably had a close and emotional bond with his parents' house, His parents' home area has given pillage and pillage. He lost his place in literary history through the controversial argument with Martin Luther, who called him a "shame poetaster". Only the young Gotthold Ephraim Lessing tried to give him a place in literary history again (in the " Rescue ", 1753):

“An angry Luther was able to do anything. Consider it; his blind heat went so far that he did not hesitate to assert himself in a public writing posted on the church doors; the fugitive boy, as he calls Lemnius, would have lost his head for all rights if he had been obtained. The head? and why? Because of some miserable mockery that not he but his interpreters had made poisonous? Is that heard? And how could Luther say that a few satyrical traits against private individuals should be punished with life; he who did not tease crowned heads but scolded them? "

- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Rescue of Lemnius in eight letters . In: all writings part 3, Berlin 1784, pp. 31–32

Works

  • Dionysius Lubicus poeta, de situ habitabilis orbis , Venice 1543
  • Odyssey , Basel 1549
  • Iliad , Basel 1539
  • Epigrammatum libri duo , Wittenberg 1538
  • Amorum libri IV , Basel 1542
  • Monachopornomachia , without year and place (digitized online under web links)

expenditure

  • Lothar Mundt (Ed.): Simon Lemnius: Amorum libri IV. Love strategies in four books. Peter Lang, Bern 1988, ISBN 3-261-03848-9 (Latin text and German translation)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ferdinand Vetter: Lemnius, Simon. In: Rochus Freiherr von Liliencron (Ed.): General German Biography. 56 vols. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, pp. 236-239. Website of the German Biography. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c d Peter Ukena: Lemnius [...], Simon. In: Hans-Christof Kraus (Ed.): New German Biography. 25 vols. [As of April 2015] Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1984, p. 191. Website of the German Biography. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Lemnius, Simon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Margadant; Mercatorius; Pisaeus; Lemm Lemchen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss humanist and neo-Latin poet
DATE OF BIRTH around 1511
PLACE OF BIRTH Guad , Val Mustair
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1550
Place of death Chur