Jakob Balde (January 4, 1604 – August 9, 1668), a German poet who wrote primarily in Neo-Latin (

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy a ...

) rather than in his native German language, was born at

Ensisheim Ensisheim (; gsw-FR, Anze) is a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. It is also the birthplace of the composer Léon Boëllmann. The Germanic origins of the village's name reflect the area's history. Amo ...

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

Biography

Driven from

by the marauding bands of Count Mansfeld, he fled to

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an independent city on the Danube in Upper Bavaria with 139,553 inhabitants (as of June 30, 2022). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan area. Ingolstadt is the second largest city in Upper Bav ...

where he began to study law. A love disappointment, however, turned his thoughts to the church, and in 1624 he entered the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders = ...

. Continuing his study of the humanities, he became in 1628 professor of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate partic ...

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a po ...

, and in 1635 at Ingolstadt, whither he had been transferred by his superiors in order to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. In 1633 he was ordained a priest. His lectures and poems had now made him famous, and he was summoned to

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

where, in 1638, he became court chaplain to the elector Maximilian I. He remained in Munich till 1650, when he went to live at

Landshut Landshut (; bar, Landshuad) is a town in Bavaria in the south-east of Germany. Situated on the banks of the River Isar, Landshut is the capital of Lower Bavaria, one of the seven administrative regions of the Free State of Bavaria. It is also ...

and afterwards at

Amberg Amberg () is a town in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in the Upper Palatinate, roughly halfway between Regensburg and Bayreuth. In 2020, over 42,000 people lived in the town. History The town was first mentioned in 1034, at that time under ...

. In 1654 he was transferred to Neuburg on the Danube, as court preacher and confessor to the

count palatine A count palatine (Latin ''comes palatinus''), also count of the palace or palsgrave (from German ''Pfalzgraf''), was originally an official attached to a royal or imperial palace or household and later a nobleman of a rank above that of an or ...

. He remained at Neuburg for the rest of his life. A collected edition of Balde's works in 4 vols was published at Cologne in 1660; a more complete edition in 8 vols at Munich, 1729; also a good selection by L. Spach (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Strasbourg Strasbourg (, , ; german: Straßburg ; gsw, label= Bas Rhin Alsatian, Strossburi , gsw, label=Haut Rhin Alsatian, Strossburig ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est region of eastern France and the official seat of the Eu ...

, 1871). An edition of his Latin lyrics was edited by Benno Müller in 1844 in Munich and another edition also appeared at Regensburg in 1884. There are translations into German of some of his odes by

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( , ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic. He is associated with the Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. Biography Born in Mohrun ...

(1795), his satires by Johannes Neubig (

, 1833) and J. Schrott and M. Schleich (

, 1870). See G. Westermayer, ''Jacobus Balde, sein Leben und seine Werke'' (1868); J. Bach, ''Jakob Balde'' (

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

, 1904). Various odes have been translated into English by Karl Maurer.

Works

* * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Works of Jakob Balde online (e.g. the Cologne edition)
- projec

Odes of Jakob Balde
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balde, Jakob 1604 births 1668 deaths People from Haut-Rhin 17th-century German Jesuits Alsatian-German people University of Ingolstadt alumni New Latin-language poets 17th-century Latin-language writers