Melchior Adam (c. 1575 – 26 December 1622) was a German
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
literary historian
The history of literature is the historical development of writings in prose or poetry that attempt to provide entertainment or education to the reader, as well as the development of the literary techniques used in the communication of these pie ...
.
Life
Adam was born in
Grottkau,
Nysa,
Habsburg Silesia (present-day
Grodków,
Opole Voivodeship
Opole Voivodeship ( , , ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Silesia. A relatively lar ...
). He visited the college in ''Brieg''
Brzeg
Brzeg (; Latin: ''Alta Ripa'', German: ''Brieg'', Silesian German: ''Brigg'', , ) is a town in southwestern Poland with 34,778 inhabitants (December 2021) and the capital of Brzeg County. It is situated in Silesia in the Opole Voivodeship on t ...
, then studied on various academies with financial support of his benefactor
Joachim von Berg. In 1601 he was appointed schoolmaster at the municipal school of Heidelberg, and later became co-rector and professor at the same institution. He died in
Heidelberg
Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...
.
Works
His major achievement consists of a collection of literary biographies, which were printed in
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
and Heidelberg in five volumes: ''German Philosophers'' (including philologists, poets, mathematicians and physicists), ''German Theologians'', ''Foreign Theologians'', ''Jurists and Politicians'' and ''Medics''. The figures discussed were arranged chronologically by their date of death, most of which lie between 1420 and 1620. His sources were biographical texts, personal records, funeral orations, letters and various academic records.
His 1615 ''Vitae Germanorum philosophorum'' (Lives of German philosophers) contains one of the earliest biographies of
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...
.
[Internet Archiv]
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He discussed Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
theologians in a deprecating manner, as he himself was a Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
.
Bibliography
* Vitae Germanorum jureconsultorum et politicorum, qui superiore seculo, et quod excurrit, floruerunt Heidelberg 1611.
* Vitae Germanorum philosophorum … Frankfurt 1610 - Heidelberg 1615
* Decades duae continentes vitas theologorum exterorum principium. Frankfurt am Main 1618.
* Vitae Germanorum medicorum Heidelberg 1620
* Vitae Germanorum theologorum … Heidelberg 1620
* Vitae Germanorum iureconsultorum et politicorum Heidelberg 1620
* Apographum Monumentorum Haidelbergensium. Heidelberg 1612
* Disce mori oder Sterbekunst. Neustadt a. d. H. 1615
* Parodiae et metaphrases Horatianae. 1616
References
Sources
;Attribution
*
*
External links
*
Melchior Adam: ''Vitae''
online edition in the projec
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adam, Melchior
1570s births
1622 deaths
People from Grodków
17th-century German male writers
17th-century German historians
German male non-fiction writers
People from the Habsburg monarchy