August Buchner (2 November 1591 – 12 February 1661) was a German philologist, poet and literary scholar, an influential professor of poetry and rhetoric at the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and i ...

Career

Buchner was born in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

the son of Paul Buchner and his wife Maria, the daughter of the mayor of Dresden . After private education, he attended from 17 November 1604 the '' Landesschule Pforta'', where he received education in religion, classical languages and the

liberal arts Liberal arts education () is a traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''skill, art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the fine arts. ''Liberal arts education'' can refe ...

. He studied at the

from 19 November 1610, first law and philosophy. He studied poetry with and , ethics with , Greek with , and rhetoric with . Before he achieved the magister degree, he was appointed professor of poetry in 1616 as the successor of Rodenberg by the court of Saxony. Among his students are Simon Dach, Paul Fleming, Johann Franck, Paul Gerhardt, Christian Gueintz, Christian Keymann, Balthasar Kindermann, Johann Klaj, Martin Opitz, David Schirmer, Andreas Tscherning, Jakob Thomasius, Philipp von Zesen and Caspar Ziegler. After Opitz had died, Buchner was regarded as most influential for German Baroque poetry. He was ''Rektor'' of the university in 1618, 1632 and 1654. He died in Apollensdorf.

Work

Buchner's ''Hauptwerk'', ''Anleitung zur deutschen Poeterei'' (Instructions for German poetry), was published in Wittenberg in 1665 after his death by his son-in-law . It contains his lectures on poetry, compiled from his manuscripts and those of students. He contributed to the ''Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae'', a Latin dictionary first printed in 1571. Buchner wrote the libretto for a ballet-opera ''Orpheus und Euridice'' with music by

Heinrich Schütz Heinrich Schütz (; 6 November 1672) was a German early Baroque music, Baroque composer and organ (music), organist, generally regarded as the most important German composer before Johann Sebastian Bach and one of the most important composers of ...

, which was performed on 20 November 1638 for a courtly wedding. The musical score of this work has subsequently been lost.

Selected works

The German National Library holds 17 of his publications. The VD 17 (Bibliography of Books Printed in the German Speaking Countries from 1601 to 1700) lists 216 publications related to him, including collections of dissertations, speeches and letters, including: * ''Dissertationum academicarum'' Wittenberg 1650 (VD 17, 134) * ''Oratio panegyrica.'' Halle 1661 * ''Epistolae'' (letters) Dresden 1697 (VD 17, No. 5–7) * ''Poemata selectiora, nunc primum edita.'' Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main 1694. (Latin Poems.) * ''Deutsche Gedichte.'' Editors: Gerd Hergen Lübben and Wulf Segebrecht. Bamberg 2020. (German Poems.)Frieder von Ammon: ''Augustus Buchner, Deutsche Gedichte. Hg. von Gerd Hergen Lübben und Wulf Segebrecht ..' in ''Arbitrium. Zeitschrift für Rezensionen zur germanistischen Literaturwissenschaft'', 2020, Vol. 38 Heft 3, S. 311–314.

As editor

Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 – 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...

: ''Comoediae'' Wittenberg 1640 (VD 17, 174–176) * Gabriel Naudé: ''Bibliographia politica'' Wittenberg 1641 (VD 17, 173) *

Pliny the Younger Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (born Gaius Caecilius or Gaius Caecilius Cilo; 61 – ), better known in English as Pliny the Younger ( ), was a lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome. Pliny's uncle, Pliny the Elder, helped raise and e ...

(ed.): ''Epistolarum libri X'' Wittenberg 1643 (VD 17, 169)

Literature

* Hans Heinrich Borchardt: ''August Buchner und seine Bedeutung für die deutsche Literatur des 17. Jahrhunderts.'' Habilitationsschrift, München 1919 * Wilhelm Buchner: ''August Buchner, sein Leben und Wirken.'' Hannover 186
Online
* Franz Hahne: '' Paul Gerhardt und Augustus Buchner''. In: ''Euphorion'' 15 (1908), pp. 19–34 * Martin Keller: '' Johann Klajs Weihnachtsdichtung.'' Berlin 1971 * Käte Lorenzen: ''Augustus Buchner''. In: ''Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart,'' 2 (1952), pp. 416–418 * William Jervis Jones: ''Sprachhelden und Sprachverderber – Dokumente zur Erforschung des Fremdwortpurismus im Deutschen (1478–1750)''. de Gruyter, 1995, , pp. 455–462

References

Bibliography

* * * * * Gerhard Dünnhaupt: ''Augustus Buchner (1591–1661)''. In: ''Personalbibliographien zu den Drucken des Barock'', Bd. 2. Hiersemann, Stuttgart 1990, , pp. 855–910. * * Abraham Calov: Artificii Oratorii Magisterium. Oder Sonderbahre Kunst und Meisterstück der göttlichen Beredsamkeit/ des grossen Oratoris Christi Jesu ... : Bey ... Leich-Begängnüß Des ... Augusti Buchneri, Eloquentiae und Poeseos bey der löblichen Universität Wittenberg berühmten Prof. Publ. ... Welcher im Jahr Christi 1661. seines Alters im 70sten/ am 12. Febr. ... entschlaffen/ Und darauf am 19. selbigen Monats in der Schloß Kirchen in sein Ruch-Bettlein versetzet / In der Pfarr-Kirchen daselbst. Wittenberg 1661
Online
* *

External links

Printed works
lbs-braunschweig.gbv.de

Deutsche Biographie

(ed. of M. G. Hübner 1694), Faksimile
Tripota – Trierer Porträtdatenbank
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchner, August 17th-century German poets German classical philologists Academic staff of the University of Wittenberg Writers from Dresden German editors 1591 births 1661 deaths Baroque writers Scholars from the Holy Roman Empire