Paulus Melissus

Paulus Melissus (also: Paul Melissus, Paul Schede, or Paulus Schedius Melissus; born 20 December 1539 in Mellrichstadt; died 3 February 1602 in Heidelberg) was a humanist Neo-Latin writer, translator and composer.

Life

Melissus studied and attended school in Zwickau from 1557 to 1559, and studied philology in Erfurt and Jena. From 1560 to 1564 he lived in Vienna, where in 1561 he became poet laureate. He stayed in Prague, Wittenberg and Leipzig, and was called to the court of the bishop of Würzburg and went on a campaign to Hungary with him.

He was an ambassador in the service of Emperor Maximilian II and Rudolf II, and traveled to France, Switzerland, Italy, and England and was ultimately director of the Electoral library in Heidelberg (the Bibliotheca Palatina).

Melissus translated works of Clément Marot and Théodore de Bèze for the Hugenot church services in rhyme using the Psalms in German. He was the first to use the sonnet and the terza rima in German lyric. In his lifetime he was recognized as an author fully versed in Latin love poetry.

Works

Cantiones, poems (1566)
Psalmen Davids (1572)
Schediasmata poems (1574)
Schediasmatum reliquiae poems (1575)
Epigrammata (1580)
Odae Palatinae (1588)
Meletemata poems (1595)

Literature

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Jörg-Ulrich Fechner, Hans Dehnhard (1994), "Melissus, Paulus", Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 17, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 15–16
Fritz Roth, Restlose Auswertungen von Leichenpredigten für genealogische und kulturhistorische Zwecke. Bd. 5 R 4941
Wolfgang Klose: Das Wittenberger Gelehrtenstammbuch: das Stammbuch von Abraham Ulrich (1549-1577) und David Ulrich (1580-1623), Halle: Mitteldt. Verl., 1999, ISBN 3-932776-76-3