Martin Opitz

OPITZ, Martin. b. Bunzlau, Silesia (Boleslawiec, Poland), 23 December 1597; d. Danzig (Gdansk, Poland), 20 August 1639. The son of a master butcher, he was educated at Bunzlau, the Magdalene-Gymnasium at Breslau, and the University at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. He studied at Heidelberg for a year (1619-20) before travelling as a tutor to a young Danish nobleman in Holland and Jutland. He was briefly professor of poetry at the Gymnasium at Weissenberg, Transylvania (1622-23), before being employed by Duke Rudolf of Liegnitz-Brieg to versify the Epistles for Sundays and Holy Days after the manner of the French Psalter (published as Die Episteln der Sontage und fürnemsten Feste des gantzen Jahrs,...