Novalis

NOVALIS (Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenberg). b. Oberwiestedt, near Mansfeld, 2 May 1772; d. Weißenfels, 25 March 1801. Hardenberg is invariably known as ‘Novalis’, the name under which he published (taken from one of his family’s estates). He was born into a Pietist family, and educated at home and at the grammar school at Eisleben. He entered the University of Jena in 1790, moving to Leipzig and then to Wittenberg. He had great literary talent, encouraged by his friendship with the brothers Friedrich and August Wilhelm Schlegel. He became an administrator at Tennstädt, near Erfurt, in 1794, and then trained as a mining engineer at Freiberg (Saxony). During these years his health and...