Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Jesuit Quintilian Or The Horace Of Germany

Jacob Balde, S.J. (German: 1604-1668) was a Latin poet who served as sodality director and court preacher at Munich, Landshut and Amberg. He soon acquired a wide reputation as an outstanding scholar and some contemporaries called him a Second Quintilian . Jacob's numerous poetical works, written mostly in Latin, were marked by a brilliant imagination, nobility of thought, tender affection, wit, knowledge of the human heart, and profound learning.
He also wrote music and dramatic poetry, the most important of which is The Daughter of Jephthah which was frequently performed at Jesuit schools.
His poems and other writings deal with the common ideas of the world in which he lived: religion, love of friends, love of country, arts and letters, the virtues of patient endurance and fortitude.
Over 70 odes honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. His patriotic poems, it is said, make him the German poet for all times . Jacob was a master of classical Latin and like Horace wrote four books of odes and one of epodes. Balde tried his hand at epic verse in such poems as The Battle of the Frogs and Mice in five books and On the Vanity of the World .
Among his satirical poems are found 22 poems on The Glory of Medicine and one Against the Abuse of Tobacco . (Ban, Ham, JLx, JLP, Som)

Link (here)

No comments: