Daniel Georg Morhof

Daniel Georg Morhof ( born February 6, 1639 Wismar, † July 30, 1691 in Lübeck ) was a renowned German literature historian and polymath.

Life

Morhof was the son of a lawyer and studied in Wismar Rostock under Johann Lauremberg and Andreas Tscherning. After Tschernings death he took over in 1660 the Chair of Poetry. In 1665 he accepted an appointment to the newly founded University of Kiel, where he is also professor of history and librarian and later became his most important works written. He died on July 30, 1691 in Lübeck after returning from Bad Pyrmont.

Insignificant as a poet, Morhof is still very important as the founder of the general history of literature, through teaching the works of the German language and poetry, in which he also gives an overview of the non-European literatures, and polymath. Both works were about the Baroque period also of considerable importance for the development of the German theory of poetry.

Works (selection)

• De Metallorum trans mutatione ad ... Joelem Langelottum Serenissimi Principis Cimbrtici Archiatrum Celeberrimum Epistola, Hamburg and Amsterdam in 1673 ( digitized, copy the Herzog August Library )

• Opera poetica, Lübeck 1697 ( digitized at CAMENA )
• Polymath, Literarius, Philosophicus Et Practicus, Lübeck 1688 passim ( Repr Aalen 1970) ( digitized version of the 3rd edition of Lübeck in 1732, copy of the Herzog August Bibliothek )
• . Lessons from the Germans language and poetry, Kiel 1682 ( digitized and full text in German Text Archive ) ( Ndr ed, H. Boethius, Bad Homburg 1969. Examples without the poem )