Johann Jakob Bodmer
Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698-1783) was a notable Swiss scholar, educator, and literary figure. Born to a pastor in Zürich, he received a traditional theological education at the Collegium Carolinum, where he developed strong friendships that would influence his later work. Bodmer served as a professor of Swiss history at the same institution from 1731 until his retirement in 1775, employing a discussion-based teaching method that was innovative for his time. Throughout his career, he emphasized the importance of freedom of thought and the moral dimensions of literature.
Bodmer was an active participant in the literary community, co-founding the Gesellschaft der Mahler and publishing the journal Discourse der Mahlern, which explored human customs through the lens of art. Among his notable achievements was his translation of John Milton's *Paradise Lost*, for which he produced multiple versions in German. He also played a crucial role in reviving interest in medieval German literature by editing the Gro�e Heidelberger Liederhandschrift, a significant collection of minnesinger songs. Although he struggled to find success as a creative writer, Bodmer's theoretical contributions and scholarly pursuits left a lasting mark on the literary landscape of his era.
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Johann Jakob Bodmer
Author
- Born: July 19, 1698
- Birthplace: Greifensee, near Zurich, Switzerland
- Died: January 2, 1783
- Place of death: Schönenberg, near Zurich, Switzerland
Biography
Johann Jakob Bodmer was the son of Pastor Hans Jakob Bodmer and his wife Esther, née Orell. After attending elementary school, Johann went to the Collegium Carolinum in Zürich, where his teachers were canons of the Church. He received an orthodox theological education while reading widely on his own and making lifelong friends, especially Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701-1776), with whom he later collaborated on numerous literary projects.
Bodmer left the Carolinum in the spring of 1718 and traveled first to Lyon, then to Lugano, where the Orell family had a silk- spinning mill. On his return to Zürich in 1719, he worked in the Cantonal Chancellery searching for documents dealing with the history of Zürich. In 1725, Bodmer returned to the Collegium Carolinum as an administrator and became the Carolinum’s professor of Swiss history in 1731, a position he held until his retirement in 1775. His teaching method was unusual for the time: Rather than lecturing, he led discussions.
In 1727, Bodmer married a woman with the same name as his mother, Esther Orell. She was the daughter of Felix Orell zum Spiegel. They had four children, all of whom died in infancy. In 1739, they moved from central Zürich to a country house in nearby Schönenberg with a view of the city and the Lake of Zürich. They remained there, and were visited by many established and aspiring writers, some of whom stayed several years.
Bodmer placed great importance on freedom of thought, and on the role of imagination in literature. He also felt that literature should impart a moral message. To that end, he, Breitinger, and others formed the Gesellschaft der Mahler (the society of painters) in 1720, and from 1721 to 1723 published ninety-four weekly issues of their journal Discourse der Mahlern. The journal published discourses on human customs and traditions written under painters’ names.
From 1735 to 1741, Bodmer and Breitinger edited historical, political, and critical essays on the history of Switzerland that were published as the Helvetische Bibliothek in Zürich by Orell (Bodmer’s nephew Konrad Orell) und Compagnie. They collaborated again on the Sammlung critischer, poetischer, und andrer geistvollen Schriften (collection of critical, poetical, and other intellectual writings) from 1741 to 1744.
Bodmer was a gifted translator. He taught himself English in order to read John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost (1667), rendered it into German prose in 1732, then into German verse in 1742, and revised his translation again in 1754. When the German critic Johann Christoph Gottsched criticized Milton in 1740, Bodmer and Breitinger were quick to defend Milton’s imaginative work, and thus began a lengthy literary feud.
Bodmer’s interest in medieval manuscripts led him to an important work of Middle High German literature that had been all but forgotten: the Gro�e Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (great Heidelberg song manuscript), the largest extant collection of the songs of the minnesingers, believed to have been collected by Rüdiger Manesse, a thirteenth century Zürich patron of the arts. Bodmer and Breitinger edited and published the songs, thereby bringing them back into circulation. Although he was not successful as a creative writer, Bodmer was an influential figure on the literary scene of his time, and left as his legacy significant theoretical writings and a reawakened interest in German medieval literature.