Jacob Balde
Jacob Balde was a notable German poet and Jesuit priest born in the early seventeenth century. His early life was marked by tragedy, including the execution of his grandmother for witchcraft when he was just nine years old. He pursued an education in rhetoric, initially at a Jesuit university in Lower Alsace and later at the University of Ingolstadt, where he graduated in 1623. Balde's literary career began in earnest around 1629 while teaching at a Jesuit academy in Innsbruck, where he started composing plays that blended Latin and German, reflecting contemporary themes alongside classical references.
Throughout his life, Balde held various positions including professor of rhetoric, court preacher, and court historiographer in Munich, where he gained support from Maximilian of Bavaria. Following Maximilian's death, he returned to a more traditional Jesuit role. Balde passed away in 1668, but his works gained recognition in the nineteenth century, leading to his posthumous acclaim as a significant figure in Neo-Latin poetry and political commentary. His writings, largely published after his death, contributed to his legacy as one of Bavaria's celebrated cultural figures.
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Subject Terms
Jacob Balde
Poet
- Born: January 4, 1604
- Birthplace: Ensisheim, in Upper Alsace, Germany
- Died: August 9, 1668
- Place of death: Neuburg, Germany
Biography
Jacob Balde was born in the early seventeenth century and was sent away at nine to Belfort to learn Bourgignon, a French- Burgundian dialect that was considered useful in an administrative or judicial career. While he was away, his maternal grandmother, Ursula Wittenbach, was burned alive in 1613 after confessing under torture to witchcraft. Misfortune plagued Balde through his life. Three years after his father’s death, in 1620, Balde entered the Jesuit university in Lower Alsace but moved to University of Ingolstadt in Bavaria when the Jesuits were threatened by the military forces of Ernst von Mansfeld. A rowdy young man who graduated in 1623, Balde set out to be a judicial figure, but, according to an urban myth, he decided to join the Jesuit order after the sound of midnight psalms interrupted his attempt to serenade a woman.
In 1624 he was sent to Landsberg, where he studied the plays of Jacob Bidermann and Jakob Keller, who was also the rector of the gymnasium. He began writing his own plays in 1629, when he was transferred to the Jesuit academy at Innsbruck to teach rhetoric. His works were often written in a combination of the Latin and German tongues, as was the Neo-Latin custom, but they dealt with modern themes and figures as well as those of Roman poets such as Publius Papinius Statius. Balde went back to Ingolstadt to finish his theological studies and was consecrated as a priest in 1633. He later became a professor of rhetoric, court preacher, and court historiographer in Munich. He published the majority of his work under his longtime master and close friend Maximilian of Bavaria, who employed him and welcomed him into the royal family. Following Maximillian’s death, Balde returned to a more common Jesuit life as court preacher to Count Palatine Philipp Wilhelm in Neuburg. Balde died in 1668 but was hailed in the nineteenth century as the Bavarian national bard. Most of his works were published after his death, mainly in the twentieth century, and he came to be considered one of the greatest Neo-Latin poets and political commentators.