Heinrich von Laufenberg
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Heinrich von Laufenberg was a German Roman Catholic fertile writer in prose and verse of the fifteenth century.
[edit] Biography
He was a priest in Freiburg (in Breisgau), and later dean of the cathedral. In 1445 he entered the cloister of the Knights of St. John.
He died at Strasburg in 1460.
[edit] Writings
Among his works there is a collection of sermons, also rhymed German versions of two lengthy Latin works. A Speculum humanæ salvationis 'mirror of human salvation', dating from 1437, gives an account of the Fall and Redemption, with a number of Biblical and profane stories interspersed and symbolically interpreted. The other Latin work, the "Opus figurarum" of Konrad von Alzei, is devoted to the glorification of the Blessed Virgin, stories of the Old Testament being explained allegorically and mystically with reference to the Virgin Mary. None of these works has come down to us, the manuscripts having been destroyed during the 1870 siege of Strasburg in the Franco-Prussian War.
A metrical German version of a Latin hygienic treatise from 1429, called "Regimen Sanitatis" 'regimen of health', is still extant.
But the chief significance of Laufenberg is as a writer of religious lyrics. Some of these are renderings of Latin hymns, while others are original poems expressive of his love for Jesus and Our Lady.
Most notworthy are his recasts of worldly lyrics and folksongs in religious form (so-called Contrafacta 'counterfeit'). In these he adhered as closely as possible to the form and diction of the folksong, retaining the popular melodies but infusing into them a religious spirit.
While most of these poems are simple and effective, many of his original poems are marred by a laboured artificiality, acrostics and other metrical devices being quite common. His translations show occasional latinisms; sometimes, Latin and German verses are intermingled.
[edit] Sources
- Heinrich von Laufenberg - article in the Catholic Encyclopedia.
- A number of his hymns (97) are found in Wackernagel, "Das deutsche Kirchenlied", II (Leipzig, 1864-77), 528-612.
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
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