August Buchner


August Buchner was a German philologist, poet and literary scholar, an influential professor of poetry and rhetoric at the University of Wittenberg.

Career

Buchner was born in Dresden the son of and his wife Maria, the daughter of the mayor of Dresden. After private education, he attended from 17 November 1604 the Landesschule Pforta, where he received education in religion, classical languages and the liberal arts. He studied at the University of Wittenberg from 19 November 1610, first law and philosophy. He studied poetry with and, ethics with, Greek with, and rhetoric with.
Before he achieved the magister degree, he was appointed professor of poetry in 1616 as the successor of Rodenberg by the court of Saxony. Among his students are Simon Dach, Paul Fleming, Johann Franck, Paul Gerhardt, Christian Gueintz, Christian Keymann, Balthasar Kindermann, Johann Klaj, Martin Opitz, David Schirmer, Andreas Tscherning, Jakob Thomasius, Philipp von Zesen and Caspar Ziegler. After Opitz had died, Buchner was regarded as most influential for German Baroque poetry. He was Rektor of the university in 1618, 1632 and 1654. He died in Apollensdorf.

Work

Buchner's Hauptwerk, Anleitung zur deutschen Poeterei, was published in Wittenberg in 1665 after his death by his son-in-law. It contains his lectures on poetry, compiled from his manuscripts and those of students. He contributed to the Thesaurus Eruditionis Scholasticae, a Latin dictionary first printed in 1571. Buchner wrote the libretto for a ballet-opera Orpheus und Euridice with music by Heinrich Schütz, which was performed on 20 November 1638 for a courtly wedding. The musical score of this work has subsequently been lost.

Selected works

The German National Library holds 17 of his publications. The VD 17 lists 216 publications related to him, including collections of dissertations, speeches and letters, including: