Jacob Masen
Encyclopedia
Jacob Masen was a German Jesuit, known as a prolific writer in Latin. As well as poetry and drama, he wrote works of history, criticism and theology.
, and studied in Cologne. Having entered the Order of Jesus, he taught poetry and rhetoric in the Lower Rhine region. In 1648 he took his final vows, and acted as a preacher in Cologne, Paderborn
and Trier
.
.
His epic poem Sarcotis (1654) became notorious in the 18th century, after William Lauder
alleged that John Milton
had plagiarised it in writing Paradise Lost
.
With Jacob Bidermann
, he was one of the most important Jesuit dramatists influencing German drama.
Life
He was born in Dahlen in JülichJülich
Jülich is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Jülich is well known as location of a world-famous research centre, the Forschungszentrum Jülich and as shortwave transmission site of Deutsche Welle...
, and studied in Cologne. Having entered the Order of Jesus, he taught poetry and rhetoric in the Lower Rhine region. In 1648 he took his final vows, and acted as a preacher in Cologne, Paderborn
Paderborn
Paderborn is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pader, which originates in more than 200 springs near Paderborn Cathedral, where St. Liborius is buried.-History:...
and Trier
Trier
Trier, historically called in English Treves is a city in Germany on the banks of the Moselle. It is the oldest city in Germany, founded in or before 16 BC....
.
Works
He completed a substantial antiquarian work on Trier by Christoph BrouwerChristoph Brouwer
Christoph Brouwer was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical historian.-Life:Brouwer was born in Arnhem, The Netherlands. In 1580 he entered the Society of Jesus, and after a thorough humanistic training, devoted himself especially to the study of church history...
.
His epic poem Sarcotis (1654) became notorious in the 18th century, after William Lauder
William Lauder (forger)
William Lauder was a Scottish literary forger, the second son of Dr William Lauder , one of the original 21 Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, by his spouse Catherine Brown...
alleged that John Milton
John Milton
John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...
had plagiarised it in writing Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
.
With Jacob Bidermann
Jacob Bidermann
Jacob Bidermann was born in the Austrian village of Ehingen, about 30 miles southwest of Ulm. He was a Jesuit priest and professor of theology, but is remembered mostly for his plays....
, he was one of the most important Jesuit dramatists influencing German drama.
Further reading
- Richard Dimler, Jakob Masen's Imago figurata From Theory to Practice. Emblematica Vol. 6(2) 1992, 283-306.