Johann Michael Heineccius (1674–1722) was a well-known German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 preacher and theologian, the brother of Johann Gottlieb Heineccius

Johann Gottlieb Heineccius

Johann Gottlieb Heineccius was a German jurist from Eisenberg, Thuringia.He studied theology at Leipzig, and law at Halle; and at the latter university he was appointed in 1713 professor of philosophy, and in 1718 professor of jurisprudence...

. He was born in Eisenberg, Thuringia

Eisenberg, Thuringia

Eisenberg is a town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the district Saale-Holzland.Neighboring municipalities are Jena and Gera . West of Eisenberg runs the motorway A 9 from Berlin to Munich...

.

He was made pastor at the Liebfrauenkirche (now known as the Marktkirche

Marktkirche

The Marktkirche , officially Marktkirche S. Georgii et Jacobi, dedicated to St. George and St. James, is the main Lutheran church in Hanover. It was built in the 14th century and, together with the nearby Old Town Hall, is considered the southernmost example of the "North German brick gothic" ...

), Halle

Halle, Saxony-Anhalt

Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...

, where his role was to supervise the music at the local church and write cantata

Cantata

A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....

 texts.

But he is remembered more from the fact that he was the first to make a systematic study of seals

Seal (device)

A seal can be a figure impressed in wax, clay, or some other medium, or embossed on paper, with the purpose of authenticating a document ; but the term can also mean the device for making such impressions, being essentially a mould with the mirror image of the design carved in sunken- relief or...

, concerning which he left a book, De veteribus Germanorum aliarumque nationum sigillis (Leipzig, 1710; and ed., 1719).

External links

• Johann Michael Heineccius at the Bach Cantatas Website