Benutzer:Sigune/Melchior Goldast

Melchior Goldast von Haiminsfeld (* 6. Januar 1576 oder 1578 in Bischofszell im Kanton Thurgau, † 1635 in Gießen) war ein Schweizer Späthumanist.

Goldast stammte aus einer wenig wohlhabenden protestantischen Familie. Sein Studium, zuerst in Ingolstadt (1595-1596), dann in Altdorf bei Nürnberg (1597-1598), litt unter seiner Mittellosigkeit. 1598 fand er jedoch in Bartholomäus Schobinger einen reichen Gönner, der es ihm ermöglichte, in St. Gallen zu studieren, wo er den Reichtum der historischen Überlieferung der Stiftsbibliothek entdeckte.

Kurz vor Schobingers Tod (1604) trat er 1603 als Sekretär in den Dienst des Herzogs Henri de Bouillon, mit dem er Heidelberg und Frankfurt besuchte. Aber schon 1604 wechselte er in den Dienst des Freiherrn von Hohensachs, der damals im Besitz des Codex Manesse war.

Before his patron's death (1604) he became (1603) secretary to Henry, duke of Bouillon, with whom he went to Heidelberg and Frankfort. But in 1604 he entered the service of the Baron von Hohensax, then the possessor of the precious MS. volume of old German poems, returned from Paris to Heidelberg in 1888, and, partially published by Goldast. Soon he was back in Switzerland, and by 16o6 in Frankfort, earning his living by preparing and correcting books for the press. In 1611 he was appointed councillor at the court of Saxe-Weimar, and in 1615 he entered the service of the count of Schaumburg at Buckeburg. In 1624 he was forced by the war to retire to Bremen; there in 1625 he deposited his library in that of the town (his books were bought by the town in 1646, but many of his MSS. passed to Queen Christina of Sweden, and hence are now in the Vatican library), he himself returning to Frankfort. In 1627 he became councillor to the emperor and to the archbishop-elector of Treves, and in 1633 passed to the service of the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. He died at Giessen early in 1635. His immense industry is shown by the fact that his biographer, Senckenburg, gives a list of 65 works published or written by him, some extending to several substantial volumes. Among the more important are his Paraeneticorum veterum pars i. (1604), which contained the old German tales of Kunig Tyrol von Schotten, the Winsbeke and the Winsbekin; Suevicarum rerum scriptores (Frankfort, 16o5, new edition, 1727); Rerum Alamannicarum scriptores (Frankfort, 16o6, new edition by Senckenburg, 1730); Constitutions imperiales (Frankfort, 1607-1613, 4 vols.); Mon, archia s. Romani imperil (Hanover and Frankfort, 1612-1614, 3 vols.); Commentarii de regni Bohem.iae juribus (Frankfort, 1627, new edition by Schmink, 1719). He also edited De Thou's History (16o9-161o) and Willibald Pirckheimer's works (161o). In 1688 a volume of letters addressed to him by his learned friends was published. Life by Senckenburg, prefixed tc his 1730 work. See also R. von Raumer's Geschichte d. germanischen Philologie (Munich, 1870).

Die Büchersammlung des Melchior Goldast wurde 1647 vom Rat der Stadt Bremen erworben. Abgesehen von Handschriften und Inkunabeln umfaßt sie heute über 4000 Titel. Trotz der eingetretenen Verluste ist die Bibliothek Goldasts eine der wenigen nahezu vollständig erhaltenen Bibliotheken des Späthumanismus im Zeitalter der Konfessionalisierung. Neben dem lateinischen Fachschrifttum (auctores, Philosophie, Theologie, Jurisprudenz, Historiographie, Medizin) sind auch deutschsprachige Volksbücher Teil der Sammlung.

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