BODMER

bodmer, johann jakob (1698-1783), swiss-german author, was born at greifensee, near zurich, on the 19th of july 1698. after first studying theology and then trying a commercial career, he finally found his vocation in letters. in 1725 he was appointed professor of helvetian history in zurich, a chair which he held for half a century, and in 1735 became a member of the "grosser rat." he published (1721-1723), in conjunction with j.j. breitinger (1701-1774) and several others, _die discourse der mahlern_, a weekly journal after the model of the spectator. through his prose translation of milton's paradise lost (1732) and his successful endeavours to make a knowledge of english literature accessible to germany, he aroused the hostile criticism of gottsched (_q.v_.) and his school, a struggle which ended in the complete discomfiture of the latter. his most important writings are the treatises _von dem wunderbaren in der poesie_ (1740) and _kritische betrachtungen uber die poetischen gemalde der dichter_ (1741), in which he pleaded for the freedom of the imagination from the restriction imposed upon it by french pseudo-classicism. bodmer's epics _die sundfluth_ (1751) and _noah_ (1751) are weak imitations of klopstock's _messias_, and his plays are entirely deficient in dramatic qualities. he did valuable service to german literature by his editions of the minnesingers and part of the _nibelungenlied_. he died at zurich on the 2nd of january 1783. see t.w. danzel, _gottsched und seine zeit_ (leipzig, 1848); j. cruger, _j.c. gottsched, bodmer und breitinger_ (stuttgart, 1884); f. braitmaier, _geschichte der poetischen theorie und kritik von den diskursen der maler bis auf lessing_ (leipzig, 1888); _denkschrift zu bodmers 200. geburtstag_ (zurich, 1900).