Daniel Hermann (c. 1543 – 1601) was a diplomat and Renaissance humanist. He was born in the town of Nidzica where his father was the mayor. He studied at several universities but apparently never took a formal degree. From 1572 or 1573 he worked as a diplomat, in the service first of the Imperial Court, and later worked for the city of Gdańsk. As ambassador of the city to the Polish King Stephen Báthory he came to Riga, where he married and settled down. He was a productive Neo-Latin poet, writing in total three volumes of didactic and occasional poetry.
Biography
Early life and studies
Daniel Hermann was born in the town of Nidzica in what was then the Duchy of Prussia within the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The date of his birth is disputed, but is given as 1543 in most sources.[1] Daniel Hermann had three brothers and two sisters. His father was the mayor of the town; the family was well-off. It was also a Lutheran family, and Daniel's father had actively worked for introducing the Reformation to the town.[1] Daniel Hermann appears to have identified as a Prussian and throughout his life he wrote appreciatively of his native land in his poetry.[2] In 1557 he was enrolled in the University of Königsberg, and he would spend the next years pursuing studies in several different cities: apart from Königsberg also in Strasbourg (with Johannes Sturm as his teacher), Basel, Wittenberg, and possibly also Ingolstadt. His studies focused on languages, law and philosophy, but Hermann also showed an interest in natural sciences, especially geology. His itinerant studies was at least partially supported by a grand from Duke Albrecht of Prussia. He apparently never acquired a formal degree.[1]
Diplomatic service
Daniel Hermann moved to Vienna in 1572 or 1573, where he found employment at the Imperial Court. He stayed at the Imperial Court, including a stint in Prague, until 1579, when he received and accepted an offer of employment from the city of Gdańsk.[3][4] In Gdańsk he was entrusted with the diplomatic negotiations with the King of Poland, Stephen Báthory.[2] Báthory had recently besieged Gdańsk and forced the city to pay a tribute and accept the king as their overlord, and Hermann was entrusted with negotiating the implementation of the settlement.[5] He thus became a permanent ambassador at the at the time itinerant royal court. In this capacity he participated in the Livonian campaign of Stephen Báthory against Ivan the Terrible. He was present at the peace negotiations in Vilnius during the winter of 1581–1582. In spring 1582 he went ahead of Báthory's army to Riga.[5]
Life in Riga
In Riga, Hermann found lodging in the house of a young widow, Ursula Krüger. He fell in love with her and already in April 1582 wrote to the city council of Gdańsk informing them that he intended to stay in Riga. The couple married the same year.[4][6][7] Hermann is known to have been favourable to the education of women, and his wife came to be actively engaged in his intellectual work. Historian Kristi Viiding [et] describes the marriage as "an ideal marriage of humanistically educated partners" and notes that following the death of Daniel Hermann his wife edited, published, and wrote the prefaces to the volumes of his collected poems.[8]
After settling in Riga, Hermann first took employment as councillor and German secretary to Cardinal Jerzy Radziwiłł. After the death of Radziwiłł, he was employed by General Jürgen von Farensbach until his death. Hermann then decided to retire from public service and devote himself to poetry for the short remainder of his life.[4][6] Daniel Hermann died towards the end of 1601 in Riga.[9]
Works
Apart from his engagement in diplomacy and politics, Hermann was a productive poet, writing in Modern Latin and participating actively in the intellectual life of Riga.[10][2] Much of what he wrote was occasional poetry, composed for example to celebrate the wedding of friends and colleagues, or to commemorate their death, but also to mark important events in the lives of princes and kings. He also published poems on the occasions of the foundations of the University of Strasbourg (where he had studied) and the Zamoyski Academy. He also composed didactic poems, intended to offer instruction or insight in fields such as theology, philosophy, natural science or politics.[6] Within this genre he composed poems on very diverse subjects, for example on the inclusion of a lizard and a frog in a piece of amber, the eagle in the coat of arms of Poland, and a child suffering from the Fraser syndrome.[11][12][13] The latter poem is one of the earliest depictions known of this disorder, and written clearly enough to use modern medical terms to distinguish the different malformations.[12] At the end of his death, he had collected his poems in three volumes which were subsequently published posthumously by his widow and printed by Nikolaus Mollyn.[8] Hermann also possessed a personal library containing several important early editions of classical authors, though much of it was lost during World War II.[14]
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