BALDE, Jakob. – Jesuit and poet, known as the Horace of Germany, born in Alsace at Ensisheim (it is known that he was baptized on 4 January 1604), died at Neuburg on 9 August 1668. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1624, he spent his entire life teaching humanities and rhetoric at Innsbruck and Munich, except for two brief intervals: as court preacher in Munich (1638–40); and as official historiographer of Bavaria (1640–48); he was relieved of this office because it was too contrary to his nature.
A refined and imaginative poet, sensitive to the two great loves of religion and country, he exercised his talent in all poetic genres: dramatic, epic, satirical, didactic, with a predominance of lyric poetry, in which he most closely approaches Horace. His masterpiece is *Lyricorum libri IV et Epodon liber*.