SACHS, HANS. - German poet, the most famous of the "meistersingers", b. in Nuremberg on 5 Nov. 1494, d. there on 19 Jan. 1576, author, among master-songs, dramas, tales, jests and Shrovetide plays, of ca. 6000 compositions, and initiator of dramatic art in Germany.
By profession a shoemaker, but of a good and varied culture that enabled him to find his subjects in the most varied sources (biblical and classical antiquity, medieval legend, Romance narrative literature, especially the Decameron), "he versified on everything and invented nothing" (J. Grimm). Enthusiastic about Luther's reform, H. S. spread his own work of jests and lampoons against the Catholic Church, its ministers and its rites, and of invectives for the supposed scandals of the papal court, with far less tolerance than his Protestant admirers credit him with, but, in truth, without ever reaching the violence and vulgarity of other writers of the time. Unlike these he kept to a rigorous moral line, scourging bad morals with energetic sincerity.
Raised to the skies by his contemporaries, forgotten and despised afterward, restored to honor at the end of the 18th century and exalted even by Goethe, H. S. was a spirit endowed with singular aptitudes as a versifier and storyteller, which nevertheless are not enough to make of him a genius of poetry.
Bibliography5 worksE. Geiger, H. S. als Dichter in seinen Fastnachtsspielen, Halle 1904; id., H. S. als Dichter in seinen Fabeln und Schwänken, Burgdorf 1908;
BIBL.: E. Geiger, H. S. als Dichter in seinen Fastnachtsspielen, Halle 1904; id., H. S. als Dichter in seinen Fabeln und Schwänken, Burgdorf 1908; J. Hartmann, Das Verhältnis des H. S. zur sog. Steinhoevischen Decameronübersetzung, Berlin 1912; M. Hermann, Die Bühne des H. S., ibid. 1932; F. H. Ellis, H. S.-Studies, Bloomington 1941.
Vignola, Bruno. “Sachs, hans.” In Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. X, col. 1550. Città del Vaticano: Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953. https://azioneromana.com/article/sachs-hans.
MLA
Vignola, Bruno. “Sachs, hans.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. X, Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico, 1953, col. 1550. Azione Romana, https://azioneromana.com/article/sachs-hans.
BibTeX
@incollection{ec10_sachs_hans,
author = {Vignola, Bruno},
title = {Sachs, hans},
booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica},
volume = {X},
pages = {1550},
note = {Cited by column},
publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico},
address = {Città del Vaticano},
year = {1953},
url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/sachs-hans}
}
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