Georg Christian Lehms

• Name — Georg Christian Lehms • Born — 1684 • Birthplace — Liegnitz • Died — 15 May 1717 • Place of death — Darmstadt • Occupation — * Poet • Novelist • Organizations — Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt • Known for — librettos for Johann Sebastian Bach

Born in Liegnitz (now in Poland) in 1684, Lehms attended the Gymnasium (secondary school) in Görlitz and later studied at the University of Leipzig. After spending some time at the court of Johann Georg, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, at the end of 1710 Lehms gained a position as court librarian and poet in Darmstadt, capital of the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, where by 1713 he had been appointed to the Prince's council. Lehms died of tuberculosis on 15 May 1717, aged about thirty-three.

• Illustration — Teutschlands Galante Poetinnen, title page Lehms's "gallant" novels (a term referring to fiction aimed at readers of both sexes) were among the earliest of such productions in German literature and began to appear early in his career under the pen-name of Pallidor. The first of these was Die unglückselige Princessin Michal und der verfolgte David ('The hapless Princess Michal and David pursued'), published in Hanover in 1707, followed in 1710 by Des israelitischen Printzens Absolons und seiner Prinzcessin Schwester Thamar Staats- Lebens- und Helden-Geschichte ('The Heroic Life and History of the Israelite Prince Absolom and his Princess Sister Tamar'), published by Zieger in Nuremberg; in 1712 the series continued with Der weise König Salomo ('Wise King Solomon'). Lehms made his name with the collection Teutschlands Galante Poetinnen (Germany's Gallant Poetesses). The title page of Teutschlands Galante Poetinnen sums up the work thus: Lehms wrote libretti for operas and cantatas. The cantatas, while being religious works performed as part of the Lutheran services of the Darmstadt court, can be seen as influenced by secular poetry like the cantatas of Neumeister. They were set to music by Christoph Graupner, the Kapellmeister, and his assistant Gottfried Grünewald. The texts were published and it is assumed that Johann Sebastian Bach obtained a copy. While working at Weimar, Bach set words by Lehms for his first two solo cantatas. He avoided the poet's larger-scale work, going on to use the more intimate texts for another eight of his surviving cantatas. There is also evidence for a lost cantata (Cantata BWV Anh. 209) set to words by Lehms.

• Die unglückselige Princessin Michal und der verfolgte David (The hapless Princess Michal and persecuted David) (Hanover: Nicolaus Förster, 1707) • Des israelitischen Printzens Absolons und seiner Prinzcessin Schwester Thamar Staats- Lebens- und Helden-Geschichte (The Heroic Life and History of the Israelite Prince Absolom and of his Princess Sister Tamar)(Nuremberg: Zieger, 1710) • Der weise König Salomo, in einer Staats- und Helden-Geschichte (The Royal and Heroic History of Wise King Solomon) (Hamburg & Leipzig: Johann von Wiering, 1712) • Das singende Lob Gottes, in einem Jahrgang andächtiger und Gottgefälliger Kirch-Music (The Hymning of God, in an Annual Volume of devotional Church Music pleasing to God) (Darmstadt: Johann Georg John, 1712) • Teutschlands Galante Poetinnen (Germany's Gallant Poetesses), in two parts, (Frankfurt am Main: Samuel Tobias Hocker, 1714–15; new editions at Darmstadt, Josef Gotthard Blaschke Verlag, 1966, and Leipzig, 1973)

• Teutschlands Galante Poetinnen (scans at Wikimedia Commons; see also table of content at Wikisource)