Johann Jakob Wilhelm Heinse

In Erfurt he became acquainted with Christoph Martin Wieland and through him with "Father" Gleim who in 1772 procured him the post of tutor in a family at Quedlinburg. In 1774, he went to Düsseldorf, where he assisted the poet Johann Georg Jacobi in editing the periodical Iris. Here the famous picture gallery inspired him with a passion for art, to the study of which he devoted himself with so much zeal and insight that Jacobi furnished him with funds for a stay in Italy, where he remained for three years (1780–1783). He returned to Düsseldorf in 1784, and in 1786 was appointed reader to the elector Frederick Charles Joseph, archbishop of Mainz, who subsequently made him his librarian at Aschaffenburg, where he died. Heinse is mainly famous for his novel Ardinghello und die glückseligen Inseln (1787), in which he expresses his views on art and life, the plot being laid in the Italy of the 16th century. This and his other novels Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse (1774) and Hildegard von Hohenthal (1796) combine the frank voluptuousness of Wieland with the enthusiasm of the Sturm und Drang. Both as novelist and art critic, Heinse had considerable influence on the Romantic school.

Sinngedichte (1771) Die Kirschen (1773) Laidion, oder die eleusinischen Geheimnisse (1774) Ardinghello und die glückseligen Inseln (1787) Hildegard von Hohenthal (1796) Anastasia und das Schachspiel (1803)

Begebenheiten des Enkolp, aus dem Satirikon des Petronius (1773) Das befreite Jerusalem von Torquato Tasso (in prose, 1781) Roland der Wüthende, ein Heldengedicht von Ludwig Ariost dem Göttlichen (in prose, 1782) Anastasia and the game of chess (2026)