MLR,96.3,200I 879 in thismostcourtly ofgenres was confined almostexclusively to Germany's Protestant areas. Isitnot oddthat itfound nofavour inEmperor Leopold's Vienna? Ifonetries tofind ananswer bylooking elsewhere inthebook, onemaywellturn forhelp to Guillaumevan Gemert'sessayon 'Fremdsprachige Literatur' (pp.286-99). Oddlyenough, thishas verylittleto say aboutthelinguistic attainments of Germany's seventeenth-century reading public,though surely linguistic awareness andlanguage acquisition arecritical elements intheliterary andintellectual receptivity ofa given society at a given period, as vanGemert himself demonstrates inanerudite discussion ofthe placeandfunctions ofLatin in seventeenth-century Germancultural life.Another keyaspectof a society's relationship toliterature ispublishing. Fortunately Peter Cersowsky's informative essay on'Buchwesen' iseasily found (pp.I7S200) andisneatly complemented by NicolaGraap's focused account ofthe'Publizistische Medien imsozialhistorischen Kontextdes siebzehnten Jahrhllnderts' (pp.50I-I6), another mineof wellorganized , otherwise hard-to-find information. Bothaddmuch relevant detail to theemerging picture, butwhat a pity they arenotplacedsidebyside.Theabsence of cross-references amongthe twenty-seven essaysin thisbook is another shortcoming, all themoreregrettable in thatthebookaimsto buildup a comprehensive picture ofwhatAlbert Meierdescribes as a literature 'deren Regelhaftigkeit inzeitgenossischen Poetiken nicht autonom-selbstreferentiell hergeleitet wurde, sondern vondenGesellschaftstrukturen hergeleitet wurde'(p. IO). Fortunately oneofthemost recommendable features ofthis welcome addition toa notableseriesis itslargebibliography of primary and secondary literature. Stretching overmorethanfifty pages, itshould be a first portofcallfor anyone starting workon GermanBaroquestudies. ReadersoutsideGermany may, however, feeldisappointed thatsolittle notice istaken ofwork byscholars from other nations. UNIVERSITY OFBRISTOL PETER SKRINE ChristianHo/JAnann von HofJ;mannswaldau (I6I6-I679).- Leben undWerk. ByLOTHAR NOACK.(Fruhe Neuzeit, 5I) Tubingen: Niemeyer.I999. XiV+54Xpp. DM I84. HofEnannswaldau hasalways beensomething ofa problem. Viewedaskance in periods which setstore bypropriety andgoodtaste, hisgift for writing light verse hasnowandthen beenhailed aswelcome proof that German literature isnotan eternal exception andthat it,too,wascapable ofproducing a seventeenth-century poetworthy ofbeing setalongside theItalian Marinists orcavalier poetssuchas Lovelace, hisexact contemporary, orSuckling, hisclosest English counterpart. The problem hasbeenexacerbated bythefact that, ina literature characterized by complete editions, hehasnone.Backin I963,inhisSammlung Metzler study of Hoffimannswaldau, Erwin Rotermund observed that 'einekritische Gesamtausgabe istdringend erforderlich; ohnedie verlaBliche Textgrundlage muI3sichjede Einzeluntersuchung aufschwankendem Bodenbewegen'. The sameholdstrue today. Franz Heiduk's edition ofthecollected works, begun inI984,opens with a reprint oftheI679edition ofthe poems posthumously published byFellgibel asthe first instalment ofa collected edition inthe year ofthe poet's sudden death. Reprints maylookattractive, butthey tend toskim thesurface: inHoffmannswaldau's case there is muchbelowit,as thisambitious study reveals. Muchofhisverse was circulated privately, and muchmaynothavesurvived; it is therefore hardly surprising thatcritics andliterary historians from Benjamin Neukirch on have Reviews 880 found ithard topresent a coherent picture ofa writer whose style embraces somany paradoxes andwhose ocuvre contains somany gaps.Whatsort ofa manwashe? Whatmadehim'tick', as Albrecht vonHaller,an eighteenth-century admirer, might havesaid?Arewenowbetter abletoseehimintheround andunderstand himinthecontext ofhistime? Lothar Noack's study ofhislife andworks suggests that wehavecomea long way, butthat perhaps wearenotquite there yet. A comprehensive biographical and critical study of HofEnannswaldau was certainly longoverdue. Noackhasworked hard toestablish thefacts (hisbookwas originally presented as a Habilitationsschr?ft at Osnabruck University) and was fortunate enough todo sounder thesupervision ofthelateMarianSzyrocki. He sheds much light onHoffimannswaldau's education andonthose whose influence shaped hiscreative personality, such asJohann Mochinger, histeacher andmentor inDanzig,whopointed himtowards Leidenandjurisprudence, andthence to England, which Hoimannswaldau reached towards theendofI639. Theaccount Noackgives ofthis phaseinhislife isinteresting. Forty years later, inthefuneral oration he gaveforhisrevered colleague, Lohenstein tellsus thathe visited Rochester, London, Salisbury, Bristol andOxford: Noackis notas alivetothe implications ofthis as onemight wish, however. He astutely identifies theFrench nobleman with whom theyoung Silesian travelled asFrederic dela Tremoille, son ofthe DucdeThouars andCharlotte, daughter ofWilliam theSilent, butoverlooks thefact that Frederic's sister, alsocalledCharlotte, wasa closefriend ofElizabeth Stuart, andmarried toJames Stanley, later famous as 'Yn Stanlagh Mooar',the 'great' LordofManandseventh EarlofDerby. Suchlinks were a motive for travel asstrong asthecuriosity which, soNoackspeculates, ledHoffirnannswaldau tovisit Stonehenge: hedoesindeed mention druids andancient Britons inthepreface to theI 679projected edition ofhisworks, here analysed inhelpful detail (pp.452-63), butWilton Housewassurely a more likely stopenroute from Salisbury toBristol. Perhaps theparty visited Stonehenge on thewayback?Unfortunately Noack's sources shun anecdotal speculation, andthis cannot buthavea rather dulling eXect on hisnarrative. Yethe spares no painstoretrieve whathe canfrom themists surrounding hissubject. He is at hismostauthoritative when, backinBreslau, HofEnannswaldau settles downtohisdualcareer as a admired manofletters and an effiective politician ofmorethanlocalimportance. Co-opted ontotheCity Council, hisrise tothe key post ofPraeses amidst the tensions ofseventeenth-century German secular andreligious politics makes fascinating reading...