Caspar Stieler was an important seventeenth-century lyric poet, a pathbreaker in the development of German-language verse forms suitable for musical settings (both song and musical drama), the creator of an early German dictionary, and the author of many books on letter writing and other skills expected of a courtly bureaucrat. Himself a Kammersekretarius (court secretary) at various Middle and North German courts between 1662 and 1690, he was a standard setter for the profession, and several of his handbooks were reprinted until well into the eighteenth century. He may have contributed more substantively and in more diverse ways to the development of German prose and verse style than any other single member of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (Fruit-bringing Society), the society created for the purpose of fostering the German language in all of its various contexts. He was a master of style and language, whether poetic or pragmatic.

Stieler was born...