Eobanus Hessus was the foremost Latin poet of the German Renaissance, the heart and soul of Erfurt humanism in its heyday. Mutianus Rufus (Konrad Muth) hailed him as "Pindarus neotericoterus" (a modern Pindar); Desiderius Erasmus dubbed him "Christianus Ovidius" (a Christian Ovid); and Johannes Reuchlin, half in jest, crowned him "the king" of poets (ee; rex). His star blazed resplendent for more than a century after his death-as long as Latin continued to be read as a living language and prized more than his native tongue. Besides a brilliant style and classical learning he brought to his work an uncommonly wide range of themes; a warm, engaging tone; and a refreshing boldness in pioneering new genres on German soil. His Bucolicon (Bucolic Poem, 1509) introduced the allegorical eclogue cycle to German literature, while his Heroidum Christianarum epistolae (Letters of Christian Heroines, 1514) originated the genre of the sacred heroic epistle...