Gottlieb Siegmund Corvinus is a quintessential representative of the period of galante Dichtung (gallant poetry) in German literature, 1680 to 1720. He wrote witty, racy, and satiric love poems in the style of the so-called Second Silesian school and defended them with an original poetic theory, but later he turned to a more sober poetry. He was the author of an erotic novel with a surprisingly solemn message, but he was also the compiler of an exhaustive lexicon for women that included biographies of famous women, elaborate recipes, and, for later generations, valuable insights into the social mores of the early eighteenth century. In his later years he published a thick volume of learned orations on esoteric themes, while continuing as Leipzig's official composer of ovations for visiting dignitaries.

Corvinus was born in Leipzig on 15 May 1677 and baptized in the church of Saint Nikolai the following day. That the family...