Although Johann Christian Hallmann enjoyed a considerable reputation in the 1660s and 1670s, much of his life is shrouded in obscurity. He was the son of an official in the service of the House of Liegnitz-Brieg and was probably born somewhere in Silesia in or around 1640. His schooling took place entirely at the Magdalenäum in Breslau (today Wroclaw, Poland), one of the two great Lutheran grammar schools that dominated the cultural and intellectual life of the city (though not without growing competition from the Jesuits). Like Daniel Casper von Lohenstein before him, Hallmann responded particularly to the school's emphasis on history, rhetoric, and drama. Hallmann probably started writing while still at school: a published synopsis of a tragedy titled Der Bestrafte Geitz oder Hingerichte Mauritius, Kayser zu Constantinopel (Avarice Punished; or, The Execution of Mauritius, Emperor of Constantinople) indicates that the play was performed in 1662 by...