GÖRRES, JOSEPH VON (1776–1848), was a German publicist and Romantic mythologist. Born in the Rhineland and educated in Catholic schools, Johann Joseph von Görres remains best known for his fervent nationalist activities as editor and pamphleteer: successively a republican, monarchist, and, as Catholic polemicist, an ultramontanist—this last position also marked his tenure as professor of history at Munich in the final third of his life, during which he wrote Die christliche Mystik (4 vols., 1836–1842). His nationalism is reflected in his mythic interests. While lecturing at Heidelberg from 1806 to 1808, he was associated with Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano, who were then publishing their landmark German folklore collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1806–1808). Görres published his own collection Die teutschen Volksbücher (1807) and Altteutsche Volks und Meisterlieder (1817). In 1820, after having studied Persian from about 1808, he presented a translation entitled...