Georg Sibutus: Carmen de musca Chilianea und Carmen de puella

by Christina Meckelnborg, Bernd Schneider

Der'poeta laureatus "Georg Sibutus was appointed in 1505 by Elector Frederick the Wise as lecturer of the Humaniora at the new university in Wittenberg, where he wrote, among other things, the Carmen de musca Chilianea (" Poem about the Kilian fly ") and the Carmen de puella (" Poem about a girl "), which were printed by Martin Landsberg in Leipzig in 1507. These two occasional poems shed light on the flourishing of neo-Latin poetry in Wittenberg in the early 16th century The Carmen de musca Chilianea is a joke poem that was inspired by Durer's famous 'Rosary Festival' (1506). The Carmen de puella is an erotic poem that allows a look behind the scenes of the learned Wittenberg and shows how revealing it was there in the humanistic circle of poets. Both poems are edited, translated, commented on and placed in their cultural-historical context. This is preceded by a vita of Sibutus, for which new source material was used.