Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/239

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HEINRICH


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HEIS


a vision, and hears from him a gruesome description of the torments which await the sinner after death. The poet does not shrink from the disgusting and re- volting in order to impress hardened souls. While this poem is mainly directed against the vices of the laity, particularly those of knighthood, the clerg}' are made the subject of scathing satire in the poem known as " Priesterleben", which is also attributed to Heinrich von Melk, though his authorship is not certain. It is to be noted, however, that, while the clergy are severely arraigned, their sacred office is scrupulously respected. Both poems date from about 1160. Heinrich von •Melk is one of the most notalile exponents of the spirit of asceticism that followed in the wake of the reform movement emanating from the monastery of Cluny. In his writings the conflict between asceti- cism and secularism, so characteristic of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, has found its most impassioned expression. The two poems were edited by Heinzel, "Heinrich von Melk" (Berlin, 1867).

See the intrOLlactioQ to Heinzel; also Kelle, Geschichte der deutscJien Literntur von der iiliesien Zeit bis zuni 13. J ahrh undert (2 vols., Berlin, 1.S92-96), I. 8S sq.; KoCHENDonrFER in Zeit- schrift fur deulsches Allcrthum, 5CXXV, 1,S7 .and 2,S1 sq.; WiLMANNS in Beitrtlge zur Geschichte der alteren deulschen Lite~ ratur, I (Bonn. ISSo), has tried to prove that the first of the poems dates from the fourteenth century.

Arthur F. J. Remy.

Heinrich von Veldeke, a medieval German poet of knightly rank; b. near Maastricht in the Nether- lands about the middle of the twelfth century. He received a learned education, knew Latin and French, and was familiar with the writings of Virgil and Ovid. His chief work is the " Eneide" (Eneit), an epic poem dealing with the love romance of vEneas and Dido. The greater part of the poem had been completed by 1175 at the court of Cleves, when the manuscript, which had been loaned to a Countess of Cleves, was carried away to Thuringia. There after nine years the poet regained possession of it, and finished his poem under the patronage of Hermann, the Count Palatine of Saxony, afterwards Landgrave of Thurin- gia. Tliis happened before 1190, when Hermann became landgrave, but later than 1184, the date of the great Wliitsuntide festival given by Frederick I at Mainz, at which the poet was present. The " Eneide" is based on an oli I French romance of imknown author- ship, though it is possible that Virgil's poem was also used. The suljject is treated with considerable free- dom and thoroughly medievalized. Minnc or love is the central theme of the poem. Its form is the short rhyming couplet used by all subsequent writers of courtly epics. Through the introduction of a strict metrical form, pmity of rhyme, and the courtly style, Heinrich von Veldeke became the pioneer of the ro- mances of cliivalry in Germany. Pi'evious to the " Eneide" he had written at the instance of a Counte-ss of Los an epic on the legend of St. Servatius. Besides the epics he also composed lyrics, which in structure and versification show the French influence, so that in the field of the Minnesong also he was one of the first to introduce the foreign element into German literature. Editions of the "Eneide" were given by L. Ettmiiller (Leipzig, 1852) and O. Behaghel (Heil- bronn, 1882); the "Servatius" by J. H. Bormans (Maastricht, 1858). The l.\Tics are found in Ett- miiller's edition, also in Lachmann and Haupt's "Minnesangs Fruhling", IX (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1S8S). Selections from all the works were edited by P. Piper in his "Hofische Epik", pt. I, 56-281 (in KUrschner's "Deutsche National Literatur", IV).

Consult the introductions to the editions above mentioned; also VON MuTH. H. von Veldeke und die Genesis der romaniischen und heroisehen Epik urn 1190 (\'ienna, 1880) ; and Kr.^ms. H. von Veldeke und die miitelhochdcidsrhe Dirhtersprache (Halle,

1S03'). Arthur F. J. Remy.

Heinz, Jcseph, a Swiss painter; b. at Basle, 11 June, 1564; d. near Prague, Bohemia, October, 1609. He


appears to have been a pupil of Hans Bock, and to have educated himself by diligent practice in copy- ing the works of Hans Holbein the younger. Be- tween 1585 and 1587 he lived in Rome, registering himself a pupil to Hans von Aachen. He next settled in Bohemia in 1591, and was at once appointed court painter to Rudolf II, but he remained at Prague for two years only, as in 1593 he was commissioned to make some copies from the antique for the emperor, and for that purpose went to Rome, where he spent some years. In 1604 we hear of him in Augsburg, and from that time we know little of his liistory, until his decease is recorded in a village outside of Prague. His works were at one time in extraordinary demand, but later on suffered an eclipse, and are now not so higlily esteemed as they deserve. His portraits and landscapes are his best works; the family portrait at Berne and that of his patron Rudolf II at Vienna are excellent examples of serious and academic portrai- ture. In his landscapes he was too fond of a remark- able dark green colour, but in composition his works were simple and not so crowded as were those of many of his contemporaries in the Dutch School. He was constantly investigating subtle questions of light, and almost all his landscapes show the interest he took in this technical matter. A notable work by him is the "Rape of Proserpine", which hangs in the Dres- den Gallery, and was engraved lay Kilian ; in the same gallery arc two other well-known works, "Lot and His Daughters" and "Ecce Homo". He had a son, who bore the same name, and who painted a few religious pictures not of special importance; several of these works hitherto attriljuted to the son are now believed to be late productions by the father.

WoER.MANN', Gesch. der Kunst (Dresden, 1902); Bohemian Diet, of Artists (Dlabacz, 1S77): ,'^chweizerisches KUnstlerlexi- kon (1902).

George Ch;Uiles Williamson.

Heis, Edu.\rd, German astronomer, b. at Cologne, 18 Februarj', 1806 ; d. at Munster, Westphalia, 30 June, 1877. He graduated from the gymnasium at Cologne in 1824; in 1827 from the imiversity at Bonn, where during his course he solved two prize questions, one on the reconstruction of the Latin text " De sectione de- terminata" of ApoUonius Pergffius, the other on the solar eclipse of Ennius (350 u. c. "Soli luna obstitit et nox") mentioned by Cicero (De republica, I, 16). He then taught mathematics and sciences in the gym- nasium of Cologne (1827-37) and in the commercial high-,school at Aachen (1837-52). In 1852, on the request of Alexander von Humboldt, he was appointed by Kng Frederick \\ illiam IV to the chair of mathe- matics and astronomy at the Academy (now Univer- sity) of Mimster, which he filled for twenty-five years; in the same year, on presentation by Argelander, he was honoured by his alma mater at Bonn with the title of doctor honoris causa. He was rector of the academy in 1869, was decorated in 1870 with the order of the Red Eagle, nominated in 1874 foreign associate of the Royal Astronomical Society of London, and in 1877 became honorary member of the Leopoldine Academy and of the Scientific Society of Brussels.

Being endowed with exceptionally good eyes and finding at the academy of Munster only a four-inch telescope, Heis devoted himself to the observation with the eye alone of the brilliance of all the stars visi- ble to the naked eye ; his observations were also ex- tended to the MUky Way, the zodiacal light, and shoots ing-stars. The publications containing the results of these investigations are, "Atlas Coelestis" (Cologne, 1872), with f2 charts, a catalogue of 5421 stars, and the first true delineation of the MUky Way ; " Zodiakal- Beobachtungen", extending over twenty-nine years (1847-75); "Stern.schnuppen-Beobachtungen", which includes over 15,000 shooting-stars observed by him- self and his students during forty-three years (1833- 75). The latter two works appeared as vols. I and