Martin Aedler (1643-1724) (Edler, Eagle, Aquila; possibly also Oettler), for most of his life a teacher of oriental languages at the University of Cambridge, is slightly known amongst Germanists as a member of the Baroque German linguistic society the Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft [German-minded Society]; however, his real claim to fame is as the anonymous and therefore little-recognised author of the first German grammar for the English, the High Dutch Minerva, published in 16801. Only very brief notices appear about him in any biographical dictionaries. There are some suggestions made about him in Gottsched (1736: 369f), and there are short entries for him in Adelung (1784) and the Index bio-bibliographicus notorum hominum (1973); the present biographical note constitutes a substantial supplement to these.
Martin Aedler was born, according to his own testimony, on 11 November 16432, and very likely in the German university town of Jena in Thuringia3, as indicated by records of the Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft (van Ingen 1985: 417) and documents associated with the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft (Bepler 1984: 124; Bircher 1996: 153f) as well as by a poem written by Aedler in Jena in 1669 (H). Aedler himself tells us he was a native of Saxony, which at that time still included Jena, a town in the state called Sachsen-Weimar.
Aedler claims to have been an academic before he was married (A), although the accounts at King's College Cambridge for 1682 (Q) refer to him as a præsbyter, i.e., priest or clergyman. His skills in Hebrew and other oriental languages as revealed in some of his manuscript writings are suggestive of the philological training that theology students of the seventeenth century followed in order to be able to conduct exegetical studies.
Of his education, all Aedler himself reveals is that he had striven to learn and teach the Hebrew language since he was eleven years old (D). But his actual skills in languages went well beyond Hebrew. As well as having a command of his native German and a technical appreciation of some of its dialects, he knew English, Latin and Greek, and he claimed to be able to teach 'all seven dialects of the Hebrew language', i.e., Hebrew, Arabic, Coptic, Ethiopic, 'Chaldee', Samaritan and Syriac. Finally, he had the linguistic knowledge to be able to deal with examples from Dutch ("Belgick"), French, Italian, Anglo-Saxon, Gothic, Persian and Turkish, even if he did not have a command of these languages to any great degree (Aedler 1680: passim; A; B).
Aedler also possessed a Master's degree (Magister), judging by the initial 'M' which appears before his name in Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft publications (van Ingen 1985: 417), although it is not clear where he acquired this. Formal records of his education are difficult to establish, but it is possible that he was a student in Jena, enrolling in 1661 (aged seventeen) under the name Martin Oettler4, at which time he was considered still too young to swear the oath (Jauernig 1961: 576), and also at the Rutheneum, a Gymnasium illustre in nearby Gera (I).
There are a few indications of Aedler's early social and intellectual connections in Germany. Firstly, Aedler was the author of an occasional poem (Gelegenheitsgedicht) written to celebrate the graduation of Johann Christoph Neuberger as Doctor of Medicine from the University of Jena in 1669 (H). Neuberger (1645-1676), the son of the Jena Bürgermeister Christoph Neuberger, had been practising in Grünberg in Silesia, but later became the Jena town doctor. It is probable that Neuberger was one of Aedler's personal friends, as they must have been close in age.
Secondly, Aedler was, as previously mentioned, a member of the Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft. The Deutschgesinnte Genossenschaft (henceforth DG) was a linguistic society which flourished in Germany in the second half of the seventeenth century and which had the basic aims of promoting the use and expansion of the German language and the demonstration of courtesy and solidarity towards other members. However, its leader, Philipp von Zesen (1619-1689), was a passionate believer in the issue of spelling reform, and also in the notion of purging the German language of foreign words. Zesen was mocked by many for his extreme beliefs.
Aedler was admitted to the Näglichenzunft, or 'Carnation Guild', one of the branches of the society, as Der Edle (the Noble One); Otto and Clark (1996: xvi) suggest that the Hungarian Protestant pastor Daniel Klesch (1619-1697), Nebernerzschreinhalter of the society - a kind of 'associate Vice-President' (ibid.) - may have been instrumental in enlisting Aedler some time between 1676 and 1679; as Aedler was in England from Midsummer's Eve 1677 onwards, it could have occurred some time between early 1676, when Klesch himself joined, and 1677.
Significantly, Aedler wrote his grammar under the pseudonym of Der Aedle and there are clear signs that certain features of the grammar would have had appeal for the DG, namely the orthographical system espoused by Aedler in the grammar, and his support of linguistic purism.
There are also other features linking Aedler's grammar to the DG, namely the image of Minerva on the half-title of the book, and her name in the title. Although there was an earlier Latin grammar with the name of Minerva5, the goddess Minerva, or Pallas Athena, was a symbol associated with the Näglichenzunft (van Ingen 1985: 340).
It is possible that Aedler was also admitted as a member to the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft ['Fruit-bearing Society'] (henceforth FG), the foremost linguistic society in Germany, which had similar aims to the DG in terms of cultivating and promoting the German language.
Evidence of his possible membership was uncovered by Bepler (1984: 124) in the form of a document describing a suggested society name, motto and emblems for Aedler, along with an annotation in the hand of the secretary of the FG, David Elias Heidenreich (1638-1688). Bepler suggests that Philipp von Zesen may have proposed Aedler for membership of the society (ibid.). Klesch, again, may have been connected to Aedler's potential membership, as the above-mentioned document was found in a poem by Klesch requesting admission to the FG (ibid.).
It was not long after this that Aedler travelled to England, never to return to Germany as far as we know. He arrived in England on Midsummer's Eve (i.e. 23 June), 1677 (P), and published his High Dutch Minerva some three years after his arrival, at Michaelmas in 1680 (Arber 1903: 419). It is not clear whether he went to England with the intention of producing a German grammar there; it is most probable, however, that Aedler travelled to England as part of a period of academic peregrination (cf. Selling 1990: passim) from which he was unable to return. After the Restoration, England became an attractive destination for scholars of all disciplines, but scholars and students of theology and oriental languages were particularly drawn to visiting the Universities at Oxford and Cambridge, because of the outstanding holdings of libraries such as the Bodleian.
By Aedler's own admission, he wrote his German grammar at the instigation of certain friends (A), but had the work printed at his own expense in London, at Little Britain. The work was to be sold at an inn in Blackfriars, not far from the Thames, the Rabbets and Harrow (Aedler 1680: sig A1). However, it is clear that the grammar was not a success; the remaining copies were acquired by William Cooper, a bookseller, and reissued with a new title page as Minerva. The High-Dutch Grammer (sic) in 1685 (van der Lubbe 1996: 18).
Additionally, he had borrowed money to finance the grammar from an elderly widow, and finding himself unable to repay the debts incurred, was forced to marry her to realise the debt. His ensuing marriage was an unhappy one, as his new wife, so he complained, nagged him constantly (A). Shortage of money seems indeed to have been the critical issue for him, and one which subsequently ruled his life. He was never able to forget the financial misery with which the publication of the grammar afflicted him, and even as long as twenty-eight years afterwards he still blamed his poverty on the publication of the High Dutch Minerva (D).
The High Dutch Minerva itself is a compilation of grammar rules and idioms on the one hand, but with a great deal of linguistic commentary on the other, especially in the form of comparison between English and German, with many examples from other languages also used (van der Lubbe 1997b). The content has been described in articles by Carr (1937) and Hüllen (1996). The High Dutch Minerva became a model for at least one future grammar of German for the English, Heinrich Offelen's A Double Grammar […] (1686-87)6 (Carr 1937: 466; van der Lubbe 1997a), and, through Offelen, influenced Benedictus Beiler's A New German Grammar (1731) (van der Lubbe 1997a).7
Gottsched's claim that Aedler wrote the High Dutch Minerva for the merchants at Hamburg (Gottsched 1736: 370) has not been able to be substantiated, nor has Schaible's claim that the High Dutch Minerva was written for an academy for young nobles in London, the Musaeum Minervae (Schaible 1885: 337).
Aedler first appeared in Cambridge in 1682, where he is mentioned in College account books as having received charitable payments (L, M, O, Q, R); however, it was not until 1687 that Aedler was appointed University Teacher of Hebrew at Cambridge, having been chosen over the Jewish consultant in Hebrew, Isaac Abendana (d. 1699), for this post (D). The previous incumbent in this position was the respected William Robertson (d. ca. 1686) (P), who had published several Hebrew teaching texts, including A Gate or Door to the Holy Tongue opened in English (London 1653). Judging by the reputation of these other two men, Aedler must have possessed comparable skills in Hebrew, and he himself liberally commended his own talents in the area of oriental languages (D).
It was not long, however, before Aedler's financial situation began to cause him problems, and he wrote the first of his appeals to the University for money, to the Vice-Chancellor John Covel, in 1688 (A). On this occasion the letter was received benevolently and the University gave him a gift of ten pounds (J, K).
Apparently the original terms of Aedler's employment were that he should receive a salary of ten pounds every year; Dr John Spencer, the Master of Corpus Christi College, had promised to obtain for him an additional thirty pounds but had not been able to arrange this before he himself died in 1693 (G). From the beginning, the University never seemed to acknowledge the agreement to pay Aedler a regular salary, even though he later asserted that two of the previous Vice-Chancellors - the Master of Christ's College, Dr John Covel, and that of Emmanuel, Dr John Balderston - had been aware of the agreement (D). This was the beginning of his ongoing grievances over the neglected stipend of ten pounds per annum, and the meagre numbers of students who chose the study of Hebrew and the other Semitic languages as an adjunct to their theological studies, since he depended on the fees of his pupils for his livelihood.
The predominant theme of his correspondence is the continuing state of his poverty, in spite of the fact that he claims that he was willing to work hard on behalf of the University. The nadir of Aedler's predicament seems to have occurred in 1708 when, at a time when he was close to starving to death, two of the Fellows of Clare College, Dr Whiston and Mr Mingay, completely unsolicited, collected money door-to-door for him, to rescue him from starvation and a stint in the debtors' prison (D).
Thereafter, on the grounds of inconstancy of income from students, and the neglect of his salary, Aedler petitioned the University to officially require that Hebrew and Oriental Languages be taken as auxiliary subjects to theological studies (D). He went as far as compiling in Latin two Programmata, richly provided with examples, in which he put forward his ideas on the teaching of 'all the Oriental dialects arising from the sacred language of God' (B, E), and hoped to have one of them printed (G). Although the University and several of the College Heads had shown occasional individual kindness towards Aedler, the University as a whole had refused to support this type of learning (G). As a consequence, Aedler must have continued to subsist on the meagre income gained by teaching the odd interested student, and presumably continued to work hard on behalf of the University.
While it is conceivable that Aedler's problems at Cambridge may have been due to the fact that he had no means of collegiate support, or that he was married, at a time when teaching Fellows usually remained celibate because their income would be unable to support a family (Gascoigne 1989: 14), it is most likely that Aedler was not supported by the University because of dissident religious views he held; indeed, it is possible that he was actively suppressed by the University: in 1708 he was refused admission to the Vice-Chancellor by a servant who made unspecified allegations against him (which, he protested, were untrue) (F); he had not been recommended to the University by Archbishop Sancroft at the time of his appointment, unlike his predecessor Robertson (G); nor was he particularly approved of by someone with influence at Trinity College, whom he referred to as the "Mucian" - possibly a subsequent Archbishop, Thomas Tenison - and who prevented him from obtaining a beadsman's place, i.e., a lowly position as a servant at Trinity (P, N).
Aedler had, however, hardly endeared himself to the University. In his petition to the University he directly attributed its refusal to support Oriental Studies to a fear on its part of allowing students' eyes to be opened to the truth (D). As a training ground for the clergy, the University was naturally extremely suspicious of unorthodoxy. A teacher of Hebrew and other Oriental languages who intended to teach methods for critically analysing original scriptural documents was in an extraordinarily good position to expose weaknesses in the authority of the texts upon which the Church of England based its teachings, and could thus bring the Church itself into question.
In addition to this, Aedler was in contact with two other scholars whose writings threatened to undermine the stability of the orthodox Church, Dr John Spencer and the theologian-philosopher John Toland (1670-1722), to whom Aedler identifies himself as an Ebionite (G) - that is, a Jewish Christian.
In spite of the suspicion which Aedler was under, he remained teaching at Cambridge into old age; in a letter of 1721 to Richard Allin, Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, he remonstrated with him about the College's not having sent him students for years (S).
Aedler died only three years after this, at the age of
81. He was buried on 26 November 1724, at St Botolph's Church (Cambridge)
(T); as he had died intestate, his belongings passed to the Church
Overseer John Whitehead by administration on 5 December 1724 (U).
Correspondence of John Covel
(A) Add MSS 22,911; ff 81
(B) Add MSS 22,911; ff 93
(C) Add MSS 22,911; ff 102
(D) Add MSS 22,911; ff 104
(E) Add MSS 22,911; ff 109
(F) Add MSS 22,911; ff 337
Correspondence of John Toland
(G) Add MSS 4465; f 20
Ratsschulbibliothek Zwickau
(H) 43. 1. 9 / 328 (Aedler, Martin 1669. a! z! Schuldige Aufwartung / welche dem Aedlen / Wohl=Ehren=Vesten / Gros=Achtbaren und Hochgelahrten Johann Christoph Neuberger von Jena aus Thüringen / Welt=Berühmten Practico und Wol=Bestalten Physico der Käuserlichen Stadt Grünberg in Schlesien / Seinem Hoch=Geehrten Lands=Manne und vornehmen Gönner / Als Derselbe auf der Hohen Welt=Belobten Saal=Schulen Den 7. Christ=Monats des 1669sten Jahres mit wolverdienter Ehr und Ruhm die höchste Würde der Medicinischen Wißenschaft erlangete / und öffentlich zum DOCTOR erkläret ward / Glükkwünschend fürstellete Martin Aedler. Jena: Samuel Müller)
Stadtarchiv Gera
(I) Matrikeln des Gymnasiums Rutheneum, Gera 1662-1667
University of Cambridge Archives
(J) University Audit Book 1660-1740 (U. Ac. 2. (2))
(K) Vouchers for payment: February 26, 1688/9; June 26, 1691; February 26, 1691/2; June 27, 1693; October 15, 1694 (U. Ac. 1 (6)); April 1, 1706 (VCV 9)
(L) Queen's College Audit Book (1622-1691) (Book 6)
Trinity College Archives
M) Senior Bursar's Audit Book 1675-1689
(N) Conclusion Book 1646-1810
St Catharine's College Archives
(O) Audit Book 1623-1684/1687 (Book 26)
Queens' College Archives
(P) Patrick Letters, MS 73: 14.
King's College Archives
(Q) Mundum Book (1679-1682) (Vol 35)
Clare College Archives
(R) College Accounts (17th century) (Safe A: 1/18)
Sidney Sussex College Archives
(S) Allin Letters MS 34, 34a
Cambridgeshire County Record Office
(T) St Botolph's Church Accounts March 1714/5-May 1748
(U) Archdeaconry of Ely Probate Records (mfm): vol 2, fol. 33.
[Aedler, Martin] 1680. The High Dutch Minerva a-la-Mode or A Perfect Grammar never extant before, whereby the English may both easily and exactly learne the Neatest Dialect of the German Mother-Language used throughout all Europe […] London: Printed for the Author.
Arber, Edward 1903. The Term Catalogues. Vol I 1668-1682 AD. London: Edward Arber.
Jauernig, Reinhold, (ed) 1961. Die Matrikel der Universität Jena, Bd. II. 1652-1723. Personenregister. Weimar: Hermann Böhlaus Nachfolger.
Thurley, Clifford A. and Dorothea Thurley Phillimore, (eds) 1976. Index of the Probate Records of the Court of the Archdeaconry of Ely 1513-1857. British Record Society.
van Ingen, Ferdinand (ed). 1985. Philipp von Zesen: Sämtliche
Werke. Bd. XII. Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter.
Adelung, J. C. [Jöcher, C. G.] 1960. Fortsetzung und Ergänzung zu Christian Gottlieb Jöchers allgemeinem Gelehrten=Lexico, worin die Schriftsteller aller Stände nach ihren vornehmsten Lebensumständen und Schriften bescrieben werden. C bis J. Hildesheim: Georg Olms. [Original ed: 1784]
Bepler, Jochen 1984. 'Ein Bruchstück des Erzschreins der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft in Bonn', Wolfenbütteler Barock-Nachrichten, Jahrgang XI, Heft 3, Dezember 1984, 120-125
Bircher, Martin 1991. Briefe der Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft und Beilagen: Die Zeit Herzog Augusts von Sachsen-Weißenfels 1667-1680. Mit dem Breslauer Schuldrama "Actus Von der Hochlöbl. Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft" (1670) und mit den Registern der Mitglieder. Reihe I Abteilung C: Halle. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Carr, Charles T. 1937. "Early German Grammars in England". Journal of English and German Philology (36), 455-474.
Gascoigne, John 1989. Cambridge in the age of the Enlightenment. Science, religion and politics from the Restoration to the French Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gottsched, Johann Christoph 1736. Beyträge zur critischen Historie der Deutschen Sprache, Poesie und Beredtsamkeit, herausgegben von Einigen Mitgliedern der Deutschen Gesellschaft in Leipzig. Bd. 5. Leipzig: Breitkopf.
Hüllen, Werner 1996. "Who wrote the first German grammar in English?" Meesterwerk, Berichten van het Peeter Heynsgenootschap, September 1996, 7, 2-10.
Lobies, J.-P. (ed).1973. Index bio-bibligraphicus notorum hominem. Bd. 62. Osnabrück: Biblio-Verlag.
Otto, Karl F., Jr and Jonathan P. Clark 1996. Bibliographia Kleschiana. The Writings of a Baroque Family. Camden House.
Schaible, Karl-Heinrich 1885. Geschichte der Deutschen in England. Strassburg: Trübner.
Selling, Andreas 1990. Deutsche Gelehrten-Reisen nach England 1660-1714. Frankfurt am Main /Bern /New York /Paris: Peter Lang.
Spangenberg, Johann Chr. Ja. 1819. Handbuch der in Jena seit beinahe fünfhundert Jahren dahingeschiedenen Gelehrten, Künstler, Studenten und andere bemerkenswerthen Personen, theils aus dem Kirchenbüchern, theils aus anderen Hilfsquellen gezogen und nach dem Jahre 1819 geordnet. Jena: August Schmid.
Tanner, J. R. 1917. The Historical Register of the University of Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
van der Lubbe, F. 1996. "The High Dutch Minerva of 1680 and its author: Part I." Biblionews and Australian Notes and Queries, Vol. 21, No. 1. March 1996, 17-32.
van der Lubbe, F. 1997a. "German Teaching in the English Enlightenment". Unpublished paper presented at the AULLA XXIX (Australasian Language and Literature Association 29th Congress, held at the University of Sydney, February 10th-14th, 1997).
van der Lubbe, F. 1997b. "Martin Aedler: Germanist, Hebraist or
Comparativist?" Unpublished paper presented at the Henry Sweet
Society Colloquium, University of Luton, 10th-13th September, 1997.
1. Full bibliographical details are given in the list of references. (Back to text)
2. He signs one document with: Scribeb. in Orientali Synagoga nostra ipso Martini seu undecimo Novembris die, quo annum ætatis meæ sexagesimum quintum bonu cum Deo incepi, Anno Æræ Messianæ 1708. (D) (Single capital letters indicate a primary source which can be identified from the list provided at the end of this note.) (Back to text)
3. Unfortunately, Aedler does not appear in the Church registers for Jena of this period; according to Spangenberg (1819: VII), the records kept by the Lutheran Church from 1606 until the early 18th century only record burials, rather than births. (Back to text)
4. A known variant of the name Aedler / Edler. (Back to text)
5. Brocensis, Franciscus Sanctius, Minerva seu de causis linguae Latinae (1587). (Back to text)
6. Offelen, Heinrich. A Double Grammar for Germans to learn English; and for English-men To Learn the German Tongue: ...Composed and set forth by Henry Offelen, Doctor in Laws and Professor of Seven Languages ... London: Printed for the Author [as two parts], 1686-87. (Back to text)
7. Beiler, Benedictus. A new German Grammar. Whereby an Englishman may easily attain to the Knowledge of the German Language. Especially useful for Merchants and Travellers. To which are added, several useful and familiar dialogues. London, 1731. (Back to text)
Fredericka van der Lubbe,
Department of Germanic Studies,
University of Sydney,
Sydney NSW 2006,
Australia