Bartholomeus Rothmann

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Barthold Rothmann (also given as Bartholomäus/Bartholomeus Rothmann) was a German writer and occasional composer active in the first half of the seventeenth century, born around 1570 in Bernburg and known to have been alive after 1642. He belonged to an educated Bernburg family and was the brother of the better-known mathematician and astronomer Christoph Rothmann; Barthold appears in documentary traces connected to courtly and learned patronage networks, including at least one stay at the Kassel court of Landgrave Wilhelm IV, and later acted in practical and editorial roles surrounding his brother’s legacy, caring for him in illness and arranging publication of posthumous theological materials. Rothmann’s distinctive public output, however, lies in occasional prints that combine figurative or shaped poetry with music notation, typically dedicated to patrons or civic bodies. From 1618 he is attested as a producer of such works, including a “welcome” or congratulatory “beaker” poem issued for Riga and again for Breslau (Wrocław), and—most relevant here—a wedding-associated piece issued in Stockholm in 1620 for the marriage of Gustavus II Adolf of Sweden and Maria Eleonora of Brandenburg, whose text (built on a Luther quotation) begins “Ein fromm Gemahl ist lobens wert.” A copy of this Stockholm print is reported to have been found aboard the Swedish warship Vasa, which sank in 1628, a detail that neatly explains why the item belongs in a programme framed around Swedish court

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