ABSTRACT
The archetypal image of the university academic became increasingly well defined in the early modern period. This chapter examines the image of the scholar as it emerged in German universities in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It explains the imprint left by this archetype on the lives of individuals, as represented and experienced. Although devoted to the representation of individuals or small groups, occasional forms helped to forge generic ideals and models of academic identity. The chapter addresses the formulation of academic identity in occasional literature. It explores how the various stages in an ideal scholarly life, from cradle to grave, were presented in this literary corpus. In doing so it addresses the manner in which representational archetypes came to dominate the lives of university men, real and imagined. The chapter shows some typical and illustrative examples of academic biography in order to explore how scholarly pedigree was revealed in the depiction of early life.
