ABSTRACT
Hans Sachs is the best known and by far the most productive German author of the 16th century. Blessed with both industry and longevity, he composed over 6,000 works in his 81 years, an especially astonishing output considering that his primary profession was that of shoemaker. Sachs crafted rhymes and shoes with the same economy of effort, but his direct, didactic approach to literature has occasionally led scholars to dismiss his works as pedantic exercises of a petit bourgeois mind. Sachs was nonetheless, perhaps, the most popular author of his day, and he remains the undisputed master of Meister(ge)sang (meistersinging) and the carnival play. To deny his works’ literary quality is to misunderstand the interests and cultural significance of the 16th-century bourgeoisie in Nuremberg, a leading center of trade and the author’s lifelong home. Through his adaptations of biblical, classical, and Renaissance literature, Sachs popularized humanist ideals and learning like no other contemporary German author.
