The guilds of Meistersinger had five hierarchies of mem-
bership, from beginner to Meister; the latter had to have
written both words and music of at least one new song.
Singing contests were held, in which the judge (Merker)
watched for breaches of the rules. Although the best-
known Meistersinger, Hans SACHS, the cobbler of Nurem-
berg, composed over 4000 songs, the rule-bound nature of
the composition and the exclusiveness of the guilds con-
demned the form to mediocrity and prevented its devel-
opment.
Meit, Konrad (c. 1480–1551) German sculptor
Meit was born at Worms and from 1506 to 1510 he
worked at the court of Frederick, Elector of Saxony, in
Wittenberg. The rest of his life was spent in the Nether-
lands, where he was court sculptor to the regent, MAR-
GARET OF AUSTRIA. Working mainly in boxwood, alabaster,
and metal, he made many small portrait busts and stat-
uettes in a classical style. His alabaster nude Judith
(c. 1510–15; Bayerisches Nationaalmuseum, Munich) is
noted as his most successful sculpture in fusing Italian
and northern elements in a sensuous and polished Re-
naissance style. He also produced monumental sculptures
for the tombs of Margaret, her husband, and mother-in-
law at Brou near Bourg-en-Bresse, Burgundy. Little work
remains from Meit’s period in Antwerp after Margaret’s
death.
melancholia According to Renaissance psychological
theory, the humor capable of producing intellectual dis-
tinction in those in whom it predominated. This theory
was grounded in the ancient physiological scheme of the
four humors (see GALENISM, RENAISSANCE); melancholia
was the cold, dry humor, which, in certain manifestations,
was the hallmark of the philosopher, poet, and scholar.
It was also, under the equally ancient system of astro-
logical correspondences, linked with the planet Saturn,
patron of mathematics and sciences. This concept is em-
bodied in DÜRER’s famous engraving Melancholia I (1514),
which depicts the essence of melancholic contemplation
in the figure surrounded by mathematical instruments.
A verbal equivalent of Dürer’s engraving is John Mil-
ton’s early poem Il Penseroso (written c. 1632), describing
the pleasures and preoccupations of the melancholic.
The most extensive Renaissance treatment of the sub-
ject is Robert Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy (1621),
which affirms that “melancholy men of all others are most
witty.”
Melancholia was suffered or affected by numerous
eminent Renaissance figures, among them Michelangelo
and Raphael. As a cult it was imported from Italy into
England in the late 1580s. Melancholics, whose condition
was often caused by unrequited love, advertised their
plight by both dress and behavior; a black hat with a large
brim (to be pulled down over the face) was de rigueur, as
were folded arms and heavy sighs. Such affectation natu-
rally lent itself to ridicule, and satirists were not slow to
home in on a tempting target; in JONSON’s Every Man in his
Humour (1598), for instance, the two fops, Stephen and
Matthew, vie with each other in their claims to melan-
cholic distinction, as witness Matthew’s boast, “I am
melancholy myself divers times, sir, and then do I no more
but take pen and paper presently, and overflow you half a
score, or a dozen of sonnets, at a sitting.”
Further reading: Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panof-
sky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy (London: Nel-
son, 1964); Bridget Gellert Lyons, Voices of Melancholy:
Studies in Literary Treatments of Melancholy in Renaissance
England (New York: W. W. Norton, repr. 1975).Melanchthon, Philipp (Philipp Schwarzerd) (1497–
1560) German humanist and reformer
He was born at Bretten, near Karlsruhe, the son of Georg
Schwarzerd, a locksmith and armorer, and a great-nephew
of Johann REUCHLIN, whose ideas on the pronunciation of
Greek he publicized in his Institutiones linguae Graecae
(1518). Melanchthon studied at Heidelberg and Tübin-
gen, and in 1518 became the first professor of Greek at
Wittenberg. He supported LUTHER, and in 1521 published
Loci communes rerum theologicarum (Theological com-
monplaces), a systematic statement of evangelical theol-
ogy. His gentle manner contrasted with Luther’s
vehemence. A significant figure in education, he founded
secondary schools (gymnasia) at Eisleben, Nuremberg,
and elsewhere, reformed ancient universities, and was in-
strumental in establishing new ones at Marburg, Jena, and
Königsberg (Kaliningrad). While rejecting the debased
Aristotelianism of the later scholastics, Melanchthon en-
couraged the study of Aristotle’s own works; he was influ-
enced by Stoicism, and his belief in natural theology and
reason was partly derived from this source. In 1530 he
attended the Diet of Augsburg and formulated the Con-
fession of AUGSBURG, the “articles of religion” of the evan-
gelical churches of Germany and Scandinavia. In 1546 he
succeeded Luther as leader of the German Protestants, but
was criticized for his willingness to compromise with both
the Romanists and the more radical reformers. His biogra-
phy was written by CAMERARIUS(1566). The Loci com-
munes is available in English translation together with
BUCER’s De regno Christi in Melanchthon and Bucer (Lon-
don: SCM Press, 1969).
Further reading: Sachiko Kusukawa, The Transforma-
tion of Natural Philosophy: The Case of Philip Melanchthon
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995);
Timothy J. Wengert, Human Freedom, Christian Righteous-
ness: Philip Melanchthon’s Exegetical Dispute with Erasmus
of Rotterdam (Oxford, U.K. and New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 1998).MMeellaanncchhtthhoonn,, PPhhiilliipppp 331111