Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698–1783)

The Swiss historian Johann Jakob Bodmer (1698–1783), who held the chair of Helvetian history from 1725 to 1775 in Zurich, was an early expert in and mediator of English literature. He played an important role in promoting the works of John Milton (1608–1674), whose Paradise Lost he translated, and Shakespeare in the German speaking area. Together with Johann Jakob Breitinger, he published the moral weekly Discourse der Mahlern (1721–1723), which sought to emulate English examples. With Breitinger he also entered a public debate on poetics with the literary critic Johann Christoph Gottsched (1700–1766), against whom they argued in favour of the use of fantasy in literature, citing the examples of Milton and Shakespeare in their argument (Critische Abhandlung von dem Wunderbaren in der Poesie, 1740).

Johann Caspar Füssli (1706–1782), portrait of Johann Jakob Bodmer, black-and-white reproduction of an oil painting, 18th century; source: Brueschweiler, Carl (ed.): Zurich: Geschichte, Kultur, Wirtschaft, Zurich 1933; wikimedia commons, http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Johann_Jakob_Bodmer_jung.jpg&filetimestamp=20061108224621, public domain.