Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701–1776)

The Swiss philologist Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701–1776) was together with Johann Jakob Bodmer an early supporter of English literature in the German-speaking area. Like Bodmer, he also worked as a translator from English. Together with Bodmer, he published the moral weekly Discourse der Mahlern (1721–1723) which emulated the English predecessor. With Bodmer 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 Dichtkunst, 1740).

Johann Jakob Breitinger (1701–1776), mezzotint by Valentin Daniel Preisler (1717–1765) based on Johann Caspar Füssli (1706–1782), 1741; source: Wilpert, Gero von: Deutsche Literatur in Bildern, Stuttgart 1957,  wikimedia commons, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Johann_Jakob_Breitinger.jpg?uselang=de, public domain.