Zesen, Philipp Von

Related Category: German Literature: Biographies

(fē´lĭp fən tsā´zən), 1619–89, German poet and novelist. Zesen was a major champion of the purification of the German language. His works include Deutscher Helikon [German Helicon] (1640) and a phonetic orthography. Named poet laureate by Ferdinand III, he also wrote emotionally sensitive and philosophically interesting novels, including Adriatische Rosemund (1645), Assenat (1670), and the allegory Simson [Samson] (1679).