Johannes von Tepl (1350–1415)

Johannes von Saaz was born in the village of Schuttwa and studied at the University of Prague. From 1383 he was town clerk, headmaster, and archepiscopal notary in Saaz. His young wife Margaretta died in 1400, and The Plowman (c.1410) is her literary memorial. Written as a legal debate between the show more plowman as plaintiff and Death as the accused, it forms a perfect miniature play. "This little book in dialogue form is the first really important work of prose literature in the German language," writes M. O'C. Walshe (Medieval German Literature). It was the fruit of an early wave of humanism in Bohemia. (Bowker Author Biography) show less