Melchior Adam (c. 1575 – 26 December 1622) was a German Calvinist literary historian.

Life

Adam was born in Grottkau, Nysa, Habsburg Silesia (present-day Grodków, Opole Voivodeship). He visited the college in Brieg Brzeg, then studied on various academies with financial support of his benefactor Joachim von Berg. In 1601 he was appointed schoolmaster at the municipal school of Heidelberg, and later became co-rector and professor at the same institution. He died in Heidelberg.

Works

His major achievement consists of a collection of literary biographies, which were printed in Stuttgart and Heidelberg in five volumes: German Philosophers (including philologists, poets, mathematicians and physicists), German Theologians, Foreign Theologians, Jurists and Politicians and Medics. The figures discussed were arranged chronologically by their date of death, most of which lie between 1420 and 1620. His sources were biographical texts, personal records, funeral orations, letters and various academic records. His 1615 Vitae Germanorum philosophorum (Lives of German philosophers) contains one of the earliest biographies of Nicolaus Copernicus. He discussed Lutheran theologians in a deprecating manner, as he himself was a Calvinist.

Sources