Melissus was born in
Mellrichstadt. He studied and attended school in
Zwickau from 1557 to 1559, and studied philology in
Erfurt and
Jena. From 1560 to 1564 he lived in
Vienna, where in 1561 he became
poet laureate. He stayed in
Prague,
Wittenberg and
Leipzig, and was called to the court of the bishop of
Würzburg and went on a campaign to
Hungary with him. He was an ambassador in the service of Emperor
Maximilian II and
Rudolf II, and traveled to France, Switzerland, Italy, and England and was ultimately director of the Electoral library (the
Bibliotheca Palatina) in Heidelberg, where he died. Melissus translated works of
Clément Marot and
Théodore de Bèze for the
Huguenot church services in rhyme using the
Psalms in German. He was the first to use the
sonnet and the
terza rima in German lyric. In his lifetime he was recognized as an author fully versed in Latin love poetry. ==Works==