Christian Heinrich Postel
Christian Heinrich Postel was a German jurist, epic poet and opera librettist, who wrotelibretti for the Oper am Gnsemarkt in Hamburg, set by composers such as Johann Philipp Frtsch, Reinhard Keiser and Georg Philipp Telemann. His texts for a St John Passion were set by composers Christian Ritter, Johann Mattheson and Johann Sebastian Bach in his St John Passion.
Postel was born in Freiburg an der Elbe , the son of the theologian Lorenz Postel and his wife Dorothea, ne Isentrut. His father was a minister at the Heiliggeistkirche in Hamburg. Christian Heinrich Postel attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums . He studied law at the University of Leipzig from 1680 with Christian Thomasius. When the plague threatened Leipzig, he continued his studies at the University of Rostock, where he graduated as a licentiate onMay 1683. He travelled for six months with Jacob von Melle160 , a historian and theologian, in the Netherlands, England and France. Their diary of the journey, Beschreibung einer Reise durch das nordwestliche Deutschland, nach den Niederlanden und England im Jahre 1683 , not printed until the 19th century, shows their many interests, especially in foreign universities and libraries.
Source: Wikipedia