Frankfurt
A city on the river Main in Germany. Philipp Jakob Spener was senior of its Lutheran clergy when he wrote Pia Desideria there in 1675.
Frankfurt lies on the Main. Philipp Jakob Spener signed Pia Desideria there on 24 March 1675 as preacher and senior of the city’s ministry, and the book was printed in the city (Spener, Pia Desideria title page and p. 162). See Spener’s Pia Desideria and the Rise of Pietism.
What happened here
- c. 1454–1455, estimated dateGutenberg Prints the Bible
At Mainz in the mid-1450s the Latin Bible is printed from movable metal type in an edition of well over a hundred copies, the first large book so made in Europe. A visitor who saw sheets of it in 1454 reported that every copy was sold before the work was finished.
- 1675, firm dateSpener’s Pia Desideria and the Rise of Pietism
In 1675 the Frankfurt pastor Philipp Jakob Spener publishes six proposals for mending the Lutheran church, from Bible reading in small meetings to the training of pastors. From 1695 August Hermann Francke founds a school and an orphan house at Halle.
Primary sources
Pia Desideria
- Spener, Pia Desideria title page and p. 162deutschestextarchiv.de