This double volume opens the edition of the posthumous manuscripts of one of the most respected and influential 17th century German authors in his life time Vol 1 I contains the first of Birken s five collections of lyric poetry the poems of love and friendship composed between 1642 and 1681 epic poems songs sonnets and epigrams covering a wide range of topics and forms at one and the same time indebted to tradition yet surprisingly modern They afford multi faceted insights into the reality of the life in which they were created Vol 1 II provides textual variants printing history details of the situation in which the poems were written factual explanations and an index