Latin Poems of Christian Wedsted

Christian Wedsted (1720-1757) was a Moravian missionary, scribe andtranslator. Alongside his formal duties, he also composed a significantamount of Latin poetry. Here presented together for the first time alongsideEnglish translations are the 40 Latin poems that Wedsted composed duringhis time with the Moravians in Germany, England and Pennsylvania.A critical introduction and commentary provide historical, literary andreligious context for Wedsted’s oeuvre, which contains birthday poems,impassioned religious verses and personal anecdotes about life in colonialPennsylvania. At about 1200 lines, the poems make up one of the largestextant collections of original 18th-century Latin poetry from the Americas.Wedsted’s poems demonstrate how central Moravian piety was to hisidentity. Almost all his poems double as letters, and many are addressedto important Moravian personalities like Ludwig von Zinzendorf, AugustSpangenberg and Matthew Hehl. Wedsted’s poems weave together classicalmaterial and Christian material to create an original and unique projectin colonial America. Many of the poems are experiments in genre that putancient models and meters to work in new contexts. Wedsted’s Latin poetrythus offers readers the chance to witness first-hand a peculiar life livedduring some dramatic moments in Moravian history.