HILLE, Carl Gustav von der.

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Der Teutsche Palmenbaum: Das ist Lobschrift von der hochlöblichen Fruchtbringenden Gesellschaft First edition of Hille's major work, an illustrated source book to the history of the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft ("The Fruit-bearing Society"), German's first Sprachgesellschaft, without which "the new literary language which had then just begun to develop would have had even greater difficulty in winning through" (Faber du Faur, p. 46). Sprachgesellschaften were societies founded "with the aim of purifying the German language and promoting its use in poetry" (Oxford Companion to German Literature). Modelled on Florence's Accademia della Crusca, the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft had been founded in 1617, with the intention of creating "not a brotherhood of poets but a society for the fostering of an elegant language which, serving as a model and extending over the entire German-speaking world, would produce results by example and stimulation. This task the society accomplished brilliantly" (Faber du Faur). Also after the Florentine model, the Gesellschaft's members adopted designations. Pages 145-175 (misnumbered 375) here list them, all 457, in German, French, Italian, and Latin. Hille (before 1590-1647) was "der Unverdrossene" - the Indefatigable - (number 302), as used on the title-page. He had previously served at the court of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, who joined the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft in 1643, as "der Untadeliche" (the Irreproachable), and it is to

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