Gengenbach, Pamphilus

Born circa 1480, in Nuremberg; died circa 1525, in Basel. Swiss author and typographer.

Gengenbach had moved from Germany to Switzerland. He was a Meistersinger and wrote Shrovetide plays. His allegorical play, The Ten Ages of This World (1515), exposed man’s inherent vices. As the Reformation began, Gengenbach joined its mainstream by creating tendentious Protestant drama. His dialogues and verse plays are directed against the Catholic clergy (A Complaint Against Those Who Eat Corpses, staged, 1522; published, 1523).