The Latin Poems of Christian Wedsted (1720-1757), Moravian Missionary to Colonial America

FAIN: FT-291797-23

Aaron Palmore
Loyola University Maryland (Baltimore, MD 21210-2601)

Research and writing of a critical edition of 50 unpublished poems by 18th century Moravian missionary Christian Wedsted.

Christian Wedsted (1720-1757) crossed the Atlantic in 1753 as a Moravian missionary heading to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. While many travelers chronicled their transatlantic journeys, Wedsted chose to create two versions of his adventure in formal Latin verse, imitating the preferred forms of the ancient Roman poets Ovid and Horace. These two poems are among the 50 Latin poems that Wedsted composed during his time in Germany, England, and Pennsylvania. Wedsted’s oeuvre includes birthday poems, impassioned Moravian religious verses, and personal anecdotes about life on the colonial frontier. At around 1200 lines, these 50 poems make up one of the largest extant collections of 18th-century Latin poetry from the Americas. This project offers a new perspective on the use of Latin in the Early Modern Americas and a window into a unique moment in American history by making these poems accessible for the first time in a critical edition with an accompanying commentary and translation.