1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Adam, Melchior

ADAM, MELCHIOR (d. 1622), German divine and biographer, was born at Grotkau in Silesia after 1550, and educated in the college of Brieg, where he became a Protestant. In 1598 he went to Heidelberg, where he held various scholastic appointments. He wrote the biographies of a number of German scholars of the 16th century, mostly theologians, which were published in Heidelberg and Frankfort (5 vols., 1615–1620). He dealt with only twenty divines of other countries. All his divines are Protestants. His industry as a biographer is commended by P. Bayle, who acknowledges his obligations to Adam’s labours; and his biographies, though they have faults, are still useful.