BALDE, Jakob, a modern Latin poet of considerable repute, was born at Ensisheim in Alsace in 1603, and died in 1668. He entered the Society of the Jesuits in 1624, and for the greater part of his life acted as court-preacher and professor of rhetoric at Munich. His Latin poems were very numerous, and those in imitation of Horace are particularly successful. Although Balde has received some attention since Herder translated several of his best pieces, and although some of his poems are by no means deficient in lightness, grace, and skilful versification, it would be a mistake to look upon him as a poet of high rank. A collected edition of his works in 4 vols, was published at Cologne in 1650; a more complete edition in 8 vols.,.at Munich, 1729. Extracts have been given by Orelli, 1805, 1818; and some detached poems have been published by various editors.