Erhard Bodenschatz (1576-1636) was a precentor and minister. He was born in Lichtenberg, near Hof, Germany. In 1586 he came to Dresden as a choirboy and sang in the electoral church choir there. In 1591 he began his studies at the famous Gymnasium Schulpforta, near Naumburg, where Seth Calvisius was his music teacher.
After 1595 he studied in Leipzig and obtained his Baccalaureus artium (B.A.) and magister (Master's). In 1600 he became cantor in Schulpforta and after 1603 served as a minister in Rehhausen, near Bad Sulza, in Thuringia, Germany. After 1608 he became a minister in Gross-Osterhausen.
He is known as the publisher of the "Florilegium Portense", the last and most famous collection of German and Italian motet literature. It contains over one hundred four- to eight-part motets. Until the end of the baroque period it was used in Protestant schools and churches in northern and central Germany. Johann Sebastian Bach, during his time as church music director, also ordered new copies for the St. Thomas and St. Nikolai churches in Leipzig.
