Christian Gottlob Heyne
Christian Gottlob Heyne | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 14 July 1812 | (aged 82)
Alma mater | Leipzig University |
Occupation(s) | German classical scholar, archaeologist, director of the Göttingen State and University Library |
Christian Gottlob Heyne (German:
Biography
Heyne was born in
An elegy written by Heyne in
Heyne increased this pittance by translation: in addition to some French novels, he rendered into German The Loves of Chaereas and Callirrhoe of Chariton, the Greek romance writer. He published his first edition of Tibullus in 1755, and in 1756 his Epictetus. In the latter year the Seven Years' War broke out and the library was destroyed, and Heyne was once more in a state of destitution. In 1757 he was offered a tutorship in the household of Frau von Schönberg, where he met his future wife.[1]
In January 1758 Heyne accompanied his pupil to the
On the death of Johann Matthias Gesner at the University of Göttingen in 1761, the vacant chair was refused first by Ernesti and then by Ruhnken, who persuaded Münchhausen, the Hanoverian minister and principal curator of the university to bestow it on Heyne (1763). His emoluments were gradually augmented, and his growing celebrity brought him most advantageous offers from other German governments, which he persistently refused.[1] Heyne was simultaneously given the post of director of the university library, a position he held until his death in 1812. Under his directorship, the library, today known as the Göttingen State and University Library, grew in size and reputation to be one of the leading academic libraries of the world, due to Heyne's innovative cataloguing methods and aggressive international acquisitions policy.[2]
Unlike Gottfried Hermann, Heyne regarded the study of grammar and language only as the means to an end, not as the chief object of philology. But, although not a critical scholar, he was the first to attempt a scientific treatment of Greek mythology, and he gave an undoubted impulse to philological studies.
Of Heyne's numerous writings, the following may be mentioned: editions, with copious commentaries, of Tibullus (ed. SC Wunderlich, 1817), Virgil (ed. GP Wagner, 1830–1841), Pindar (3rd ed. by GH Schafer, 1817), Apollodorus, Bibliotheca Graeca (1803), Homer, Iliad (1802); and Opuscula academica (1785–1812), containing more than a hundred academic dissertations, of which the most valuable are those relating to the colonies of Greece and the antiquities of Etruscan art and history. His Antiquarische Aufsätze (1778–1779) is a valuable collection of essays connected with the history of ancient art. His contributions to the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen are said to have been between 7,000 and 8,000 in number.[1]
For further details on Heyne's life, see the biography by
Heyne was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1789.[3]
He died in Göttingen.
Personal life
In 1761, Heyne married his first wife Therese, the daughter of lutenist
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911.
- . Retrieved 3 November 2022.
- ^ "Library and Archive catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 27 January 2022.
- ^ ISBN 978-3-476-00083-5.
- ISBN 978-3-11-093872-2.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Heyne, Christian Gottlob". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 438. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Carlyle, Thomas (1828). "The Life of Heyne". Critical and Miscellaneous Essays: Volume I. The Works of Thomas Carlyle in Thirty Volumes. Vol. XXVI. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (published 1904). pp. 319–354.
- Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren: Christian Gottlob Heyne, biographisch dargestellt, Göttingen 1813.
- ISBN 3-596-26643-2. pp. 125–147.