Theodor Mommsen
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Theodor Mommsen | |
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University of Berlin | |
Notable students | Wilhelm Dilthey Eduard Schwartz Otto Seeck |
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (German:
Life
Mommsen was born to German parents in
Mommsen studied
In 1858 Mommsen was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and he also became professor of Roman History at the
In 1873, he was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society.[5]
At 2 a.m. on 7 July 1880 a fire occurred in the upper floor workroom-library of Mommsen's house at Marchstraße 6 in Berlin.
Mommsen had sixteen children with his wife Marie (daughter of the publisher and editor Karl Reimer of Leipzig). Their oldest daughter Maria married
Mommsen as editor and organiser
While he was secretary of the Historical-Philological Class at the Berlin Academy (1874–1895), Mommsen organised countless scientific projects, mostly editions of original sources.
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
At the beginning of his career, when he published the inscriptions of the Neapolitan Kingdom (1852), Mommsen already had in mind a collection of all known ancient Latin inscriptions. He received additional impetus and training from Bartolomeo Borghesi of San Marino. The complete Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum would consist of seventeen volumes, the latest of which was published in 1986. Fifteen of these volumes were published still in Mommsen's lifetime and he wrote five of them himself. The basic principle of the edition (contrary to previous collections) was the method of autopsy, according to which all copies (i.e., modern transcriptions) of inscriptions were to be checked and compared to the original.
Further editions and research projects
Mommsen published the fundamental collections in Roman law: the
Mommsen as politician
Part of Radicalism |
Mommsen was a delegate to the
As a Liberal nationalist Mommsen favored assimilation of ethnic minorities into German society, not exclusion. Mommsen was a vehement spokesman for German nationalism, maintaining a militant attitude towards the
Influence of Mommsen
Fellow Nobel Laureate (1925) Bernard Shaw cited Mommsen's interpretation of the last First Consul of the Republic, Julius Caesar, as one of the inspirations for his 1898 (1905 on Broadway) play, Caesar and Cleopatra.
Noted naval historian and theorist
The playwright
There is a Gymnasium (academic high school) named for Mommsen in his hometown of Bad Oldesloe, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. His birthplace Garding in the west of Schleswig styles itself "Mommsen-Stadt Garding".
Mark Twain
"One of the highpoints of
When apparently the last eminent guest had long ago taken his place, again those three bugle-blasts rang out, and once more the swords leaped from their scabbards. Who might this late comer be? Nobody was interested to inquire. Still, indolent eyes were turned toward the distant entrance, and we saw the silken gleam and the lifted sword of a guard of honor plowing through the remote crowds. Then we saw that end of the house rising to its feet; saw it rise abreast the advancing guard all along like a wave. This supreme honor had been offered to no one before. There was an excited whisper at our table—'MOMMSEN!'—and the whole house rose. Rose and shouted and stamped and clapped and banged the beer mugs. Just simply a storm!
Then the little man with his long hair and Emersonian face edged his way past us and took his seat. I could have touched him with my hand—Mommsen!—think of it! ... I would have walked a great many miles to get a sight of him, and here he was, without trouble or tramp or cost of any kind. Here he was clothed in a titanic deceptive modesty which made him look like other men.[19]
Bibliography
Mommsen published over 1,500 works, and effectively established a new framework for the systematic study of
- Mommsen, Theodor. Rome, from earliest times to 44 B. C. (1906) online
- Mommsen, Theodor. History of Rome: Volume 1 (1894) online edition
- Mommsen, Theodor. History of Rome: Volume 2 (1871) online edition
- Mommsen, Theodor. History of Rome: Volume 3 (1891) online edition
- Mommsen, Theodor. History of Rome: Volume 4 (1908) online edition
- Mommsen, Theodor: Römische Geschichte. 8 Volumes. ISBN 3-423-59055-6
- The Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian (1885), published as volume 5 of his History of Rome, is a description of all Roman regions during the early imperial period.
- Roman Chronology to the Time of Caesar (1858) written with his brother August Mommsen.
- Roman Constitutional Law (1871–1888). This systematic treatment of Roman constitutional lawin three volumes has been of importance for research on ancient history.
- Roman Criminal Law (1899)
- Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, lead editor and editor (1861, et seq.)
- Digesta (of Justinian), editor (1866–1870, two volumes)
- Iordanis Romana et Getica (1882) was Mommsen's critical edition of Jordanes' The Origin and Deeds of the Goths and has subsequently come to be generally known simply as Getica.
- Codex Theodosianus, editor (1905, posthumous)
- Monumentum Ancyranum
- More than 1,500 further studies and treatises on single issues.
A bibliography of over 1,000 of his works is given by Zangemeister in Mommsen als Schriftsteller (1887; continued by Jacobs, 1905).
See also
- Statue of Theodor Mommsen, Humboldt University of Berlin
References
- ^ "Th. Mommsen (1817–1903)". Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
- ^ "MemberListM". americanantiquarian.org. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "The Nobel Prize in Literature 1902". nobelprize.org. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "Nomination Database". www.nobelprize.org. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 3 May 2021.
- ^ Mentzel-Reuters, Arno; Mersiowsky, Mark; Orth, Peter; Rader, Olaf B. (2005). "Phönix aus der Asche – Theodor Mommsen und die Monumenta Germaniae Historica" (PDF). München and Berlin: Mgh-bibliothek.de. p. 53.
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has generic name (help) - ^ Vossische Zeitung 12 July 1880 (Nr. 192) in column "Lokales"
- ^ "Google Maps". Google Maps. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
- ^ quote: Another manuscript is beyond recall; namely, 0.4.36, which was borrowed by Professor Theodor Mommsen and perished in the lamentable fire at his house in 1880. It was not, apparently, an indispensable or even a very important authority for the texts (Jordanes, the Antonine Itinerary, etc.) which it contained, and other copies of its archetype are yet in being: still, the loss of it is very regrettable; M. R. James' "The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge: a Descriptive Catalogue". Archived from the original on 12 July 2009.
- ^ "Quote: Der größte Verlust war eine frühmittelalterliche Jordanes-Handschrift aus der Heidelberger Universitätsbibliothek" (PDF). p. 53.
- ^ ...vor allem zwei aus Brüssel und Halle entlehnte Handschriften.
- ISBN 978-1400827244.
- ^ "Prof. Mommsen and the Jews", from The Times, reprinted in The New York Times, 8 January 1881.
- ^ "10 Fin-de-Siècle and Empire's End" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 June 2007. Retrieved 28 March 2007.
- ^ "An die Deutschen in Oesterreich". Neue Freie Presse – issue 11923. 31 October 1897.
- ^ Mahan, Alfred Thayer. From Sail to Stream: Recollections of Naval Life. New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1907: 277
- ISBN 0-8018-6578-6. p.122-129.
- ^ Saunder and Collins, "Introduction" to their edition of Mommsen's History of Rome (Meridian Books 1958), at 1–17, 1.
- ^ Cited by Saunders and Collins, supra.
- ^ Liukkonen, Petri. "Theodor Mommsen". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 24 August 2014.
Further reading
- Carter, Jesse Benedict. "Theodor Mommsen," The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XCIII, 1904.
- Gay, Peter, and Victor G. Wexler, (eds). Historians at Work, Vol. III, 1975, pp. 271+
- ISBN 1-4223-7467-X.
- Anthony Grafton. "Roman Monument" History Today September 2006 online.
- Mueller, G. H.. "Weber and Mommsen: non-Marxist materialism," British Journal of Sociology, (March 1986), 37(1), pp. 1–20 in JSTOR
- Whitman, Sidney, and Theodor Mommsen. "German Feeling toward England and America," North American Review, Vol. 170, No. 519 (Feb. 1900), pp. 240–243 online in JSTOR, an exchange of letters
- Krmnicek, Stefan (ed.). Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903) auf Medaillen und Plaketten. Sammlung des Instituts für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Tübingen (Von Krösus bis zu König Wilhelm. Neue Serie 2). Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen, Tübingen 2017, https://dx.doi.org/10.15496/publikation-19540.
External links
- Theodor Mommsen on Nobelprize.org
- Works by or about Theodor Mommsen at Internet Archive
- Works by Theodor Mommsen at Project Gutenberg
- Works by Theodor Mommsen at Projekt Gutenberg-DE (in German)
- Petri Liukkonen. "Theodor Mommsen". Books and Writers.
- Works by Theodor Mommsen at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)