Christian Gottlob Heyne
Encyclopedia
Christian Gottlob Heyne (25 September 1729 – 14 July 1812) was a German
classical scholar and archaeologist as well as long-time director of the Göttingen State and University Library
.
, Electorate of Saxony
. His father was a poor weaver who had left Silesia and moved to Saxony to maintain his Protestant faith; Christian's education was paid for by his godfather. In 1748 he entered the University of Leipzig
, where he was often short of the necessaries of life. He was helped by the classicist Johann Friedrich Christ, who encouraged him and loaned him Greek and Latin texts. He obtained a position as tutor in the family of a French merchant in Leipzig
, which enabled him to continue his studies. In 1752 law professor Johann August Bach awarded Heyne a master’s degree, but he was for many years in very straitened circumstances.
An elegy written by him in Latin
on the death of a friend attracted the attention of Count von Brühl
, the prime minister, who expressed a desire to see the author. Accordingly, in April 1752, Heyne journeyed to Dresden
, believing that his fortune was made. He was well received; promised a secretaryship and a good salary, but nothing came of it. Another period of poverty followed, and only by persistent solicitation was Heyne able to obtain the post of under-clerk in the count's library, with a salary of less than twenty pounds sterling. He 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.
In January 1758 he accompanied his pupil to the University of Wittenberg, but the Prussian invasion drove him out in 1760. The bombardment of Dresden, on 18 July 1760, destroyed all his possessions, including an almost finished edition of Lucian
, based on a valuable codex of the Dresden Library. In the summer of 1761, still without any fixed income, he married, and became land-steward to the Baron von Löben in Lusatia. At the end of 1762, however, he was able to return to Dresden, where he was commissioned by P. D. Lippert to prepare the Latin text of the third volume of his Dactyliotheca (art account of a collection of gems).
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. 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 cataloging methods and aggressive international acquisitions policy.
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); Opuscula academica (1785-1812), containing more than a hundred academical 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 7000 and 8000 in number. See biography by Heeren
(1813) which forms the basis of the interesting essay by Thomas Carlyle
(Misc. Essays, ii.); Hermann Sauppe
, Göttinger Professoren (1872); Conrad Bursian
in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
xii.; JE Sandys
, Hist. Class. Schol iii. 36-44; Friedrich Klingner, Christian Gottlob Heyne (Leipzig: Poeschel & Trepte, 1937, 25 pages).
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1789.
He died in Göttingen.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
classical scholar and archaeologist as well as long-time director of the Göttingen State and University Library
Göttingen State and University Library
The Göttingen State and University Library is the library for Göttingen University as well as the central library for the German State of Lower Saxony , and the library for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences...
.
Biography
He was born in ChemnitzChemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
, Electorate of Saxony
Electorate of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...
. His father was a poor weaver who had left Silesia and moved to Saxony to maintain his Protestant faith; Christian's education was paid for by his godfather. In 1748 he entered the University of Leipzig
University of Leipzig
The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...
, where he was often short of the necessaries of life. He was helped by the classicist Johann Friedrich Christ, who encouraged him and loaned him Greek and Latin texts. He obtained a position as tutor in the family of a French merchant in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
, which enabled him to continue his studies. In 1752 law professor Johann August Bach awarded Heyne a master’s degree, but he was for many years in very straitened circumstances.
An elegy written by him in Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
on the death of a friend attracted the attention of Count von Brühl
Heinrich, count von Brühl
Heinrich, count von Brühl , was a German statesman at the court of Saxony and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth...
, the prime minister, who expressed a desire to see the author. Accordingly, in April 1752, Heyne journeyed to Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, believing that his fortune was made. He was well received; promised a secretaryship and a good salary, but nothing came of it. Another period of poverty followed, and only by persistent solicitation was Heyne able to obtain the post of under-clerk in the count's library, with a salary of less than twenty pounds sterling. He increased this pittance by translation; in addition to some French novels, he rendered into German The Loves of Chaereas and Callirrhoe of Chariton
Chariton
Chariton of Aphrodisias was the author of an ancient Greek novel probably titled Callirhoe , though it is regularly referred to as Chaereas and Callirhoe...
, the Greek romance writer. He published his first edition of Tibullus
Tibullus
Albius Tibullus was a Latin poet and writer of elegies.Little is known about his life. His first and second books of poetry are extant; many other texts attributed to Tibullus are of questionable origins. There are only a few references to him in later writers and a short Life of doubtful authority...
in 1755, and in 1756 his Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetus was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia , and lived in Rome until banishment when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece where he lived the rest of his life. His teachings were noted down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses...
. In the latter year the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War
The Seven Years' War was a global military war between 1756 and 1763, involving most of the great powers of the time and affecting Europe, North America, Central America, the West African coast, India, and the Philippines...
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.
In January 1758 he accompanied his pupil to the University of Wittenberg, but the Prussian invasion drove him out in 1760. The bombardment of Dresden, on 18 July 1760, destroyed all his possessions, including an almost finished edition of Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
, based on a valuable codex of the Dresden Library. In the summer of 1761, still without any fixed income, he married, and became land-steward to the Baron von Löben in Lusatia. At the end of 1762, however, he was able to return to Dresden, where he was commissioned by P. D. Lippert to prepare the Latin text of the third volume of his Dactyliotheca (art account of a collection of gems).
Johann Matthias Gesner
Johann Matthias Gesner was a German classical scholar and schoolmaster.He was born at Roth an der Rednitz near Ansbach. His father, Johann Samuel Gesner, a pastor in Auhausen, died in 1704, leaving the family in straitened circumstances...
at the University of Göttingen in 1761, the vacant chair was refused first by Ernesti
Johann August Ernesti
Johann August Ernesti was a German Rationalist theologian and philologist.He was born at Bad Tennstedt in Thuringia, where his father, Johann Christoph Ernesti, was pastor, besides being superintendent of the electoral dioceses of Thuringia, Salz and Sangerhausen...
and then by Ruhnken
David Ruhnken
David Ruhnken was a Dutch classical scholar of German origin.-Origins:Ruhnken was born in Bedlin near Stolp, Pomerania Province,...
, 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. 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
Göttingen State and University Library
The Göttingen State and University Library is the library for Göttingen University as well as the central library for the German State of Lower Saxony , and the library for the Göttingen Academy of Sciences...
, grew in size and reputation to be one of the leading academic libraries of the world, due to Heyne's innovative cataloging methods and aggressive international acquisitions policy.
Unlike Gottfried Hermann
Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann
Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann was a German classical scholar and philologist.-Biography:He was born at Leipzig. Entering its university at the age of fourteen, Hermann at first studied law, which he soon abandoned for the classics...
, Heyne regarded the study of grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
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
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, and he gave an undoubted impulse to philological
Philology
Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...
studies.
Of Heyne's numerous writings, the following may be mentioned. Editions, with copious commentaries
Commentary (philology)
In philology, a commentary is a line-by-line or even word-by-word explication usually attached to an edition of a text in the same or an accompanying volume. It may draw on methodologies of close reading and literary criticism, but its primary purpose is to elucidate the language of the text and...
, of Tibullus (ed. SC Wunderlich, 1817), Virgil
Virgil
Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English , was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He is known for three major works of Latin literature, the Eclogues , the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid...
(ed. GP Wagner, 1830-1841), Pindar
Pindar
Pindar , was an Ancient Greek lyric poet. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved. Quintilian described him as "by far the greatest of the nine lyric poets, in virtue of his inspired magnificence, the beauty of his thoughts and figures, the rich...
(3rd ed. by GH Schafer, 1817), Apollodorus
Apollodorus
Apollodorus of Athens son of Asclepiades, was a Greek scholar and grammarian. He was a pupil of Diogenes of Babylon, Panaetius the Stoic, and the grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace...
, Bibliotheca Graeca (1803), Homer, Iliad (1802); Opuscula academica (1785-1812), containing more than a hundred academical 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 7000 and 8000 in number. See biography by Heeren
Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren
Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren was a German historian.He was born at Arbergen, near Bremen. He studied philosophy, theology and history at the University of Göttingen, and then travelled in France, Italy and the Netherlands...
(1813) which forms the basis of the interesting essay by Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...
(Misc. Essays, ii.); Hermann Sauppe
Hermann Sauppe
Hermann Sauppe was a German classical philologist and epigraphist born in Wesenstein, near Dresden....
, Göttinger Professoren (1872); Conrad Bursian
Conrad Bursian
Conrad Bursian was a German philologist and archaeologist.He was born at Mutzschen in Saxony. When his parents moved to Leipzig, he received his early education at Thomasschule zu Leipzig, and entered the university in 1847...
in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie is one of the most important and most comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language....
xii.; JE Sandys
John Edwin Sandys
Sir John Edwin Sandys FBA , was a classical scholar.He was born at Leicester on 19 May 1844, a son of the Reverend Timothy Sandys of the Church Missionary Society and Rebecca . Living at first in India, he returned to England at the age of eleven, and was educated at the Church Missionary Society...
, Hist. Class. Schol iii. 36-44; Friedrich Klingner, Christian Gottlob Heyne (Leipzig: Poeschel & Trepte, 1937, 25 pages).
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in April 1789.
He died in Göttingen.