Wolfgang Helbig
Encyclopedia
Wolfgang Helbig was a German classical archaeologist who was a native of 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....

.

From 1856 to 1861 he studied philology
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...

 and archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 at the Universities of Göttingen and Bonn
University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

, and in 1862 became a member of the German Archaeological Institute
German Archaeological Institute
The German Archaeological Institute is an institution of research within the field of archaeology , and a "scientific corporation", with parentage of the federal Foreign Office of Germany-Origin:...

 (DAI) to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. During his career he traveled extensively throughout Italy, Greece, Russia, France and North Africa. From 1887 he lived in Rome as a private scholar and art dealer
Art dealer
An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art. Art dealers' professional associations serve to set high standards for accreditation or membership and to support art exhibitions and shows.-Role:...

, and was broker of numerous works of art for the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek
The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark...

 in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

.

Helbig is remembered for his extensive scientific studies involving the wall paintings of Pompeii
Pompeii
The city of Pompeii is a partially buried Roman town-city near modern Naples in the Italian region of Campania, in the territory of the comune of Pompei. Along with Herculaneum, Pompeii was destroyed and completely buried during a long catastrophic eruption of the volcano Mount Vesuvius spanning...

. In 1887, he presented the now controversial Praeneste fibula
Praeneste fibula
The Praeneste fibula is a golden brooch bearing an inscription that was accepted nearly without question since its presentation to the public in 1887 by Wolfgang Helbig, an archaeologist, as the earliest surviving specimen of the Latin language. The origin of the fibula was not stated in the...

.
In 1892, he published the first edition of Führer durch die öffentlichen Sammlungen klassischer Altertümer in Rom, which was a very popular guide to the classical antiquities in Rome.

Selected publications

  • Wandgemälde der vom Vesuv verschütteten Städte Kampaniens (Murals of the Cities of Campania
    Campania
    Campania is a region in southern Italy. The region has a population of around 5.8 million people, making it the second-most-populous region of Italy; its total area of 13,590 km² makes it the most densely populated region in the country...

     buried by Vesuvius), Leipzig 1868
  • Untersuchungen über die Campanische Wandmalerei (Studies of Campanian wall painting), Leipzig 1873
  • Die Italiker in der Po-Ebene (The ancient Italic peoples of the Po River
    Po River
    The Po |Ligurian]]: Bodincus or Bodencus) is a river that flows either or – considering the length of the Maira, a right bank tributary – eastward across northern Italy, from a spring seeping from a stony hillside at Pian del Re, a flat place at the head of the Val Po under the northwest face...

    Plain), Leipzig 1879
  • Das homerische Epos, aus den Denkmälern erläutert (The Homeric epic, from the Monuments explained), Leipzig 1884. 2nd Edition 1887
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