Jakob Christoph Iselin

Jakob Christoph Iselin

Jakob Christoph Iselin

Jakob Christoph Iselin (born June 12, 1681 in Basel ; † April 13, 1737 there ; authorized to live there ) was a Swiss Reformed theologian , historian and lexicographer .

life and work

Jakob Christoph Iselin, son of the silk ribbon manufacturer and politician Johann Lukas Iselin , studied Greek and Latin from 1694 to 1698 at the Universities of Basel and Geneva and from 1697 theology . He learned French, Italian and Spanish (from 1699). Back in Basel, he studied oriental languages and biblical philology. From 1704 to 1706 he was professor of rhetoric and history at the University of Marburg . From 1707 to 1711 he worked as a professor of history and antiquity and from 1711 as a professor of dogmatics at the University of Basel. From 1716 he also worked there as a university librarian.

In addition to numerous historical and theological works, in 1726, as editor, author of the foreword and assistant in the revision of the text on the basis of the lexicons of Pierre Bayle ( Dictionnaire historique et critique ) and above all of Johann Franz Buddeus (General historical lexicon), he edited the in Newly increased historical and geographic general lexicons published in Basel . For this he recruited employees in several cantons of the Swiss Confederation .

The reference work belonging to the dictionary of proper names - also known as the Basler Lexikon - has been expanded accordingly, especially with regard to southern German and Swiss issues. Its first edition (1726–27 in four folio volumes of 1000 to 1200 pages each) was followed by the second edition (1728–29 also in four folio volumes) and a third edition in six parts (1742–44). The third edition was continued by two supplement volumes (1742–44 of 2100 pages each!) And written by Jakob Christoph Beck and August Johann Buxtorf .

Almost all of the articles in Iselin's Lexicon contain references and references - very advanced in lexicographical terms for the time. The work is still usable today and an extremely rich work for relevant questions from biography, genealogy, topography, etc.

literature

In Zischka and in Peche - the standard works of lexicography - only first and third editions (Zischka, 4; Peche, 298 ff.) Are presented. Not in Zedler's Universal Lexicon (1735, Vol. 9), as it only deals with deceased people.

Further sources in chronological order without claim to completeness:

• Jöcher, Scholar-Lex. ¹ 1750 (2, 1993 f.) - without mentioning the lexicon;
• Pierer Universal-Lex., ² 1843 (15, 282);
• Herder Conv-Lex., ¹ 1857 (3, 441 f.);
• Pierer Universal Lex. ⁴ 1860 (9, 79);
• Manz Realenc., ³ 1870 (8, 117);
• Herder Conv-Lex. ² 1878 (3, 114);
• Pierer Konv-Lex. ⁷ 1890 (7, 1209 f.) - mentioned only indirectly as the father of Isaak Iselin;
• Swiss Lexicon 1992 (3, 596).

Web links

• Karin Marti-Weissenbach: Iselin, Jakob Christoph. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Portraits in the digital portrait index