Johann Christian Götze

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Götzes grave in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden

Johann Christian Götze (born August 13, 1692 in Hohburg near Wurzen , † June 5, 1749 in Dresden ) was a German theologian and librarian .

Life

Götze was born in 1692 as the son of the Protestant pastor Christian Götze (1658–1742) in Hohburg. He attended the Nicolaischule in Leipzig and studied from the age of 16 at the University of Leipzig . In Leipzig he lived with his uncle, the head of the council library, in which Götze intensively studied writings on Catholicism. In 1711 he converted to the Catholic faith in Dresden. In the same year he went to Vienna as a convector in the Imperial College of Convictores at St. Barbara and then to Rome until 1717 , where he studied at the German and Hungarian College of S. Apollinaris. In 1717 he was "awarded the highest dignity in theology and philosophy by the Roman Archigymnasium."

In 1717 Götze became the first chaplain of Prince Elector Friedrich August of Saxony in Vienna . After the death of Augustus the Strong , he appointed him as Elector Friedrich August II. To the court chaplain and in 1734 made him responsible for the electoral library.

Page 9 of the Maya manuscript acquired from Götze

Götze was in lively written exchange with the most important personalities of his time. In his function as chief inspector of the royal library, he also made numerous trips at home and abroad, where he bought books for the library. In 1737 he bought so much of the library of Johann Gottfried Sellius († 1767) and a year later works of Polish and Prussian history from the Bibliotheca Brauniana of David Brown . During a trip to Italy and Austria in 1739, Götze discovered a manuscript from a Viennese private citizen, which he "easily got for free as an unknown thing". He described the manuscript in his work The Merckworthiness of the Royal Library of Dreßden :

"A Mexican book with unknown characters and hieroglyphic figures described on both pages, and painted with all sorts of colors, in elongated octaves, neatly in folds or 39. leaves put together, which spread out lengthways over six cubits."

- Johann Christian Götze, 1743

He brought the 39-page Maya manuscript known today as Codex Dresdensis with him to Dresden and tried in vain to translate the script for five years. After preliminary work by Yuri Knorosow in 1952, this was not fully achieved until 1970. The Maya manuscript is one of four Maya codices that still exist worldwide and is considered to be one of the most valuable manuscripts in the possession of the SLUB Dresden .

Another trip Götze to Austria and Italy in 1747 led, among other things, to purchases of parts of the library of the writer Giovanni Sagredo (1616-1691) for the royal library. During his lifetime, Götze was respected by both Catholics and Protestants. He died in Dresden in 1749. His grave is in the old Catholic cemetery there .

Works

  • Christian preparation for a blessed end, through faith, hope, love, complete repentance and submission to the divine will (translation from Italian, 1737)
  • The Merckworthiness of the Royal Library of Dreßden (3 volumes, 1743–1748)
  • The Bavarian Dauphine presented to the future Saxon Dauphine Royal Highness and submissively ascribed (1747)

literature

  • Friedhilde Krause et al .: Handbook of historical book collections in Germany . Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim 1997, p. 97.
  • Ingrid Roßki: Johann Christian Götze discovered Mayan handwriting . In: Sächsische Zeitung , July 3, 2009, p. 3.
  • Johann Christian Götze . In: Gudrun Schlechte: The Old Catholic Cemetery in Friedrichstadt in Dresden . Hille, Dresden 2004, pp. 139f.
  • Franz Schnorr von Carolsfeld:  Götze, Johann Christian . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 512.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ADB, p. 512.
  2. ^ Johann Christian Götze: The Merckworthiness of the Royal Library in Dreßden . Volume 1. Walther, Dresden 1743, p. 4.
  3. ^ Johann Christian Götze: The Merckworthiness of the Royal Library in Dreßden . Volume 1. Walther, Dresden 1743, p. 1.
  4. ^ Digitized version , Volume 1
personal data
SURNAME Gotze, Johann Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chaplain and librarian
DATE OF BIRTH August 13, 1692
PLACE OF BIRTH Hohburg near Wurzen
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1749
Place of death Dresden