Johannes Schweighäuser

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Schweighäuser's picture from the Imagines philologorum .

Johannes Schweighäuser (born June 26, 1742 in Strasbourg , † January 19, 1830 ibid) was an Alsatian classical philologist . He made a particular contribution to the publication of several Greek authors.

Johannes Schweighäuser was the son of the Strasbourg pastor of the Thomaskirche Johann Georg Schweighäuser, whose 14th and last child he was. At the age of five he started attending the local Protestant grammar school and at 13 he became a student at the University of Strasbourg . Like his father, he initially wanted to become a theologian, but focused his studies more extensively from the start. He also studied philology, philosophy, history and natural sciences, in particular anatomy, mathematics, physics, botany and chemistry. Unusually for his time, his studies lasted 12 years. In 1767 he completed it with the thesis Systema morale huius universi sive de extremo rerum omnium fine , in which he combined his main study of theology with his favorite study, philosophy. The Scottish moral philosophers John Hutchinson and Adam Ferguson in particular had a lasting influence on him. In the spring of that year, after the death of his father, he made another and longer trip for the first time, which took him to Paris. There he visited the city's diverse collections and was strongly influenced by Joseph de Guignes . During the ten months of his stay, he taught him Syriac and Arabic . After his interest in the oriental languages ​​was aroused, he did not continue his trip to London as planned, but went to the University of Göttingen , where he deepened his oriental studies with Johann David Michaelis , especially in Arabic and Hebrew . He also got to know other academics, including Christian Gottlob Heyne , whom he later deeply adored; At that time, Schweighäuser was still far from classical philology. Then he went briefly to the University of Halle , then a little longer to the University of Leipzig , where he came into contact with the Arabist Johann Jacob Reiske . Stays in Dresden and Berlin followed. In Berlin he had the opportunity to attend a meeting of the Royal Academy of Sciences and got to know Moses Mendelssohn . He came to Hamburg via Barby , Braunschweig and Wolfenbüttel , where he met Gotthold Ephraim Lessing . From Hamburg he embarked for London, the trip took 16 days due to bad weather. Thanks to connections, he was able to visit the British Museum daily and was inducted into the Royal Society . Equipped with a letter of recommendation from Anton Askew , he traveled to Oxford , where he made friends with the orientalist Joseph White. During this time he was able to settle a quarrel that had been smoldering for a long time between Askew and Reiske. In the summer of 1769 he returned to Strasbourg via Holland , which he then left for a longer journey only once in his life.

Back in Strasbourg, Schweighäuser applied for the vacant chair of philosophy, which was transferred to Philipp Müller. Schweighäuser was appointed associate professor with the assurance that he would be able to fill a suitable professorship with the next vacancy. He taught logic , metaphysics , the history of philosophy, and ancient and modern philosophy. At the time, his teaching focused on the English philosophers. During this time Friedrich Philipp Rosenstiel and Johann Wolfgang Goethe were among the students. In 1775 he married the middle-class and educated Katharina Salome Häring, who made Schweighäusersche Haus a center of life in the city. After Johann Friedrich Echerer , the holder of the chair for Oriental Languages ​​and Classical Philology, died in 1777 , Schweighäuser was given the chair. He did not accept this professorship out of conviction, as he actually continued to speculate on the professorship for philosophy. The focus should be on the oriental languages, which he already taught as an associate professor; With the new professorship, he now dealt more intensively with ancient literature, often in connection with ancient philosophical writings. Philippe Brunck exerted a lot of influence on him at this time . Brunck also referred Samuel Musgrave to Schweighäuser for the collation of an Appian manuscript from Augsburg , who happily devoted himself to this task and did it to his full satisfaction. Musgrave then gave him the notes he had already made on Appian, so that Schweighäuser now got the text output that the English scholar had originally planned. At the time, no usable edition was available on the late antique historian. With De impressis ac manuscriptis Appiani codicibus and Exercitationes in Appiani Historias , two major preparatory works appeared in 1781; the edition with a Latin translation and commentary was published in 1785 in three volumes. Probably due to a comment in a positive Heyne review, Schweighäuser then devoted himself to the publication of Polybios , supported for a short time in 1786 by Heyne's pupil Philipp Buttmann . Between 1789 and 1795 Polybius was published again with translation, commentary and a lexical part in nine volumes. The achievement is to be valued all the more highly since the French Revolution was raging at the time . Schweighäuser and his wife were very positive about the revolutionary development. In 1791 he was elected to the Strasbourg council, his eldest son Gottfried joined the French armed forces at the insistence of his father. After the “Terreur” also found its way into Strasbourg , led by Eulogius Schneider , Schweighäuser's zeal quickly cooled off. That made him suspicious of the Jacobins who wanted to lock him up. Thanks to his wife's intercession, the sentence was changed to the exile he spent with his family in Baccarat . Here he continued to work on his Polybios edition. Since he also wrote at night, his lamp, which had been on for a long time, made him suspicious and he was supposed to be locked up as a conspirator. This was prevented by a letter of thanks from the welfare committee , which thanked him for the first volumes of the Polybios edition that had been sent to him. In 1794 he was able to return to Strasbourg.

Tomb in the Thomaskirche looked after by the father.

The first time after their return was problematic for Schweighäuser as well as for many other members of the university and residents of Strasbourg. The economic situation was bad, the money devalued and many students had become soldiers, and the university could not afford the salaries. Only when the situation improved again in 1795 and Schweighäuser accepted a position as professor at the newly created Strasbourg Central School (École centrale) for the Lower Rhine department, did the situation improve for his family. At the newly created Institut de France he was appointed to the art and literature class in 1795. During this time he devoted himself again increasingly to the philosophical authors, especially Epictetus . In 1799 and 1800 he published his writings in five volumes, including translation, notes, the ancient commentaries and paraphrases . For the Zweibrücker writers' editions he was asked to turn to Athenaios , which he did after some hesitation. His son Gottfried found the only manuscript in Paris on which the previous editions were based, after which Schweighäuser published the work in 14 volumes between 1801 and 1807. In 1802 the central schools were abolished and the Protestant university reopened as a theological seminary. Here Schweighäuser became professor of the Greek language. Unlike the position at school, however, the professorship at the seminar was not very profitable, which led to economic problems. For the next few years he had to stay afloat with private lessons. Only when Jeremias Jakob Oberlin died and Schweighäuser was given his position as librarian at the university did the situation improve again. The situation finally got better when the university was re-established in 1808 and he was also able to take over the Dean's office of the philosophical faculty in addition to his professorship. After the economic situation improved again, private setbacks followed. In 1807 his wife died, in 1809 his son Karl was wounded in the battle of Eßlingen and died a little later in a Viennese hospital. In 1809 he devoted himself the only time to a work of Latin literature. Based on the Strasbourg manuscript, he worked on Seneca's philosophical letters, which he published in two volumes. In 1810 he began to devote himself to Herodotus . Over the next six years he finished the work in as many volumes. The work was received rather critically, but he added it eight years later with his last major work, the Lexicon Herodoteum . In 1815 he finished his librarianship, in 1823 his deanery and his professorship. In 1826 he was honored by the Royal Society , and in 1821 he was accepted by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . He died in 1830 after a short illness and was buried in the Thomaskirche. His son Johann Gottfried Schweighäuser was also an ancient scholar.

Schweighhäuser was mostly very much admired by his students. He was friendly and indecent, only Lefebvre de Villebrune aroused his displeasure. In language and writing he often expressed himself in lengthy ways. His students included Friedrich Philipp Rosenstiel and Johann Georg Daniel Arnold , and his friends Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel .

Fonts

  • Systema morale huius universi sive de extremo rerum omnium fine . Strasbourg 1767 (dissertation)
  • An clarior pleniorque homini data sit rerum corporearum quam propriae mentis cognitio . Strasbourg 1770
  • Sophoclis Electra et Euripidis Andromache ex optimis exemplaribus emendatae . Strasbourg 1779
  • Sophoclis Oedipus Tyrannus et Euripidis Orestes ex optimis exemplaribus emendati. Acc. Brunckii animadversiones in Euripidis Oresten et Musgravii notas . Strasbourg 1779
  • Polybii Megalopolitani historiarum quidquid superest . Eight volumes, Leipzig 1789–1795
  • Epicteti Dissertationum from Arriano Digestarum libri IV. Eiusdem enchiridion, et ex deperditis sermonibus fragmenta . Leipzig 1799
  • Opuscula academica seorsim olim edita nunc recognita in unum volumen collegit auctor . Strasbourg 1806 (two volumes)
    • Pars prior. Commentationes philosophicae.
    • Pars posterior. Commentationes philologicae.
  • Cebetis Tabula sive vitae humanae pictura Graece. Collatis quatuor codd. mss. Paris. cum lectionibus cod. Meibom. iterum emendatam edidit . Strasbourg 1806
  • L. Ann. Senecae ad Lucilium epistolae morales ad fidem veterum librorum . Strasbourg 1809

literature

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