Karl Boysen

The title of this article is ambiguous. For other people, see Carl Boysen .

Karl Boysen (also Carl , full name Karl Heinrich Friedrich Boysen , born February 14, 1852 in Wittstock / Dosse , † April 16, 1922 in Leipzig ) was a German librarian and classical philologist .

Life

Karl Boysen was the son of Friedrich Boysen and Auguste geb. Güntzel. His father was a mill master in Wittstock, later the tenant of the Quaßliner mill near Lübz. Karl Boysen first attended elementary school in Wittstock, then from 1860 the grammar school in Neuruppin and from 1867 the Kiel school of scholars . From Easter 1870 Boysen studied classical philology and history at the University of Kiel . When the Franco-Prussian War broke out , he volunteered and interrupted his studies. At this time he met the somewhat older Kiel student Benedikt Niese , to whom he remained on friendly terms throughout his life. After his return from the war, Boysen continued his studies in Kiel in autumn 1871 until autumn 1876. On August 15, 1876 he was promoted to Dr. phil. doctorate , on November 4, 1876 he passed the senior teacher examination.

Tomb of Karl and Ida Boysen

Boysen did not enter the school service, however, but the scientific librarian career. On September 1, 1876, Boysen became a laborer at the Royal University Library in Göttingen . Boysen was acquainted with its director, the philologist August Wilmanns , from his studies in Kiel; he had dedicated his doctoral thesis to him. Wilmanns played a key role in the professionalization of librarian training in Prussia.

Boysen was employed in Göttingen as the eighth custodian on October 1, 1877, as the sixth custodian on January 1, 1880, and as the fifth custodian on January 1, 1883. On April 1, 1885, Boysen moved to the university library in Marburg as a sub-librarian, where he was deputy head of administration from June 1886 to September 30, 1887. On October 11, 1887, he received the title of librarian. Karl Boysen's only daughter, Ida, was born in Marburg on May 19, 1889. After her father's death she worked as a surgeon in Leipzig.

The first executive committee of the Deutsche Bücherei, painted by Hugo Vogel . Third from the right, seated: Karl Boysen

On October 1, 1891, Boysen was transferred as librarian to the Royal Library in Berlin , where he was given the title of Senior Librarian on March 3, 1894 and on November 1, 1897 the rank of Councilor IV class of the higher provincial officials. On May 17, 1899 he became director of the Royal and University Library in Königsberg . His last position from 1906 was the management of the Leipzig University Library . At the same time he was chairman of the examination commission for academic librarians and a member of the Saxon commission for history. In Leipzig, Boysen also helped set up the German library , which was founded in 1912. From 1914 to 1920 Boysen was chairman of the Association of German Librarians . In 1921 he retired with the title of Privy Councilor .

Scientific work

Karl Boysen dealt with the lexicographical writings of late antiquity and the Byzantine period since his studies . In his dissertation he dealt with the tradition and structure of the lexicon of the harpocration and published a sample of the synagogue lexeon chresimon , a lexicon that was created in the 9th century. He published further samples of this lexicon in 1891/1892 in the course catalog of the University of Marburg. Boysen was unable to produce a complete edition.

As part of the Vienna Church Fathers Edition in 1898, Boysen published a critical edition of the Latin translation of Flavius ​​Josephus ' work Contra Apionem . In the 1870s and 1880s he published numerous reviews and short essays on the transmission of Greek and Latin authors.

Fonts (selection)

• De Harpocrationis lexici fontibus quaestiones selectae. Accedunt fragmenta lexicorum rhetoricorum ex codd. Coisl. n.347 et Paris. n.2635 nunc primum excerpta . Dissertation, Kiel 1876.
• Bibliographical overview of the literature on Greek and Latin authors from 1867–1876. Division I. Greek Authors. Book II. Horapollo - Justinus . Goettingen 1879
• Lexici Segueriani Συναγωγὴ λέξεων χρησίμων inscripti pars prima . University program, Marburg 1891/1892.
• Flavii Josephi opera ex versione latina. Pars 6: De Judaeorum vetustate sive contra Apionem Libri 2 ( Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 37.6). Vienna 1898.

literature

• Central Journal for Libraries . Volume 17 (1900), p. 69.
• Richard Fick : Karl Boysen and his position on the general catalog problem . In: Otto Glaunig on his 60th birthday. Festival from science and library . Volume 1, 1936, pp. 36-42.
• Boysen, Karl . In: Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia (DBE) . 2., revised. and extended edition. tape 1 : Aachen – Braniss . De Gruyter / KG Saur, Berlin / Boston / Munich 2005, ISBN 3-11-094657-2 , p. 866 .
• Old Prussian biography . Volume 5, part 3, Marburg 2007, p. 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Reiner large : Historical research in Saxony. From the Saxon Commission for History to the Historical Commission at the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, 1896–1996 . Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-515-06953-4 , p. 149.