Karl Ludwig Kayser

Karl Ludwig Kayser (born February 3, 1808 in Heidelberg ; † May 5, 1872 ibid) was a German classical philologist . He stood out particularly through his text-critical, exegetical and editorial work on the writings of Flavius ​​Philostratus , the Roman rhetoricians and the Homeric epics.

Life

Karl Ludwig Kayser was the eldest son of the pastor's daughter Gertrud Kayser (née Kaibel) and the philologist Karl Philipp Kayser (1773-1827). Since his marriage (1805) his father had been a lecturer in Greek and Latin at the University of Heidelberg , where he was also appointed associate professor in 1819. From 1820 he was director of the high school in Heidelberg. Karl Ludwig Kayser grew up in an educated and musical family and from August 1822 attended grammar school in Frankfurt am Main , where he also perfected his piano skills and was introduced to music theory by Johann Georg Vollweiler . In April 1824 he returned to Heidelberg and attended the top class of the grammar school there.

In the fall of 1825, Kayser went to Heidelberg University to study classical philology. In addition to Johann Christian Felix Bähr and Carl Daub , Friedrich Creuzer in particular became his academic mentor, who was also friends with the Kayser family. In July and August 1826, Kayser accompanied him on a research trip to Paris and in 1827 won the award task of the philosophical faculty with an award paper on the humanist Jan Gruter . After the death of his father in the same year, Kayser worked as a private teacher while studying; He had to give up his plan to continue studying at another university. In the summer of 1830 he passed the philological and theological exams in Karlsruhe, and on December 20 of the same year he was awarded a doctorate in Heidelberg. phil. PhD .

After graduation, Kayser continued to work as a teacher at the institute that his father founded and which his mother continued to run after his death. In addition, he prepared his academic career. His first scientific publication was the Philostratian Sophistenviten , for whose textual criticism he used the Platonic Dialogues , Xenophon's Memorabilia and the speeches of Dion Chrysostom to a large extent. After the publication of this work (1831) Kayser worked on a critical edition of the Sophistvites. In the winter semester of 1832/33 he qualified as a professor in Classical Philology. His career at Heidelberg University then proceeded slowly but steadily: in 1841 he was appointed associate professor, in 1845 (after Creuzer's death) he was made co-director of the Philological Seminary, and from 1855 he received a fixed salary. In the winter semester of 1863/64 he was appointed full professor and was thus a voting member of the philosophical faculty.

In his lectures, Kayser represented a broad spectrum of classical philology. In addition to public lectures on Greek and Roman poets and prose writers, he also invited students to private reading in his house, where he performed entire dramas by Sophocles , Aristophanes and Plautus . In his lectures he proceeded step by step and problem-oriented; Given the abundance of individual observations, however, he was unable to produce any summarizing and systematic overview lectures. The lectures that he announced under titles such as “History of Philology”, “Metrics”, “Epigraphy” and “Roman Antiquities” provided a series of individual observations rather than a systematic overview.

Kayser was widely recognized for his academic achievements. In 1850 the Bavarian Academy of Sciences elected him a foreign member, later the Grand Duke of Baden awarded him the Zähringer Lion Order.

Kayser's late years were overshadowed by conflicts within the seminar that arose between Hermann Köchly, appointed in 1863, and Professors Bähr and Karl Bernhard Stark . Köchly tried to reform the seminar in his sense, which Kayser was ready to support, but was rejected by Bähr and Stark. From 1868 Kayser also suffered from heart and kidney problems, to which he succumbed in 1872 at the age of 64.

Research work

Kayser's first research focus since his studies were the writings of the Second Sophistic , in particular the "Philostratic writings". After his editions of the Sophistenviten (1838) and the Gymnastik (1840), which had previously only been known through a few fragments, he went to a complete edition of the Philostratic writings. A large number of writings have survived under this name, some of which come from different people with the same name, some from other authors. Kayser also included other related texts in the circle of these writings. The complete edition was published in 1844-1846 and contained the writings of Flavius ​​Philostratos , the descriptions of the statues of Callistratus , the pseudo Lucian Nero , the letters of the sophist Apollonios of Tyana and the writing of Eusebius against Hierocles. The edition was based on a thorough study of the surviving manuscripts, a thorough knowledge of the authors' use of language, and was endowed with a rich critical-exegetical commentary. In the years 1870–1871, Kayser published the same texts in a revised version that was published by BG Teubner.

A second research focus of Kayser was the Roman rhetoric . In 1854 his critical edition of the Rhetorica ad Herennium appeared , which was still known under the name Ciceros until the end of the 15th century . Kayser assigned the script to the rhetor Quintus Cornificius based on the quotes from Quintilian ; this ascription was later dropped, long after Kayser's death. In any case, this edition made Kayser known as an expert on Roman rhetoric, so that the Zurich professor Johann Georg Baiter consulted him on his complete edition of Cicero's writings. This handy edition was published by B. Tauchnitz in Leipzig from 1860 to 1869. Kayser was responsible for the rhetorical writings, the speeches and speech fragments and made some suggestions for improvement of the text.

Other works by Kayser dealt with various authors and individual questions in Greek and Roman literature. His work on the Homeric epics deserves special mention , which was re-edited by Hermann Usener after his death in 1881 (and increased by unpublished works). On the Homeric Question , Kayser sided with the analysts, without assuming, however, that the Iliad and Odyssey could be used to determine the true form of the presumed minor pen on which they were based.

As a knowledgeable and accomplished musician, Kayser also published studies on music history.

Fonts (selection)

• Notas criticas in Philostrati Vitas Sophistarum scripsit Carolus Ludovicus Kayser . Heidelberg 1831
• Φλαβίου Φιλοστράτου Βίοι Σοφιστῶν. Flavii Philostrati Vitae Sophistarum. Textum ex codd. Romanis, Florentinis, Venetis, Parisinis, Londinensibus, Medionalensi, Havniensi, Oxoniensi, Gudiano, Heidelbergensi recensuit, epitomam Romanam et Parisinam ineditas adiecit, commentarium et indices concinnavit Carolus Ludovicus Kayser . Heidelberg 1838
• Lectiones Pindaricae . Heidelberg 1840
• Philostratei libri de gymnastica quae supersunt. Nunc primum edidit et interpretatus est Carolus Ludovicus Kayser . Heidelberg 1840
• P. Hordeonius Lollianus portrayed after a not yet published Athenian inscription . Heidelberg 1841
• Flavii Philostrati quae supersunt. Philostrati junioris adults. Callistrati Descriptiones . Zurich 1844
• Cornifici Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium libri IIII . Leipzig 1854
• with Johann Georg Baiter: M. Tullii Ciceronis Opera quae supersunt omnia. Editio stereotypa . 11 volumes, Leipzig 1860–1869
• Flavii Philostrati Opera. Auctiora edidit CL Kayser . 2 volumes, Leipzig 1870–1871
• KL Kayser's Homeric Treatises . Published by Hermann Usener, Leipzig 1881

literature

• Karl Bernhard Stark : In memory of Prof. Dr. Karl Ludwig Kayser . Heidelberg 1872.
• Gottfried Kinkel :  Kayser, Karl Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 15, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1882, pp. 513-518.
• Karl Philipp Kayser: From fermenting times. Diary sheets of the Heidelberg professor Karl Philipp Kayser from the years 1793 to 1827 with 10 illustrations after contemporary pictures by Friedrich Rottmann . Published by Franz Schneider, Karlsruhe 1923.
• Dagmar Drüll: Heidelberger Gelehrtenlexikon 1803-1932 . Berlin 1986, p. 132.
• Carl Castelli: Karl Ludwig Kayser e le "Vitae sophistarum" di Filostrato. (Con una lettera inedita di F. Jacobs a KL Kayser) . In: Annali della Facoltà di lettere e filosofia . Volume 59 (2006), pp. 37-53 ( PDF file ).

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Ludwig Kayser  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by Karl Ludwig Kayser in the catalog of the German National Library