Jacob Langebek

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacob Langebek

Jacob Langebek (born January 23, 1710 in Skjoldborg in Thy in Northern Denmark, † August 16, 1775 ) was a Danish historian and secret archivist.

Family and education

His parents were the pastor Frederik Langebek († 1727) and his wife Else Skytte († 1726). The name Langebek belonged to an old family of pastors, which was derived from the parish of Langebæk in Kalvehave Sogn, today Langebæk municipality . On May 18, 1755, his first marriage was Helene Marie Pauli (1731–1766). In his second marriage he married Marie Wulff on February 24, 1773.

Langebek was homeschooled until he was 16. He was interested in history from an early age, initially the history of his forefathers. Old churches with their gravestones and monuments, castles and mansions, old battlefields, battle sites, barrows, sagas, Saxo Grammaticus and the historian Arild Huitfeldt attracted his special attention. He then went to the school in Nykjøbing auf Mors . He acquired a very good knowledge of Latin. In July 1728 he began his studies. At that time he was very poor and without parents. Only with the greatest frugality and diligence could he assert himself. He probably left the city for a while after the great fire in Copenhagen in 1728. Because despite his great enthusiasm for work, he did not take his second exam until 1731. But on April 1, 1732 he passed his theological state examination. Although he struggled to support himself and buy books, he could now also deal with history. First he learned the Old Norse language with the support of an Icelandic student. He also learned English and German as well as Old English.

Scientific work

Through a friend he came into contact with the secret archivist Frederik Rostgaard. He owned a large collection of manuscripts, which was later transferred to the university library and for which Langebek created a catalog. His first regular, albeit small, income was when he was working on Rostgaard's large Danish dictionary. In 1735 he came into closer contact with the professor, royal librarian and secret archivist Hans Gram by dedicating his translation of the " Kristni saga " to him. This then gave him a job as an amanuensis at the Royal Library and even took him into his house in 1739. The Grams library was now open to him, and as early as 1737 he and Ludvig Harboe began to edit the “Danish Library”, in which treatises, excerpts from files and communications on newer literature were published. After three volumes, however, he stopped this work in 1739 because he was thinking of publishing a “Monumenta Danica” collection. The detailed prospectus in Latin from 1740 has been preserved. The work never came about. Instead, the plan was later implemented in Danske Magasin and Scriptores rerum Danicarum . In the following years he was mainly occupied with the Danish dictionary of Grams. But because the activity left him too little time for his historical work and the earnings were poor, he stopped working. In 1745 he founded the "Danske Selskab for Fædrelandets Historie og Sprog" with young like-minded people, and took over as chairman. This society published sources with introductions and explanations in the mother tongue. Danske Magasin became the society's magazine, and he looked after it until 1752. When Frederick V ascended the throne, the society was allowed to add the title “royal”. When Gram died in 1748, Langebek became his successor. On a research trip to the Baltic Sea region, he became a member of "Det Kungliga Svenska Vetenskaps Akademi" in Stockholm.

On his return home he married Helene Marie Pauli in 1755, who brought such a fortune into the marriage that he was able to use it to buy a piece of land on which he built his house. He now devoted himself particularly to the archival materials he had acquired and undertook the publication of Kong Valdemars Jordebog ( King Waldemars Land Register ). He immersed himself in the medieval topography of Denmark. But he did not succeed in publishing the work. So it was with him with many projects. On the one hand, he had a tendency towards perfectionism, which delayed completion, and on the other hand, he had too little perseverance to really finish something, but rather began another with great zeal before completing one project. This applies, for example, to a work on the theory of sovereignty that was only published by the Sorø Academy in 1881 , also of his plan to write the history of the Norwegian mines, of which only the first volume appeared, which almost only contains the introduction and one Work on the history of Danish coins and seals that got stuck in the manuscript stage. In addition, his great willingness to help improve or supplement third-party scientific work with his knowledge and materials led to the fact that many of his scientific findings are distributed in other people's works. In addition, the means for printing were scarce. He found the Struensee government depressing because it was run by a German. Only after the end of 1772 did he take the decision to publish a collection of medieval sources from Denmark. In 1772 the first folio volume of the Scriptores rerum Danicarum medii ævi was published . This not only earned him a gold medal from the king "pro meritis", but also membership in the Historical Institute of the University of Göttingen . The second volume appeared in 1773 and the fourth in 1774. His second marriage gave him sufficient funds for this company. In 1775 he died long before he had evaluated all of his sources.

Honors

He became a judicial councilor around 1748 and a budget councilor in 1770.

Remarks

  1. ^ "Secret archivist" was the title of the archivist at the royal archive.
  2. ↑ The "Second Examen" was an Examen philosophicum, an intermediate examination, the passing of which was a prerequisite for further studies for a state examination. Before that, there was a university entrance exam.
  3. ↑ Justizrat was at its time a purely honorary title with no function and gave its bearer the 5th place in the ranking classes at court.
  4. ↑ Etatsrat was an honorary title that gave the bearer a third class position at court.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Langebek, Jacob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1710
PLACE OF BIRTH Skjoldborg, Thy , Northern Denmark
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1775
Place of death Copenhagen