Peter Simon (bibliophile)

Peter Simon (born February 26, 1732 in Hamburg ; † June 6, 1782 in Hamburg) was a German lawyer , bibliophile and collector in Hamburg.

Life

Like his grandfather Johann Heinrich Simon d. Ä. and father Johann Heinrich Simon the Elder J. started a legal career. He was mainly concerned with bibliography and numismatics. Simon remained unmarried and in his will as early as 1772 decreed that his valuable collections should be transferred to the Hamburg City Library (today the Hamburg State and University Library ) after his death . It can be assumed that, together with his younger brother Heinrich Simon , he was able to fall back on a well-stocked father's library, which certainly also contained works of art and curiosities in the sense of a cabinet of rarities.

Act

The Simon collections join the large number of Hamburg art and book collections that are documented in various artist directories or in auction catalogs. Although the two Simon brothers do not appear in these lists as collectors, it can be assumed that their probably smaller collections were also known in Hamburg and that the brothers moved in circles that were inclined to and promoted art and culture. Peter Simon was apparently the more active one. In the founding year of the Patriotic Society of 1765, this was one of its members. The society still active in Hamburg today with the beehive as a symbol and the motto Emolumento publico (“the common good”) felt called to “promote the arts and useful trades” in the Hanseatic city. Unfortunately, there is no information about the amount of copperplate engravings that have come from Peter Simon's collection to the Hamburg State and University Library . It can be assumed that the sheets, sometimes marked with the initials PS, come from Peter Simon's legacy. He marked his books with his name, date of purchase and usually with his bookplate.

literature

• Exhibition cat. Hamburg (State and University Library Hamburg, July 4 - August 24, 2014): Manner, myth and morality. Dutch prints from around 1600 from the holdings of the Hamburg State and University Library. Edited by Iris Wenderholm. Petersberg: Michael Imhof 2014.
• Janssen, Joachim Anton Rudolf: Detailed information about all the evangelical-protestant churches and clergy of the free and Hanseatic city of Hamburg and their area. As well as about their Johanneum, grammar school, library, and the men employed there. Hamburg: self-published 1826.
• Patriotic Society of 1765 (Ed.): Negotiations and writings of the Hamburg Society for the Promotion of the Arts and Useful Trades, Volume 1, 1790. Hamburg: Bohn 1792.
• Petersen, Christian: History of the Hamburg City Library. Hamburg: Perthes-Besser & Mauke 1838.
• Renz, Ulrike: "... expanding the ennobling influence of art to ever larger circles ..." The bourgeoisie and fine arts in Hamburg in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Bielefeld 2001.
• Schröder, Hans: Lexicon of the Hamburg writers. Volume 7. Hamburg 1879, 3768.
• Theise, Antje: The copper engraving collection of the State and University Library Hamburg. In: Exhibition cat. Hamburg 2014, pp. 8–13.

Individual references and comments

1. ↑ The grandfather Johann Heinrich Simon the Elder. Ä. (1641–1713) worked as a lawyer and since 1689 as city counsel in Hamburg. See Schröder 1879, vol. 7, no. 3762. His father was the lawyer and later councilor Johann Heinrich Simon the Elder. J. (1696-1763).
2. ↑ Files on gifts to the library from 1750–1790, BA VI, 4. Peter Simon's testament printed in Petersen 1838, 83–84. - The manuscripts on Hamburg's history such as the aforementioned city law from the year 1276 (written in 1384) from Simon's collection also formed the basis of the collection of Hamburg manuscripts in the Hamburg State and University Library . Ibid., 215.
3. ↑ On Hamburg rarities chambers cf. also Renz 2001, 13-16.
4. ↑ A comprehensive overview is provided by Renz 2001, 16–23.
5. ↑ Cf. Patriotic Society of 1765 1792, 22.
6. ↑ Schröder Lexicon online