Philipp H. Külb

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Philipp H. Külb (full name Philipp Hedwig Külb , born March 14, 1806 in Mainz , † November 5, 1869 ibid) was a German librarian , archivist , author and translator .

Life

Philipp H. Külb attended the theological seminar in Mainz from 1818 to 1825 and then studied classical philology and history at the Ludwigs-Universität Gießen . During the then usual three-year course ( triennium ) he belonged to the philological seminar. His interests were mainly in modern history and the Romance languages . After graduating, he returned to Mainz in 1828, where he deepened his historical studies at the city ​​library . From 1829 he worked there as an assistant for the sick city librarian Friedrich Lehne (1777-1836). In 1833 Külb was officially employed and in 1835 at the University of Gießen as Dr. phil. PhD . After Lehne's death in 1836, Külb was appointed his successor and since then has worked as the city archivist and librarian at the Mainz city archive and the city ​​library . In March 1869 he retired after 33 years of service and died a few months later.

In addition to his official business, Külb developed a considerable writing activity. For example, he published the collected writings of his predecessor Lehne (1836–1839) and studied the history of printing . In the run-up to the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg , he published a popular scientific history work about it in 1837. He later wrote historical accounts of world history, including his geography and ethnology in biographies (1846-1852) and his series The Journeys of Missionaries , in which he dealt in several volumes with the history of missionary journeys in Mongolia and Africa .

Külb started working as a translator at a young age. In 1833 he published translations of the French drama Lucrezia Borgia and Marie de Tudor by Victor Hugo , which a few years later were included in the German complete edition of Victor Hugo's writings. Later, Külb mainly translated travel literature and representations of church history from Portuguese, Spanish and Italian. From Latin he translated the natural history of the elder Pliny (1840–1877) and the writings of St. Boniface (1859). The Pliny translation was his most demanding undertaking. The translation of the 37-book encyclopedic work, which at that time was not yet available in a final critical edition, caused particular problems because of the large number of scientific, historical, geographical and physical details it contained. The reactions to Külb's translation, which appeared in several volumes from 1840 to 1853, were correspondingly cautious. Külb concluded the work with an extensive geographical, ethnographic and statistical register that appeared in five parts from 1864 to 1877.

Fonts (selection)

  • History of the invention of the art of printing. A brief presentation of the results obtained through the latest research, understandable for everyone. Mainz 1837
  • Travel pictures for the youth. Mainz without year (around 1840)
  • Country and ethnology in biographies . 4 volumes, Berlin 1846–1852
  • History of missionary trips to Mongolia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries . 3 volumes, Regensburg 1860
  • History of missionary trips to Africa from the beginning of the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century . 4 volumes, Regensburg 1861–1863
Translations
  • Lucrezia Borgia. Victor Hugo drama . Mainz 1833
  • Cajus Plinius Secundus Natural History . 39 volumes, Stuttgart 1840–1877 ( Roman prose writers in new translations 155–159, 167, 172, 174, 177–180, 183, 185, 187–188, 190, 192–194, 196, 198–202, 204, 207 , 209–211, 213, 215, 239–242)
  • History of the discovery and conquest of Peru by Francisco de Xerez, Pizarro's secret secretary. Translated from the Spanish by Dr. Ph. H. Külb. Along with a supplement from Augustins de Zarate and Garcilasso's de la Vega reports . Stuttgart / Tübingen 1843
  • P. Joachim Ventura: Christian politics. Conferences held in the Imperial Chapel of the Tuileries during Lent of 1857 . With an introduction by Louis Veuillot. From the French. Kirchheim, Mainz 1858
  • All the writings of Saint Bonifacius, the apostle of the Germans . 2 volumes, Regensburg 1859
  • Fernao Mendez Pinto’s adventurous journey through China, Tartar, Siam, Pegu and other countries in Eastern Asia . Jena 1868 ( Library of Geographical Journeys and Discoveries of Older and Modern Times 2)
Editing
  • Ms. Lehne's, professor and city librarian in Mainz, collected writings . 5 volumes in 6, Mainz 1836–1839

literature

  • Heinrich Eduard Scriba : Biographical-literary lexicon of the writers of the Grand Duchy of Hesse in the nineteenth century . Second section: The writers of 1843 . Darmstadt 1843, pp. 417-419.
  • Mainzer Wochenblatt of November 10, 1869.
  • Jürgen Busch (Ed.): De bibliotheca Moguntina. Festschrift of the Mainz City Library on the 50th anniversary of its building at Rheinallee 3 3/10 on November 7, 1962 . Mainz 1963, p. 21.
  • Wolfgang Leesch : The German archivists 1500–1945. Volume 2: Biographical Lexicon. Saur, Munich a. a. 1992, ISBN 3-598-10605-X , p. 347.

Web links

Wikisource: Philipp H. Külb  - Sources and full texts