The Bipont editions were famous editions of the classic authors, printed at Zweibrucken in the Rhenish Palatinate. The collection forms fifty volumes begun in 1779 and finished at Strasburg. Research Bipont Editions
Giuseppe Ferrari was an Italian philosopher. He was born in 1812 at Milan and died in 1876. He studied law at Pavia, but afterwards devoted himself to literature. He first won notice by his edition of Vice's works (published between 1836 and 1837). Having gone to France he was professor of philosophy at Strasburg for a number of years. In 1859 he returned to Italy, becoming successively professor at Turin and Milan. Amongst his principal writings are: Essai sur le Principe et les Limites de la Philosophic de l'Histoire (1847), Filosofia della Rivoluzione (1851), Corsodi Lezioni sugli Scrittori Politici Italiani (1862). Research Giuseppe Ferrari
Godfrey of Strasburg was a German poet, who lived about 1200. He was probably born in Strasburg, but at any rate lived there. Besides many lays, we are indebted to him for the great chivalric poem, Tristan und Isolde, derived from the legends of the Round Table. Research Godfrey of Strasburg
Henry Austin Dobson was an English poet. He was born in 1840 at Plymouth in 1840 and died in 1921. He was educated at Beaumaris, Coventry, and Strasburg, and in 1856 obtained a clerkship under the Board of Trade, where he rose to be one of the officials known as principals. His earliest verses first appeared in book form under the title Vignettes in Rhyme and Vers de Sociote published in 1873. His other volumes of verse include Proverbs in Porcelain (1877), Old World Idylls (1883), and At the Sign of the Lyre (1885), which the Athenaeum pronounced to be 'of its kind as nearly as possible perfect', Among his prose works may be mentioned his Lives of Hogarth, Fielding, Stede, Goldsmith, Horace Walpole, and Richardson; Thomas Bewick and his Pupils; Four Frenchwomen, a study on Charlotte Corday, the Princesse de Lamballe, and Mesdames Roland and de Genlis; three series of Eighteenth Century Vignettes; A Paladin of Philanthropy, and several editions of standard works. His collected poema were published in one volume in 1897. Many of Henry Dobson's poems are written in various French forms, such as the rondeau and ballade, and all are marked by gracefulness, ease, and careful finish. Research Henry Dobson
Johann Conrad Dippel was a German theologian and alchemist. He was born in 1672 and died in 1734. He studied theology, defended the orthodox party against the Pietists, led a turbulent life at Strasburg, and then joined the Pietists until an unfortunate tractate placed him in disfavour with both parties. He then turned his attention to alchemy, and during a residence at Berlin produced the oil called after him from which indirectly followed the discovery of Prussian blue or Berlin blue. After various adventures and wanderings in Sweden, Denmark, and Germany he died in 1734. Research Johann Dippel
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe was a German poet and writer. He was born in 1749 at Frankfort-on-the-Main and died in 1832. His father, who was a Doctor of Laws and imperial councillor, was a well-to-do citizen and an admirer of the fine arts. The Seven Years' War broke out when Johann Goethe was eight years old, and Count de Thorane, lieutenant du roi of the French army in Germany, was quartered in the house of his father. The count, being an amateur and liberal patron of art, encouraged the boy's incipient taste for pictures. At the same time young Johann Goethe learned the French language practically; and a French theatrical company, then performing at Frankfort, awakened his taste for dramatic performances. Drawing, music, natural science, the elements of jurisprudence, and the languages, occupied him alternately.
After the breaking off of a youthful love affair, which gave a name to the heroine of his great work Faust and some features to his Wilhelm Meister, he was sent to the University of Leipzig to prepare himself for the legal profession, but he did not follow any regular course of studies. Johann Goethe began at this period, what he practised throughout his life, to embody in a poem, or in a poetical form, whatever occupied his mind intensely;
and no one, perhaps, was ever more in need of such an exercise, as his nature continually hurried him from one extreme to another.
In 1768 he left Leipzig, and after an illness of some length he went to the University of Strasburg in 1770, to pursue the study of law, according to his father's wishes. At Strasburg he became acquainted with Herder - a decisive circumstance in his life. Herder made him more acquainted with the Italian school of the fine arts, and inspired his mind with views of poetry more congenial to his character than any which he had hitherto conceived. While here he fell in love with Frederica Brion, daughter of the pastor of Sesenheim, but the affair, though it made a more abiding impression on him than some others, resulted in nothing.
Johann Goethe's numerous love affairs form one of the most curious studies in biography. His attachments were all fugitive; the love passion was continuous, but the object was ever changing. In 1771 he took the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence, and wrote a dissertation on a legal subject. He then went to Wetzlar to practise law, where he found, in his own love for a betrothed lady, and in the fate of a young man named Jerusalem, the subjects for his striking work, The Sorrows of Werther, which formed an epoch in German literature. The attention of the public had already been attracted to him, however, by his drama Gotz von Berlichingen (published 1773). Werther appeared in 1774. Not long after the publication of Werther, Charles Augustus, the hereditary duke of Saxe-Weimar, met Johann Goethe on a journey, and when in 1775 he took the government into his own hands, he invited Johann Goethe to his court. Johann Goethe accepted the invitation, and on the 7th of November, 1775, arrived at Weimar. Wieland was already there, having been the duke's tutor: Herder was added to the band in 1776; Schiller was afterwards one of its members for a few years; and other poets and critics and novelists were gathered round these chiefs.
Johann Goethe was the leading spirit of the group even during the last quarter of the 18th century, when these men and others were constructing and guiding the literature of all Germany; and his supremacy became yet more absolute afterwards, when for another generation he stood alone.
In 1776 he was made privy-councillor of legation, with a seat and vote in the privy-council. In 1782 he was made president of the chamber, and ennobled. In 1786 he made a journey to Italy, where he remained two years, visited Sicily, and remained a long time in Rome. This residence in Italy had the effect of still further developing his artistic powers. Here his Iphigenia was matured, Egmont finished, and Tasso projected. The first of these was published in 1787, the second in 1788, and the third in 1790. In the same year with Tasso was published the earliest form of the first part of Faust, with the title Dr. Faust, ein Trauerspiel (Dr. Faust, a Tragedy), a poem in a dramatic form, which belongs rather to Johann Goethe's whole life than to any particular period of it.
At the time that Johann Goethe was engaged in the production of these works of imagination he had been pursuing various other studies of a scientific nature with as ardent an interest as if these had belonged to his peculiar province. The result of his studies in botany was a work published also in 1790, Versuch die Metamorphose der Pflanzen zu Erklaren (Attempts to Explain the Metamorphosis of Plants), in which he gives expression to the view that the whole plant; and its different parts, may all be regarded as variously modified leaves. In the following year (1791) he began to apply himself to optics, and in 1791-1792 he published a work on this subject called Beitrage zur Optik.
On the 1st of May, 1791, he became director of the court theatre at Weimar. In 1792 he followed his prince during the campaign of the Prussians against the revolutionary party in France, and was present at the Battle of Valmy on the 20th of September. At the Weimar theatre he brought out some of the dramatic chefs-d'oeuvre of Schiller, and there, too, his own dramatic works first appeared, Goetz von Berlichingen, Faust, Iphigenia in Taurus, Tasso, Clavigo, Stella, and CountEgmont.
In 1794-1796 Johann Goethe published Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre (Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship), a novel which has become well known to English readers through the translation of Carlyle, and which had as a continuation Wilhelm Meister's Wanderjahre (that is, his travels as a journeyman; 1821). His next work of importance was Hermann und Dorothea (1797), a narrative poem, in hexameterverse, the characters of which are taken from humble life.
In 1806 Johann Goethe married Christiane Vulpius, with whom he had lived since 1788, and of whom he always spoke with warmth and gratitude for the degree in which she had contributed to his domestic happiness. In 1808 he published another edition of Faust in a considerably altered form. In 1809 was published Wahlverwandtschaften (Elective Affinities), another novel, and in
1810 the Farbenlehre or Theory of Colours, a work in which he had the boldness to oppose the Newtonian theory, and to which Goethe himself attached great importance, although the theory therein promulgated met with no acceptance among scientists. In 1811-1814 appeared Johann Goethe's autobiography, with the titleAus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit; in 1819 the Westostlicher Divan, a remarkable collection of oriental songs and poems. Johann Goethe's last work was the second part of Faust, which was completed on the evening before the last anniversary of his birthday which he lived to see.
Johann Goethe's works taken altogether form a rich constellation of poetry, romance, science, art, and philosophy. His greatest production is his Faust, emphatically a philosophical dramatic poem, and the best of Goethe's productions in a department for which he seems to have been born. Much light is thrown on Goethe's life and character by the published correspondence with his contemporaries, Herder, Frau von Stein, Lavator, Jacobi, Merck, Countess Stolberg, etc; by Eckermann's Conversations, and especially by his own autobiography, which he himself describes as 'poetry and truth,' and in which probably the truth is sometimes clouded by the poetry. Research Johann Goethe
Johann Gottfried von Herder was a German author. He was bom in 1744 and died in 1803. In 1762 he went to Konigsberg, procured an. appointment in Frederick's College, and was permitted by Kant to hear all his lectures gratis. From 1764 to 1769 he was an assistant teacher at the cathedral school of Riga, with which office that of a preacher was connected, and it was during this period that he published his Fragments on German Literature. In 1769 he resigned his post in order to travel, and became travelling tutor to the Prince of Holstein-Oldenburg. But in Strasburg he was prevented from proceeding by a disease of the eyes; and here he became acquainted with Goethe, on whom he had a very decided influence.
Besides his Fragments, his Critical Woods (Kritische Walder) and other productions had gained him a considerable reputation, and he was appointed in 1771 court preacher, superintendent, and consistorial counsellor at Buckeburg, and in 1776 to the same offices at Weimar. In 1801 he was made president of the high consistory, a place before only given to noblemen. He was subsequently made a noble by the Elector of Bavaria.
As a theologian Herder contributed to a better understanding of the historical and antiquarian part of the Old Testament. His Geist der Hebraischen Poesie (Spirit of Hebrew Poetry) is highly valued. He did much also for the better appreciation of the classical authors. His greatest work is his Ideen zur Philosophic der Geschichte der Menschheit (Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Man
1785). He was the author of some popular songs, and of an epic entitled The Cid. Research Johann Herder
Johan Gutenberg was the reputed inventor of printing with movable types. He was born about the end of the 14th century at Mayence or Mainz and died in 1468. Little or nothing is known of his early life. In 1434 he is said to have been living in Strasburg, and in 1436 to have started or attempted to start a printing office there; but this seems false. In 1448 we find him at Mainz, where he formed, two years after, a copartnership with Johann Fust, and established mainly with the money of the latter, a press, in which the Mazarin Bible, the Letters of Indulgence, and the Appeal against the Turks were printed. After five years this connection was dissolved, and Johann Fust sued Johan Gutenberg for large advances which he could not pay, and by a judgment at law obtained possession of most of the printing materials, with which, in company with his son-in-law Schoffer, he continued to print books. After this, according to some, Johan Gutenberg carried on a separate printing establishment but this is doubtful, and there is no book or printed matter which can certainly be ascribed to Johan Gutenberg after the date 1454. Research Johan Gutenberg
John Calvin was a Swiss religious reformer and fanatic. He was born in 1509 at Noyon, in Picardy and died in 1564. His father, Gerard Cauvin, procureur-fiscal and diocesan secretary, dedicated him early to the church, and he was presented with a benefice at the age of twelve. The income derived from this nominal office enabled him to proceed to Paris and enter on a course of regular study. He was soon led to entertain doubts respecting the priesthood, and became dissatisfied with the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church; in consequence he gave up his cure, and took to the study of the law in Orleans.
In 1532 he returned to Paris a decided convert to the reformed faith, and was soon compelled to fly, when, after various wanderings, he found a protector in Margaret of Navarre. In 1534 he returned to Paris; but, finding that the persecution against those who were inclined to the doctrines of the reformers was still raging, he retired to Basel in the autumn of the same year. At Basel he completed and published his great work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Christianae Religionis Institutio; 1536).
Having gone to Italy, after a short stay at Ferrara he went to Geneva, where reform had just been established. In 1538, in company with Guillaume Farel, he was expelled from Geneva in consequence of the reign of extreme strictness they had introduced, when he went first to Berne and then to Strasburg. Here he married a widow, Idelette de Burie, and had one son, who died early. In 1541 his friends in Geneva succeeded in effecting his recall, when he laid before the council the draft of his ordinances respecting churchdiscipline, which were immediately accepted and published. His college of pastors and doctors and his consistorial court of discipline formed a theocracy, with himself at the head of it, which aimed virtually at the management of all municipal matters and the control of the social and individual life of the people. A magistrate was deposed and condemned to two months' imprisonment because his life was irregular, and he was connected with the enemies of Calvin. James Gruet was beheaded because he had written profane letters and obscene verses, and endeavoured to overthrow the ordinances of the church. Michael Servetus, passing through Geneva in 1553, was arrested, and through Calvin's instrumentality was burnt alive because he had attacked the mystery of the Trinity in a book which was neither written nor printed at Geneva.
His energy and industry were enormous; he preached almost daily, delivered theological lectures three times a week, attended all deliberations of the consistory, all sittings of the association of ministers, and was the soul of all the councils. He was consulted, too, upon points of law as well as of theology. Besides this, he found time to attend to political affairs in the name of the Republic, to publish a multitude of writings in defence of his opinions, and to maintain a correspondence through all Europe. Up to 1561 the Lutherans and the Calvinists were as one, but in that year the latter expressly rejected the tentharticle of the Confession of Augsburg, besides some others, and hence arose the name of Calvinists. Calvin retained his personal influence to the last; but a year or two before his death his health had broken down.
John Calvin was the epitome of an unhinged mind which sought an outlet through religious fanaticism, cruelty and megalomania. Though, by using popular religion as his weapon, he was able to practice his lunacy freely and persecute those who dared to question the sanity of his preachings, the bible or live a liberal life. Research John Calvin
Sir John Cheke was an English scholar. He was born in 1514 at Cambridge and died in 1557. He was educated at St John's College, and made regius professor of Greek. In 1544 he was appointed tutor to the future Edward VI, and appears likewise to have assisted in the education of the PrincessElizabeth I. On the accession of Edward VI he received substantial signs of favour, was knighted, became secretary of state in 1553, and was also a privy-councillor. On the king's death he supported Lady Jane Grey, and was committed to the Tower. After a few months, however, he was set at liberty, and settled in Strasburg; but his connection with the English Protestantchurch there gave offence to the Catholics in England, and his estates were confiscated. He supported himself by teaching Greek, but in 1556, having been induced to visit Brussels, he was arrested by order of Philip II and sent prisoner to England. Under threat of the stake he recanted, and received the equivalent of his forfeited estates; but he felt so keenly his degradation that he died of grief in 1557. His chief distinction was the impulse given by him to the study of Greek. Research John Cheke
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Bipont Editions
