Adolf Holm (

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

, 8 August 1830 –

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population o ...

, 9 June 1900) was a German historian of antiquity.

Biography

Adolf Holm was the son of a producer and distributor of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

in Lübeck and was born in a house located between Braunstraße and Holstenstraße by the

Trave The Trave () is a river in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is approximately long, running from its source near the village of Gießelrade in Ostholstein to Travemünde, where it flows into the Baltic Sea. It passes through Bad Segeberg, Bad Old ...

. He studied at

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and obtained a doctorate in 1851. Immediately thereafter he was employed by the

Katharineum The Katharineum zu Lübeck is a humanistic gymnasium founded 1531 in the Hanseatic city Lübeck, Germany. In 2006 the 475th anniversary of this Latin school was celebrated with several events. The school uses the buildings of a former Franciscan ...

, a

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

in Lübeck founded in 1531 for the study of ancient languages. He worked on history and geography of

ancient Sicily The history of Sicily has been influenced by numerous ethnic groups. It has seen Sicily controlled by external powers – Phoenician and Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Vandal and Ostrogoth, Byzantine Greek, Aghlabid, Fatimid, Kalbid, Norman, Arago ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

and wrote a work in several volumes on the

History of Sicily The history of Sicily has been influenced by numerous ethnic groups. It has seen Sicily controlled by external powers – Phoenician and Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, Vandal and Ostrogoth, Byzantine Greek, Aghlabid, Fatimid, Kalbid, Norman, Ara ...

in ancient times. At Lübeck he held several conferences with members of the ''

Gesellschaft zur Beförderung gemeinnütziger Tätigkeit The ("Society for the Furtherance of Charitable Activities") is Lübeck's oldest charitable organization. History It was the preacher at St. Peter's Church, Lübeck (and later lawyer) Ludwig Suhl (1752–1819) and his friends Christian Adolph ...

'' (Society for the Furtherance of Charitable Activities) and the ''Verein für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde'' (Association for Lübeck Historical and Classical Outreach). The collection of plaster casts of ancient sculptures in the cathedral museum was created in large part at his initiative. He was one of the founders of the ''Verein der Kunstfreunde'' (Association of Friends of Art) and was its president until he departed for Sicily. Subsequently he was editor of the ''Lübeckische Blätter''. In 1876, on account of his publications, he was named Professor Extraordinary of Universal History at the

University of Palermo The University of Palermo ( it, Università degli Studi di Palermo) is a university located in Palermo, Italy, and founded in 1806. It is organized in 12 Faculties. History The University of Palermo was officially founded in 1806, although its ...

, at the initiative of the Sicilian historian and former Minister of Public Education

Michele Amari Michele Amari (7 July 1806 – 16 July 1889) was a Sicilian patriot, historian and orientalist. Biography Born at Palermo son of Ferdinando and Giulia Venturelli, he devoted a great part of his life to the history of Sicily. Amari was also a ...

. There he produced a number of works concerned with the ancient history of Sicily. In 1884 he was invited to take up a post at the

University of Naples The University of Naples Federico II ( it, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II) is a public university in Naples, Italy. Founded in 1224, it is the oldest public non-sectarian university in the world, and is now organized into 26 depar ...

, where he worked until 1897. He spent the rest of his life in Freiburg im Breisgau. Reviewing his legacy, Franco De Angelis concludes that "Holm was a product of his time and environment. Like so many German-trained scholars then, he adhered to a positivistic approach, generally avoiding interpretations in favor of collecting evidence. These were immensely useful and pioneering efforts, which some scholars openly acknowledged, and are not without interest to social and economic historians today."Franco De Angelis, ''Archaic and Classical Sicily'' 2016, p. 11.

Works

*''De ethicis politicorum Aristotelis principiis'' (On the Central Ethical Themes of

Aristotle Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

Politics Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that studies ...

), Berlin, 1851 *''Antike Geographie Siciliens'' (Ancient Geography of Sicily), Lübeck, 1866 *''Beiträge zur Berichtigung der Karte des alten Siciliens'' (Contributions to Correction of the Map of Ancient Sicily), Lübeck, 1866 *''Geschichte Siciliens im Alterthum'' (History of Sicily in Antiquity). Vol. 1, 1869; Vol. 2, 1874; Vol. 3, 1897 *''Della geografia antica di Sicilia'' (On the Ancient Geography of Sicily), Palermo, 1871 *''Das alte Catania'' (Ancient

Catana Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

), Lübeck, 1873 (Lübeck, Katharineum, Schulprogramm 1873) *''Storia della Sicilia nell'antichità'' (History of Sicily in Antiquity), Turin, 1896-1901 *''Il rinascimento italiano e la Grecia antica: Discorso inaugurale per la riapertura degli studi nell'anno accademico 1880-81 nella Regia Università di Palermo'' (The Italian Renaissance and Ancient Greece: Inaugural Address for the return to study for the academic year 1880-81 at the Royal University of Palermo), Palermo, 1880 *''Topografia archeologica di Siracusa'' (Archaeological Topography of Syracuse), in collaboration with F.S. Cavallari, Palermo 1883 *''Griechische Geschichte von ihrem Ursprunge bis zum Untergange der Selbstständigkeit des griechischen Volkes'' (Greek History from its Origin to End of the Independence of the Greek People), Berlin, Vol. 1, 1886; Vol. 2, 1889; Vol. 3, 1891; Vol. 4, 1894 *''Lübeck, die Freie und Hansestadt'' (Lübeck, the Free and Hanseatic City), Velhagen & Klasing, 1900. *''Erinnerungen'' (Memoirs), 1900. Published in excerpts in Der Wagen 1959, pp. 153 – 155 (with commentary by Paul Brockhaus)

Bibliography

*Gerhard Ahrens, "Von Lübeck nach Sizilien: Professore Adolfo Holm (1830-1900)" ''Zeitschrift des Vereins für Lübeckische Geschichte und Altertumskunde'', Vol 87. Verlag Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 2007, pp. 135–154 * Karl Christ, "Griechische Geschichte zwischen Adolf Holm und Ettore Lepore" ''Griechische Geschichte und Wissenschaftsgeschichte,'' Historia – Einzelschriften, Vol 106. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, pp. 144 ff. *Wilhelm Deecke, '' Professor Dr. Adolf Holm: ein Erinnerungsblatt zu seinem 70. Geburtstage''. Lübeck 1900

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Holm, Adolf 19th-century German historians Scholars of ancient Greek history University of Palermo faculty University of Naples Federico II faculty Writers from Lübeck 1830 births 1900 deaths 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers