Bernhard Bischoff (20 December 1906 – 17 September 1991) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

paleographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic discipline of historical writing systems. It encompasses the historicity of manuscripts and texts, subsuming deciphering and dati ...

, and

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

; he was born in Altendorf (administrative division of

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

), and he died in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Biography

He was the son of Emil Bischoff and Charlotte von Gersdorff, who died giving birth to him. He received a

Pietistic Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christian life. Although the movement is aligned with Luth ...

education during his youth. He married Hanne Oehler in 1935 and lived the majority of his life in

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

outside of academia. Before he earned his doctorate in 1933, under the direction of Paul Lehmann, he was recruited by the American paleographer E. A. Lowe as an assistant for the '. He would work on this achievement until 1972, cataloging Latin

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has ...

s of the 9th century. He began to teach at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

in 1947, receiving the Chair of Medieval Latin Philology under his instructor, Lehmann, succeeding

Ludwig Traube Ludwig Traube may refer to: *Ludwig Traube (physician) (1818–1876), German physician and co-founder of experimental pathology in Germany *Ludwig Traube (palaeographer) (1861–1907), his son, German paleographer {{hndis, Traube, Ludwig ...

. In 1974 he became emeritus. In 1953, Bischoff was elected to the general editorship of the ' (MGH). In the last years of his life, he worked on cataloging nearly 7,000 9th-century

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

Latin manuscripts, published by the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

. Bischoff was most influential in the field of

paleography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

, specifically in his expertise in dating and localizing medieval manuscripts. His work on the subject, ''Latin Paleography: Antiquity and the Western

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

'', is a fundamental work for the discipline. It has been translated into English by

Dáibhí Ó Cróinín Dáibhí Iarla Ó Cróinín (born 29 August 1954) is an Irish historian and authority on Hiberno-Latin texts, noted for his significant mid-1980s discovery in a manuscript in Padua of the "lost" Irish 84-year Easter table. Ó Cróinín was Pro ...

and David Ganz, and into French by Jean Vezin and Harmut Atsma. Bischoff received four degrees honoris causa at the Universities of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

(1962),

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

(1963),

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

, and

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

. He was a member of the

(1956), of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...

(1957), of the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

(1960), German Archeological Institute (1962), the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

(1968), and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

(1989).

Principal works

* ''The Southeast Writing Schools and Libraries in the Carolingian Era, Part I: The Bavarian Dioceses''. Leipzig 1940 (Second edit.) Wiesbaden 1960 3rd edit. (Wiesbaden 1974); Part II: The Predominantly Austrian Dioceses, Wiesbaden 1980. * ''Medieval Studies: Selected Articles on the Font Customer and Literary History'', 3 Vols. Hiersemann, Stuttgart, 1966–1981. * ''Catalogue of the Continental Manuscripts of the Ninth Century'' (with the exception of the Visigothic) & publications of the Commission for the Publication of the German and Swiss Medieval Library Catalogues, Part 1: Aachen – Lambach. (). * ''Catalogue of the Continental Manuscripts of the Ninth Century'' (with the exception of the Visigothic). Edition by Birgit Ebersperger (Publications of the Commission for the Publication of the German and Swiss Medieval Library Catalogues/ published by the

). Part 2. Laon – Manuscripts and libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, Tradition and Edit. by Paderborn. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2004. (ISBN 3-447 -04750-X). * ''Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, Tradition & Edition'' by Michael Gorman (''Cambridge Studies in Paleography and Codicology'' 1), Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 1994, () Recension. * ''Paleography of Roman Antiquity and of the Western Middle Ages''. 3rd Edition. Berlin 2004. (Basics of the German language and literature 24). ().

References

Notes

Bibliography

* François Chamoux, ''Allocution à l'occasion du décès de M. Bernard Bischoff, associé étranger de l'Académie'', Comptes-rendus des séances de l'année... - Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, 135e année, N. 3, 1991, p. 51. * Heinrich Fichtenau, ''Bernhard Bischoff †'', Almanach der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1991/92, 142 année, (Wien 1992), pp. 505–510. * Horst Fuhrmann, ''Bernhard Bischoff, Menschen und Meriten. Eine persönliche Portraitgalerie'', C. H. Beck: München 2001, pp. 300–310. * Sigrid Krämer, ''Bibliographie Bernhard Bischoff und Verzeichnis aller von ihm herangezogenen Handschriften (Fuldaer Hochschulschriften 27)'', Knecht: Frankfurt am Main 1998, (). Recension * Sigrid Krämer: "Bernhard Bischoff zum 100. Geburtstag." ''Akademie aktuell – Zeitschrift der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften'', Heft 20, 01/2007, pp. 56–58, ISSN 1436-753X * Gabriel Silagi: "Bernhard Bischoff." ''Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters'', 48 (1992), pp. 411–413. * Notice du Catalogue général de la BnF * Photographie et biographie en allemand * page des Monumenta Germaniae Historica {{DEFAULTSORT:Bischoff, Bernhard 1906 births 1991 deaths 20th-century German philologists German antiquarians German classical philologists German Latinists German male non-fiction writers German medievalists German palaeographers People from Altenburg Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Corresponding fellows of the British Academy 20th-century antiquarians International members of the American Philosophical Society