Christian Frederick Matthaei (4 March 1744, in
Mücheln
is a town in the Saalekreis district, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.
Geography
Mücheln (Geiseltal) is situated approximately 15 km west of Merseburg and borders Lake Geiseltal to the southwest, west, and northwest.
Divisions
The town Mücheln co ...
– 26 September 1811), a Thuringian, palaeographer,
classical philologist
Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...
, professor first at Wittenberg and then at Moscow.
Life
He was rector of the
University of Halle-Wittenberg
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...
. In 1803 he was appointed to the Professorship of Classical Literature at
Moscow University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. In Moscow he found a large number of Greek manuscripts, both Biblical and Patristic, originally brought from
Athos
Athos may refer to:
Fictional or mythical characters
* Athos (character), one of the title characters in the novel ''The Three Musketeers'' (1844) by Alexandre Dumas père
* Athos (mythology), one of the Gigantes in Greek mythology
* Athos Fadiga ...
, quite uncollated, and almost entirely unknown in the West Europe. He collated seventy manuscripts of the New Testament. He also gave a big collection of biblical citations in the writings of
Chrysostom
John Chrysostom (; gr, Ἰωάννης ὁ Χρυσόστομος; 14 September 407) was an important Early Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of ab ...
. He issued at Riga in 12 parts, between 1782 and 1788, an edition of the Greek text with the Latin
Vulgate
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
. His printed text is of little value because it is based on manuscripts of recent date, but his apparatus is valuable.
Matthaei managed to steal a good many manuscripts of both the classics and the fathers. Some of these he kept in his own library, while others he sold to the libraries in Germany (Dresden) and Holland.
Bruce M. Metzger
Bruce Manning Metzger (February 9, 1914 – February 13, 2007) was an American biblical scholar, Bible translator and textual critic who was a longtime professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and Bible editor who served on the board of the A ...
, Bart D. Ehrman
Bart Denton Ehrman (born 1955) is an American New Testament scholar focusing on textual criticism of the New Testament, the historical Jesus, and the origins and development of early Christianity. He has written and edited 30 books, including t ...
, ''The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission, Corruption and Restoration'', ''Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
'', 2005, p. 168.
Works
# ''Βικτωρος Πρεσβυτερου ̓Αντιοχειας Και ̓αλλων Τινων ̔αγιων Πατερων ̓Εξηγησις Ἐις Το Κατα Μαρκον ̔αγιον Ἐυαγγελιον. Ex Codicibus Mosquensibus Edidit Christianus Fridericus Matthaei. ; t. 2 : Adiecta Est Huic Volumini Praeter Recensionem Codicum Et Varias Lectiones...)'', 2 vol. (Moscou, 1775).
''Lectiones Mosquenses''(Leipzig 1779).
# ''D. Pavli Epistolae ad Thessalonicenses et Ad Timotheum Graece et Latine'' (1782-1785).
# ''D. Pauli Epistola I. et II. ad Corinthios, Graece et Latine'' (1783).
# ''Joannis Apocalypsis Graece et Latine'' (1785).
# ''Vetustum ecclesiae Graecae, Constantinopolitanae, ut videtur, Evangeliarum bibliothecae Serenissimi Ducis Saxo-Gothani. / Nunc primo totum ad cognoscendam liturgiam Graecorum accuratius examinavit et adjectis variantibus sacri contextus lectionibus edidit.'' Breitkopf, Leipzig, 1791.
# ''XIII epistolarum Pauli codex Graecus cum versione latina veteri vulgo Antehieronymiana olim Boernerianus nunc bibliothecae electoralis Dresdensis'', Meissen, 1791.
# ''Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine'' (Riga, 1782-1788).
''Novum Testamentum Graece.''Wittenberg 1803. tomus 1
References
Further reading
* Karl Heinrich Dzondi (Schundenius): ''Erinnerungen an die festlichen Tage der dritten Stiftungsfeier der Akademie zu Wittenberg.'' S. 89
* ''Neues Wittenberger Wochenblatt.'' 1803 S. 261
* Nikolaus Müller: ''Die Funde in den Turmknäufen der Stadtkirche zu Wittenberg.'' Evangelische Buchhandlung Ernst Holtermann, Magdeburg, 1912
* Oskar Leopold von Gebhardt: ''Christian Friedrich Matthaei und seine Sammlung griechischer Handschriften.'' In: ''Zentralblatt für Bibliothekswesen.'' O. Harrassowitz Verlag, Leipzig, 1898, S. 345
* Heinrich Johann Michael Doering: ''Die gelehrten Theologen Deutschlands.'' 4. Bd., Neustadt an der Orla 1831-35
*
Walter Friedensburg
Karl Walter Friedensburg (6 March 1855 in Hamburg – 19 February 1938 in Wernigerode) was a German historian and archivist.
He studied history at the Universities of Göttingen and Breslau, obtaining his habilitation at the University of Marburg ...
: ''Geschichte der Universität Wittenberg.'' Verlag
Max Niemeyer
Max or MAX may refer to:
Animals
* Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog
* Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE)
* Max (gorilla) ...
Halle (Saale) 1917
* Heinz Kathe: ''Die Wittenberger Philosophische Fakultät 1502 – 1817''. Böhlau Verlag, 2002,
* Белокуров С.А. ''О греческих рукописях Московских библиотек, похищенных проф. Маттеи.'' // ''Временник Общества истории и древностей Российских.'' Кн. 2. — 1899. — № 189.
External links
*
Werkauswahl Uni JenaMarinus Antony Wes, ''Classics in Russia 1700-1855: between two bronze horsemen'', Brill 1992 pp. 76 ff.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthaei, Christian Frederick
1744 births
1811 deaths
People from Saalekreis
German scholars
German classical philologists
German emigrants to the Russian Empire