Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (6 April 1806 – 9 November 1876) was a German scholar best known for his studies of
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the gen ...
.
Biography
Ritschl was born in
Großvargula
Großvargula is a municipality in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district of Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after ...
, in present-day
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. His family, in which culture and poverty were hereditary, were
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
s who had migrated several generations earlier from
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
. Ritschl was fortunate in his school training, at a time when the great reform in the higher schools of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
had not yet been thoroughly carried out. His chief teacher,
Spitzner, a pupil of
Gottfried Hermann
Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann (28 November 1772 – 31 December 1848) was a German classical scholar and philologist. He published his works under the name Gottfried Hermann or its Latin equivalent .
Biography
He was born in Leipzig. Entering ...
, divined the boy's genius and allowed it free growth, applying only so much either of stimulus or of restraint as was absolutely needful. After a wasted year at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...
, where Hermann stood at the zenith of his fame, Ritschl passed in 1826 to
Halle.
Here he came under the powerful influence of
Christian Karl Reisig
Christian Karl Reisig (name sometimes given as Karl Christian Reisig; 17 November 1792 – 17 January 1829) was a German philologist and linguist who was a native of Weißensee.
Reisig studied philology under Gottfried Hermann (1772–1848) at th ...
, a young Hermannianer with exceptional talent, a fascinating personality and a rare
gift
A gift or a present is an item given to someone without the expectation of payment or anything in return. An item is not a gift if that item is already owned by the one to whom it is given. Although gift-giving might involve an expectation ...
for instilling into his pupils his own ardour for
classical study. The great controversy between the Realists and the Verbalists was then at its height, and Ritschl naturally sided with Hermann against
Böckh. The early death of Reisig in 1828 did not sever Ritschl from Halle, where he began his professorial career with a great reputation and brilliant success, but soon hearers fell away, and the pinch of poverty compelled his removal to
Breslau, where he reached the rank of ordinary professor in 1834, and held other offices.
The great event of Ritschl's life was a sojourn of nearly a year in Italy (1836–37), spent in libraries and museums, and more particularly in the laborious examination of the
Ambrosian palimpsest of
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the gen ...
at
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
. The remainder of his life was largely occupied in working out the material then gathered and the ideas then conceived.
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
, where he moved on his marriage in 1839, and where he remained for twenty-six years, was the great scene of his activity both as scholar and as teacher.
The philological seminary which he controlled, although nominally only joint-director with
Welcker, became a veritable ''officina litterarum'', a kind of
Isocratean school of
classical study; in it were trained many of the foremost scholars of the late 19th century. The names of
G. Curtius,
Ihne,
Schleicher,
Bernays,
Ribbeck,
Lorenz
Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum".
Given name
People with the given name Lorenz include:
* Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by h ...
,
Vahlen,
Hübner __NOTOC__
Hübner is a Germanic surname, sometimes spelled Huebner or Hubner.
The name means an agricultural worker, a farmer, possibly and specifically one who worked a "hube", which was a piece of land roughly equivalent to the English measuremen ...
,
Bücheler,
Helbig,
Benndorf,
Riese,
Windisch
Windisch may refer to:
* Windisch (surname) (including a list of people with the name)
* Windisch, Switzerland, a municipality in the canton of Aargau
* Windisch (ethnonym), German word Wends for Slavs
* Windisch Kamnitz, German name of Srbská Ka ...
, and
Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, Prose poetry, prose poet, cultural critic, Philology, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philo ...
, who were his pupils either at Bonn or at Leipzig, attest his fame and power as a teacher. In 1854
Otto Jahn
Otto Jahn (; 16 June 1813, in Kiel – 9 September 1869, in Göttingen), was a German archaeologist, philologist, and writer on art and music.
Biography
After the completion of his university studies at Christian-Albrechts-Universität in Kiel, t ...
took the place of the venerable Welcker at Bonn, and after a time succeeded in dividing with Ritschl the empire over the philological school there. The two had been friends, but after gradual estrangement a violent dispute arose between them in 1865, which for many months divided into two hostile forces the universities and the press of Germany. Both sides were steeped in fault, but Ritschl undoubtedly received harsh treatment from the Prussian government, and pressed his resignation. He accepted a call to Leipzig, where he died in harness in 1876. Ritschl was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) 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 ...
in 1868.
Character
Ritschl's character was strongly marked. The spirited element in him was powerful, and to some at times he seemed overbearing, but his nature was noble at the core; and, though intolerant of inefficiency and stupidity, he never asserted his personal claims in any mean or petty way. He was warmly attached to family and friends, and yearned continually after sympathy, yet he established real intimacy with only a few. He had a great faculty for organization, as is shown by his administration of the university library at Bonn, and by the eight years of labour which carried to success a work of infinite complexity, the famous ''Priscae Latinitatis Monumenta Epigraphica'' (Bonn, 1862). This volume presents in admirable facsimile, with prefatory notices and indexes, the Latin inscriptions from the earliest times to the end of the
Republic
A republic () is a "state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th c ...
. It forms an introductory volume to the ''Berlin Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'', the excellence of which is largely due to the precept and example of Ritschl, though he had no hand in the later volumes. The results of Ritschl's life are mainly gathered up in a long series of monographs, for the most part of the highest finish, and rich in ideas which leavened the scholarship of the time.
Scholarship
As a scholar, Ritschl was of the lineage of
Bentley
Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...
, to whom he looked up, like Hermann, with fervent admiration. His best efforts were spent in studying the languages and literatures of
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 Rome, rather than the life of the Greeks and Romans. He was sometimes, but most unjustly, charged with taking a narrow view of
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
. That he keenly appreciated the importance of ancient institutions and ancient art both his published papers and the records of his lectures amply testify. He devoted himself for the most part to the study of ancient poetry, and in particular of the early Latin drama. This formed the centre from which his investigations radiated. Starting from this he ranged over the whole remains of pre-
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
nian
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, and not only analysed but augmented the sources from which our knowledge of it must come. Before Ritschl the acquaintance of scholars with early Latin was so dim and restricted that it would perhaps be hardly an exaggeration to call him its real discoverer.
Plautus
To the world in general Ritschl was best known as a student of
Plautus
Titus Maccius Plautus (; c. 254 – 184 BC), commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the gen ...
. He cleared away the accretions of ages, and by efforts of that real genius which goes hand in hand with labor, brought to light many of the true features of the original. It is infinitely to be regretted that Ritschl's results were never combined to form that monumental edition of Plautus of which he dreamed in his earlier life. Ritschl's examination of the Plautine manuscripts was both laborious and brilliant, and greatly extended the knowledge of Plautus and of the ancient Latin drama. Of this, two striking examples may be cited. By the aid of the Ambrosian palimpsest he recovered the name T Maccius Plautus, for the vulgate M Accius, and proved it correct by strong, extraneous arguments. On the margin of the Palatine manuscripts the marks "C" and "DV" continually recur, and had been variously explained. Ritschl proved that they meant ''Canticum'' and ''Diverbium'', and hence showed that in the Roman comedy only the conversations in ''iambic senarii'' were not intended for the singing voice. Thus was brought into strong relief a fact without which there can be no true appreciation of Plautus, viz., that his plays were comic operas rather than comic dramas.
In conjectural criticism Ritschl was inferior not only to his great predecessors but to some of his contemporaries. His imagination was in this field (but in this field only) hampered by erudition, and his judgment was unconsciously warped by the desire to find in his text illustrations of his discoveries. But still a fair proportion of his textual labours has stood the test of time, and he rendered immense service by his study of Plautine metres, a field in which little advance had been made since the time of Bentley. In this matter Ritschl was aided by an accomplishment rare (as he himself lamented) in Germany, the art of writing Latin verse.
In spite of the incompleteness, on many sides, of his work, Ritschl must be assigned a place in the history of learning among a very select few. His studies are presented principally in his ''Opuscula'' collected partly before and partly since his death. The ''Trinummus'' (twice edited) was the only specimen of his contemplated edition of Plautus which he completed. The edition has been continued by some of his pupils--
Georg Goetz Georg Goetz (3 November 1849, in Gompertshausen – 1 January 1932, in Jena) was a German classical philologist, known for his scholarly treatment of Plautus and Varro.
From 1870 to 1873 he studied at the University of Leipzig, where his influences ...
,
Gustav Loewe
Gustav, Gustaf or Gustave may refer to:
*Gustav (name), a male given name of Old Swedish origin
Art, entertainment, and media
* ''Primeval'' (film), a 2007 American horror film
* ''Gustav'' (film series), a Hungarian series of animated short cart ...
, and others.
Recommendation of Nietzsche
Ritschl recommended that his student,
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
, be considered for the position of professor at the University of Basel. He described Nietzsche in the following words.
However many young talents I have seen develop under my eyes for thirty-nine years now, ''never yet'' have I known a young man, or tried to help one along in my field as best I could, who was so mature as early and as young as this Nietzsche. His ''Museum'' articles he wrote in the second and third year of his ''triennium''. He is the first from whom I have ever accepted any contribution at all while he was still a student. If — God grant — he lives long enough, I prophesy that he will one day stand in the front rank of German philology. He is now twenty-four years old: strong, vigorous, healthy, courageous physically and morally, so constituted as to impress those of a similar nature. On top of that, he possesses the enviable gift of presenting ideas, talking freely, as calmly as he speaks skillfully and clearly. He is the idol and, without wishing it, the leader of the whole younger generation of philologists here in Leipzig who — and they are rather numerous — cannot wait to hear him as a lecturer. You will say, I describe a phenomenon. Well, that is just what he is — and at the same time pleasant and modest. Also a gifted musician, which is irrelevant here. ... Nietzsche is not at all a specifically political nature. He may have in general, on the whole, some sympathy for the growing greatness of Germany, but, like myself, no special ''tendre'' ondnessfor Prussianism
Prussianism comprises the practices and doctrines of the Prussians, specifically the militarism and the severe discipline traditionally associated with the Prussian ruling class.
History
Prussianism had its origins with the rise to the thron ...
; yet he has vivid feeling for free civic and spiritual development, and thus certainly a heart for your Swiss institutions and way of living. What more am I to say? His studies so far have been weighted toward the history of Greek literature (of course, including critical and exegetical treatment of the authors), with special emphasis, it seems to me, on the history of Greek philosophy. But I have not the least doubt that, if confronted by a practical demand, with his great gifts he will work in other fields with the best of success. He will simply be able to do anything he wants to do.
Walter Kaufmann described the unusual situation as follows. "But Nietzsche had not yet fulfilled his residence requirement and hence had no doctorate. So Ritschl expected the case to be hopeless, 'although in the present instance,' he wrote, 'I should stake my whole philological and academic reputation that the matter would work out happily.' It is hardly surprising that Basel decided to ignore the 'formal insufficiency.' Ritschl was delighted: 'In ''Germany'', that sort of thing happens absolutely never.'."
Nietzsche was beginning to lose interest in philology at the time, due to his intense interests in science,
Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most op ...
's music, and
Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer ( , ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is best known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the phenomenal world as the prod ...
's philosophy. Kaufmann continued: "His call to the university of Basel came as a surprise to Nietzsche, who had not yet received his doctorate though he had published some fruits of his research in a scholarly journal. He had actually considered giving up philology for science when, on Ritschl's recommendation, he was appointed a professor of classical philology at Basel, and Leipzig hurriedly conferred the doctorate without examination."
Nietzsche's consuming interest in philosophy, however, soon overcame his work in philology. His first published book, ''
The Birth of Tragedy
''The Birth of Tragedy Out of the Spirit of Music'' (german: Die Geburt der Tragödie aus dem Geiste der Musik) is a 1872 work of dramatic theory by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. It was reissued in 1886 as ''The Birth of Tragedy, Or ...
'', effectively ended his career as professor. "Ritschl dismissed the book as ''geistreich Schweinerei'', 'brilliant bull.' "
[Arthur Danto, ''Nietzsche as Philosopher'', Ch. 2, VI] Enrollment in Nietzsche's classes briefly suffered in the wake of the book's poor reception by Classics professionals generally. He retired due to migraines and other physical disabilities at the age of thirty-five. Ritschl's prophecy had been the direct opposite of the course of events.
Other works
* An interesting and discriminating estimate of Ritschl's work is that by
Lucian Müller Lucian Müller (17 March 1836 – 24 April 1898) was a German classical scholar.
Life
Müller was born in Merseburg in the Province of Saxony. After studying at the universities of Berlin and Halle, he lived for five years in the Netherlands, wor ...
(Berlin, 1877).
*
Carl Schurz
Carl Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He immigrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent member of the new ...
, ''Reminiscences'' (3 vols.), New York: McClure Publ. Co., 1907. In Vol. One, Chap. 5, pp. 126–7, Schurz recalls a meeting, in the wake and the midst of the events of
1848
1848 is historically famous for the wave of revolutions, a series of widespread struggles for more liberal governments, which broke out from Brazil to Hungary; although most failed in their immediate aims, they significantly altered the polit ...
, of university students at the University of Bonn where Ritschl was the chair. Schurz gave an impromptu speech which was well received, and after the adjournment Ritschl met him and asked his age and was disappointed that at nineteen Schurz was still too young to be a member of the planned
parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
.
* An account of Ritschl's life is given in: Gildersleeve, Basil L. (1884)
"Friedrich Ritschl" ''The American Journal of Philology'', Vol. 5, No. 3 (1884), pp. 339–355.
See also
*
Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Alfred Fleckeisen
Notes
Attribution:
*
References
*
Otto Ribbeck
Johann Carl Otto Ribbeck (23 July 1827, in Erfurt – 18 July 1898, in Leipzig) was a German classical scholar. His works are mostly confined to criticisms of Latin poetry and to classical character sketches.
Biography
He was born at Erfurt in S ...
, ''Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Philologie.'' (Leipzig, 1879–81).
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ritschl, Friedrich Wilhelm
1806 births
1876 deaths
People from Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis
German Protestants
German classical scholars
German philologists
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
University of Bonn faculty
People of the Revolutions of 1848
Leipzig University alumni
University of Halle alumni
University of Halle faculty