Jacob Bernays (11 September 182426 May 1881) was a German

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 especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as th ...

and

philosophical Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

writer.

Life

Jacob Bernays was born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish parents. His father,

Isaac Bernays Isaac Bernays ( , , ; 29 September 1792 – 1 May 1849) was Chief Rabbi in Hamburg. Life Bernays was born in Weisenau (now part of Mainz). He was the son of Jacob Gera, a boarding house keeper at Mainz, and an elder brother of Adolphus Bernays. ...

(1792–1849) was a man of wide culture and the first orthodox German

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

to preach in the vernacular; his brother,

Michael Bernays Michael Bernays (27 November 183425 February 1897) was a German literary historian, and an important Goethe and Shakespeare scholar. Life He was born in Hamburg. His father, Isaac Bernays, died when he was fourteen years old. His adjustments w ...

, was also a distinguished scholar. Between 1844 and 1848, Bernays studied at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

, whose philological school, under

Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868) was a German classical philologist and archaeologist. Biography Welcker was born at Grünberg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Having studied classical philology at the University of Giessen ...

and

Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (6 April 1806 – 9 November 1876) was a German scholar best known for his studies of Plautus. Biography Ritschl was born in Großvargula, in present-day Thuringia. His family, in which culture and poverty were hereditar ...

(of whom Bernays became the favourite pupil), was the best in Germany. In 1853, he accepted the chair of

classical philology 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 ...

at the newly founded

Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (official name: ) was an institution in Breslau for the training of rabbis, founded under the will of Jonah Fränckel, and opened in 1854. The seminary, at what is now an empty building plot (used as a ...

, where he formed a close friendship with

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...

. In 1866, when Ritschl left Bonn for

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 ...

, Bernays returned to his old university as extraordinary professor and chief librarian. He remained in Bonn until his death on 26 May 1881. Upon his death, he bequeathed his Hebrew library to the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau.

Scholarship

Bernays was most famous for his boo
''Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles über Wirkung der Tragödie''
His medical interpretation of

catharsis Catharsis (from Greek , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification") is the purification and purgation of emotions through dramatic art, or it may be any extreme emotional state that results in renewal and restoration. In its lite ...

greatly influenced Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Bernays was the first scholar to suggest that

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 ...

's '' Protrepticus'' inspired

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 ...

to write the ''

Hortensius Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114–50 BC) was a famous Roman lawyer, a renowned orator and a statesman. Politically he belonged to the Optimates. He was consul in 69 BC alongside Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus. His nickname was ''Dionysia'', ...

''. He further suggested that the ''Hortensius'' should be used as the base by which the ''Protrepticus'' could be reconstructed.Chroust, Anton-Hermann. ''Aristotle: New Light on His Life and On Some of His Lost Works, Volume 2'' Routledge, 1973. Web.
/ref>

Works

His chief works, which deal mainly with the

Greek philosophers Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC, marking the end of the Greek Dark Ages. Greek philosophy continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Greece and most Greek-inhabited lands were part of the Roman Empire ...

, are: *''Die Lebensbeschreibung des J.J. Scaliger'' (1855) *''Über das Phokylidische Gesicht'' (1856) *''Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles über Wirkung der Tragödie'' (1857) *''Die Chronik des Sulpicius Severus'' (1861) *''Die Dialoge des Aristoteles im Verhältniss zu seinen übrigen Werken'' (1863) *''Theophrastos' Schrift über Frömmigkeit'' (1866) *''Die Heraklitischen Briefe'' (1869) *''Lucian und die Cyniker'' (1879) *''Zwei Abhandlungen über die Aristotelische Theorie des Dramas'' (1880). The last of these was a republication of his ''Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlungen des Aristoteles über die Wirkung der Tragödie'' (1857), which aroused considerable controversy.

Notes

References

*Notices in ''Biographisches Jahrbuch für Alterthumskunde'' (1881), and ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, german: Universal German Biography) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Aca ...

'', xlvi. (1902) *article in the ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on th ...

'' *

John Edwin Sandys Sir John Edwin Sandys ( "Sands"; 19 May 1844 – 6 July 1922) was an English classical scholar. Life Born in Leicester, England on 19 May 1844, Sandys was the 4th son of Rev. Timothy Sandys (1803–1871) and Rebecca Swain (1800–1853). Livin ...

, ''History of Class. Schol.'' iii. I 76 (1908). *

Arnaldo Momigliano Arnaldo Dante Momigliano (5 September 1908 – 1 September 1987) was an Italian historian of classical antiquity, known for his work in historiography, and characterised by Donald Kagan as "the world's leading student of the writing of history i ...

, ''Jacob Bernays'', in Id., '' Pagine ebraiche'', a cura di

Silvia Berti Silvia Berti is a history professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza. Her field of interest is European anti-Christian attitudes, Spinoza and Spinozism, the Huguenots, Jansenists and other opposition groups within French history. Publication ...

Einaudi Einaudi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), Italian politician *Mario Einaudi (1905–1994), Italian political scientist, son of Luigi *Giulio Einaudi (1912–1999), Italian publisher, son o ...

, Torino 1987, pp. 167–180. *Bollack, Jean, ''Ein Mensch zwischen zwei Welten: der Philologe Jacob Bernays''. Goettingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2009. *''Du, von dem ich lebe! Letters to Paul Heyse''. Ed. W. M.Calder III & Timo, Günther. Wallstein, Göttingen 2010. *Ugolini, Gherardo. ''Jacob Bernays e l’interpretazione medico-omeopatica della catarsi tragica. Con traduzione del saggio di Bernays, Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles über Wirkung der Tragödie (1857)'', Cierre Grafica, Verona 2012. Attribution *

External links