Johan Peter Weisse (13 August 1832 – 7 March 1886) was a Norwegian philologist.

Personal life

He was born in

Fluberg Fluberg is a village in Søndre Land Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located near the north end of the Randsfjorden, about north of the village of Hov and about to the southeast of the village of Dokka. The villa ...

as a son of physician Joachim Frederik Weisse and his wife Grethe Fleischer. His grandfather had migrated to Norway from Brandenburg. The family moved to Trondhjem in 1833. He married his own cousin Maja Stang (1843–1916) in July 1863 in Fredrikshald. She was an aunt of engineer

Olaf Stang Olaf Stang (10 June 1871 – 14 November 1956) was a Norwegian engineer. He was born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway. He was a son of county treasurer Wilhelm Baltazar Stang (1838–1916) and Petra Sørensen. In 1898 he married Olavia Stang from ...

. In May 1893 one of their daughters married politician Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark. Through them, Weisse was the maternal grandfather of professor Johan Peter Holtsmark, professor

Anne Holtsmark Anne Elisabeth Holtsmark (21 June 1896 – 19 May 1974) was a Norwegian philologist. Personal life She was born in Kristiania, the second of five children of Gabriel Gabrielsen Holtsmark (1867–1954) and Margrete Weisse (1871–1933), and grew up ...

and painter Karen Holtsmark.

Career

He took his examen artium at Trondhjem Cathedral School in 1850. He read languages such as

Norse Norse is a demonym for Norsemen, a medieval North Germanic ethnolinguistic group ancestral to modern Scandinavians, defined as speakers of Old Norse from about the 9th to the 13th centuries. Norse may also refer to: Culture and religion * Nor ...

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Old Danish The Danish language developed during the Middle Ages out of Old East Norse, the common predecessor of Danish and Swedish. It was a late form of common Old Norse. The Danish philologist Johannes Brøndum-Nielsen divided the history of Danish into ...

Old Swedish Old Swedish (Swedish language, Modern Swedish: ) is the name for two distinct stages of the Swedish language that were spoken in the Middle Ages: Early Old Swedish (), spoken from about 1225 until about 1375, and Late Old Swedish (), spoken fro ...

, Greek, Latin, Russian and

Cuneiform script Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sha ...

already at that time, as witnessed by his diary ''Litterær Dagbog''. He started studying philology in 1851. From 1853 to 1855 he had to stay in Rome because of health issues, but he studied the city vividly. He was a part of a Nordic intellectual group here, which included

Julius Middelthun Julius Olavus Middelthun (3 July 1820 – 5 May 1886) was a Norwegian sculptor and educator. He is most associated with his busts and statues. Biography Middelthun was born at Kongsberg in Buskerud, Norway. He was the son of Georg Middelthun (17 ...

Christoffer Borch Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...

Georg Forchhammer Johannes Georg Forchhammer (22 May 1861 – 23 July 1938) was a Danish physicist and educator. He was born in Aalborg as a son of Johannes Nicolai Georg Forchhammer. He was a brother of teacher Henni Forchhammer and singer Viggo Forchhammer and u ...

and

Niels Ravnkilde Niels is a male given name, equivalent to Nicholas, which is common in Denmark, Belgium, Norway (formerly) and the Netherlands. The Norwegian and Swedish variant is Nils. The name is a developed short form of Nicholas or Greek Nicolaos after Saint ...

. He finally graduated from the Royal Frederick University with the cand.philol. degree in 1858. In October 1858 he was hired as co-editor (together with

Nicolai Mejdell Christian Henrik Nicolai Mejdell (21 April 1822 – 1899) was a Norwegian mining engineer. He was born in Vang, Hedmark. He took his mining examination in 1843. He worked as manager of Selbu Copper Works and Kongsberg Silver Works, and from 186 ...

) of the newspaper ''

Christiania-Posten ''Christiania-Posten'' was a short-lived newspaper in Oslo, Norway. The paper began publication on 17 May 1848; it was edited by Carl Arntzen and Ludvig Vibe. In 1853 Ludvig Kristensen Daa took over the editorship; the newspaper's political alleg ...

''. He is remembered for writing political and satirical commentary, and a 25-piece series between July 1859 and January 1860 on Italian history and society, marking himself as a supporter of

Camillo Cavour Camillo Paolo Filippo Giulio Benso, Count of Cavour, Isolabella and Leri (, 10 August 1810 – 6 June 1861), generally known as Cavour ( , ), was an Italian politician, businessman, economist and noble, and a leading figure in the movement towa ...

. In early 1861 Weisse was hired as teacher at Trondhjem Cathedral School. He stayed here until September 1865, when he changed to ''Fredrikshalds lærde og realskole''. From June 1874 to April 1875 he worked at Christiania Cathedral School, and from April 1875 he was an inspector at

Aars og Voss School Aars or Års, () is a Danish town with a population of 8,474 (1 January 2022)Jan Johanssen Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

. He was a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters from 1879. He continued as professor until his death, and also held numerous popular lectures. His obituary in '' Dagbladet'' read that Weisse wanted to "form men and not mere objects for examination". He contributed "significantly" to

Marius Nygaard Marius Nygaard may refer to: * Marius Nygaard (academic) (1838–1912), Norwegian educator and linguist * Marius Nygaard (judge) Marius Nygaard (1 June 1902 – 27 March 1978) was a Norwegian judge. He enrolled as a student in 1920 and graduated ...

's textbooks on Old Norse, first published in 1871. In 1871, Weisse released his own Latin grammar, ''Latinsk Grammatik til Skolebrug'', but it was considered too difficult for school students, and was out-competed by

Emil Schreiner Emil Theodor Schreiner (26 November 1831 – 15 November 1910) was a Norwegian philologist and educator. Biography Schreiner was born in Christiania (now called Oslo) in 1831. He was the son of merchant Peter Heinrich Schreiner (1794–1880) an ...

's ''Latinsk Sproglære''. The dominating Latin-Norwegian dictionary was later released by Schreiner, Nygaard and Johanssen. Schreiner sat on the committee that hired Weisse as professor in 1875. Weisse died from a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

in March 1886. He was buried at Vår Frelsers gravlund.

References

External links

Digitized books by Weisse
in the National Library of Norway {{DEFAULTSORT:Weisse, Johan Peter 1832 births 1886 deaths People from Trondheim Norwegian people of German descent Norwegian diarists Norwegian philologists Classical philologists Norwegian Latinists Norwegian expatriates in Italy University of Oslo alumni Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian schoolteachers Academic staff of the University of Oslo Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters Burials at the Cemetery of Our Saviour People educated at the Trondheim Cathedral School 19th-century Norwegian male writers 19th-century diarists