Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen (October 3, 1663 – January 17, 1727) was a 17th-century

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

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 ...

Biography

He received his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from 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 ...

in 1685. His dissertation, titled ''Disputationem Moralem de Divortiis Secundum Jus Naturae'' (''Moral Disputation on Divorce according to the Law of Nature''), was written under the direction of his father in law and advisor Otto Mencke. He was from 1692 until the time of his death a professor of Near Eastern languages and university librarian at the

University of 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 in ...

, and gave courses there in Philosophy and

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

. Among the books he published are ''De extinctione ordinis Templariorum'' (''The extinction of the

Templars , colors = White mantle with a red cross , colors_label = Attire , march = , mascot = Two knights riding a single horse , equipment ...

''), 1687According to Batley (1999), Gotthold Ephraim Lessing used Wichmannshausen's work to research his own writings on the Templars, but found it "reserved and short-sighted" compared to that of

Christian Thomasius Christian Thomasius (1 January 1655 – 23 September 1728) was a German jurist and philosopher. Biography He was born in Leipzig and was educated by his father, Jakob Thomasius (1622–1684), at that time a junior lecturer in Leipzig Universi ...

. and many short works on aspects of the Old Testament. Today, Wichmannshausen is best known as part of a line of

scientific genealogy An academic, or scientific genealogy organizes a family tree of scientists and scholars according to mentoring relationships, often in the form of dissertation supervision relationships, and not according to genetic relationships as in conventio ...

stretching from Mencke to

Gauss Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (; german: Gauß ; la, Carolus Fridericus Gauss; 30 April 177723 February 1855) was a German mathematician and physicist who made significant contributions to many fields in mathematics and science. Sometimes refer ...

and to many other mathematicians. As of 2015, the

Mathematics Genealogy Project The Mathematics Genealogy Project (MGP) is a web-based database for the academic genealogy of mathematicians.. By 31 December 2021, it contained information on 274,575 mathematical scientists who contributed to research-level mathematics. For a ty ...

lists 88523 of his academic descendants.

References

External links

*
Register of German biography
(Copyright Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften)
British Library Integrated Catalog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wichmannshausen, Johann Christoph 1663 births 1727 deaths People from Ilsenburg German philologists 17th-century philologists German philosophers 17th-century German male writers