Johann Kaspar Friedrich Manso (May 26, 1760 – June 9, 1826) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and

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 ...

. Manso was born in

Zella-Mehlis Zella-Mehlis is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, 5 km north of Suhl, and 20 km east of Meiningen. The town of Zella-Mehlis is the site of the original Walthe ...

, and studied in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

. He taught at the Illustrious Gymnasium in

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

from 1785, and in 1790 moved to the Magdaleneum in Breslau, where he was first

prorector Academic rank (also scientific rank) is the rank of a scientist or teacher in a college, high school, university or research establishment. The academic ranks indicate relative importance and power of individuals in academia. The academic rank ...

and then from 1793

rector Rector (Latin for the member of a vessel's crew who steers) may refer to: Style or title *Rector (ecclesiastical), a cleric who functions as an administrative leader in some Christian denominations *Rector (academia), a senior official in an edu ...

. He died in Breslau in 1826. He is also remembered today for a dispute with

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...

. Writing in the journal '' Neue Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften und der freyen Künste'', Manso criticized Schiller's writing for

obscurantism In philosophy, the terms obscurantism and obscurationism describe the anti-intellectual practices of deliberately presenting information in an abstruse and imprecise manner that limits further inquiry and understanding of a subject. There are two ...

, for the way he adopted

Kant Immanuel Kant (, , ; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works in epistemolo ...

ian terminology for his arguments, and for his idealization of

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

. Manso's own writing was in turn mocked by Schiller, writing together with

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

, in their ''

Xenien ''Xenien'' is a Germanization of the Greek ''Xenia'' "host gifts", a title originally applied by the Roman poet Martial (1st century AD) to a collection of poems which were to accompany his presents. Following this precedent, Johann Wolfgang von ...

''.

Works

Historical: * ''

Sparta Sparta ( Doric Greek: Σπάρτα, ''Spártā''; Attic Greek: Σπάρτη, ''Spártē'') was a prominent city-state in Laconia, in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (, ), while the name Sparta referre ...

, ein Versuch zur Aufklärung der Geschichte und Verfassung dieses Staats'' (Leipzig, 1800–1805, 3 vols.) * ''Leben Konstantins des Großen'' (Breslau, 1817) * ''Geschichte des preußischen Staats seit dem Hubertsburger Frieden'' (Frankfurt, 1819–1820, 3 vols.; 2nd ed. 1835) * ''Geschichte des ostgotischen Reichs in Italien'' (Breslau, 1824) Philological: * An edition of

Meleager In Greek mythology, Meleager (, grc-gre, Μελέαγρος, Meléagros) was a hero venerated in his ''temenos'' at Calydon in Aetolia. He was already famed as the host of the Calydonian boar hunt in the epic tradition that was reworked by Ho ...

(Gotha, 1789) * An edition of Bion and

Moschus Moschus ( el, Μόσχος), ancient Greek bucolic poet and student of the Alexandrian grammarian Aristarchus of Samothrace, was born at Syracuse and flourished about 150 BC. Aside from his poetry, he was known for his grammatical work, nothing o ...

with a German translation (Gotha, 1784; 2nd ed. Leipzig, 1807) Miscellaneous writings: * ''Vermischte Schriften'' (Gotha, 1801, 2 vols.) * ''Vermischte Abhandlungen'' (Breslau, 1821)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manso, Johann Kaspar Friedrich 1760 births 1826 deaths German philologists 19th-century German historians German classical scholars German schoolteachers Writers from Thuringia German male non-fiction writers