Johan Nicolai Madvig (; 7 August 1804 – 12 December 1886), was a
Danish 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 ...
and
Kultus Minister.
Life
He was born on the Danish island of
Bornholm
Bornholm () is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea, to the east of the rest of Denmark, south of Sweden, northeast of Germany and north of Poland.
Strategically located, Bornholm has been fought over for centuries. It has usually been ruled by ...
, south of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...
. He was educated at the classical school of Frederiksborg and the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
, at least partially on the cost of
Marie Kofoed
Marie Kofoed, née ''Bohn'' (19 January 1760 - 20 April 1838), was a Danish businessperson, landowner and philanthropist. She was a local patriot and played an important part in the history of Bornholm. Life
She was born to the businessman Morten ...
. In 1828 he became reader, and in 1829 professor of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, 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 ...
language and literature at
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan a ...
, and in 1832 was appointed university librarian. In 1848 Madvig entered parliament as a member of the "Eider-Danish" part—those who desired the
Eider
Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.
The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quil ...
to be the boundary of the country. When this party came into power Madvig became Kultus Minister in the
Cabinet of Moltke II and
III
III or iii may refer to:
Companies
* Information International, Inc., a computer technology company
* Innovative Interfaces, Inc., a library-software company
* 3i, formerly Investors in Industry, a British investment company
Other uses
* ...
, but left the cabinet on 7 December 1851 as a protest against the government's unity state program.
In 1852 he became director of public instruction.
Some years later, from 1856 to 1863, Madvig was president of the Danish parliament and leader of the
National Liberal Party. With these brief interruptions the greater part of his life was devoted to the study and teaching of Latin and the improvement of the classical schools, of which he was chief inspector. As a critic of classical texts he was distinguished for learning and acumen. He devoted much attention to
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 esta ...
, and revolutionized the study of his philosophical writings by an edition of ''De Finibus'' (1839). Other major contributions to classical scholarship are his ''Emendationes Livianae'' (1860; 2d ed. 1877) and the papers collected in his ''Opuscula Academica'' ('Minor Academic Works') (1838) and ''Adversaria Critica'' (3 vols., 1871–84). Perhaps his most widely known works are those on Latin
grammar
In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraints, a field that includes doma ...
and Greek
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
, especially his Latin grammar for schools (Eng. trans. by G Woods).
In 1874 his vision began to fail, and he was forced to give up much of his work. He continued to lecture, and in 1879 he was chosen rector of the university for the sixth time. In 1880 he resigned his professorship, but went on with his work on the Roman constitution, which was completed and published before his death. In this book Madvig takes a strongly conservative standpoint and attacks
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 centur ...
's views on
Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
's programme of reforms. It is a clear exposition, though rather too dogmatic and without sufficient regard for the views of other scholars. His last work was his autobiography, ''Livserindringer'' (published 1887).
One of his textbooks, on Latin syntax, was re-issued as recently as 2001.
References
Further reading
* Hauger, B. (1994) Johan Nicolai Madvig. ''The Language Theory of a Classical Philologist'' (Studium Sprachwissenschaft, Beiheft, 22), Nodus, Munster.
* P.J. Jensen, "Johan Nicolai Madvig," ''Greece & Rome'' 1 (1954), 129–135.
* P.J. Jensen, (1981) ''J. N. Madvig. Avec une esquisse de l' histoire de la philologie classique au Danemark,'' Odense University Presse, Odense. Traduit du Danois par Andre Nicolet.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Madvig, Johan Nicolai
1804 births
1886 deaths
Danish Kultus Ministers
19th-century Danish philologists
University of Copenhagen alumni
Speakers of the Folketing
Rectors of the University of Copenhagen
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
People from Bornholm
Danish Latinists