Karl Julius Sillig (12 May 1801 – 14 January 1855) was a German

classics 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 ...

scholar, and pupil of

Karl August Böttiger Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...

. Sillig went on to edit many of Böttiger's works after the latter's death in 1835. He also revised and edited the work of other scholars, such as

Christian Gottlob Heyne Christian Gottlob Heyne (; 25 September 1729 – 14 July 1812) was a German classical scholar and archaeologist as well as long-time director of the Göttingen State and University Library. He was a member of the Göttingen School of History. ...

. Heyne published an edition of the poem "Culex" from the ''

Appendix Vergiliana The ''Appendix Vergiliana'' is a collection of poems traditionally ascribed as being the juvenilia (work written as a juvenile) of Virgil.Régine ChambertVergil's Epicureanism in his early poems in "Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans" 2003: "V ...

'', a collection of verse often attributed at least in part to

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

, and attempted to cull the lines he thought not genuinely produced by Virgil; an approach of which Sillig was highly critical when he revised Heyne's works. Born in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, he studied at

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 ...

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, and was a

schoolmaster The word schoolmaster, or simply master, refers to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British independent schools, both secondary and preparatory, and a few Indian boarding schools (such as The Doon School) that were modelled after B ...

at Dresden for the last thirty years of his life. His ''Catalogus Artificium'' (1827) was considered a useful work in its time. His edition of

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; 84 - 54 BCE), often referred to simply as Catullus (, ), was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic who wrote chiefly in the neoteric style of poetry, focusing on personal life rather than classical heroes. His s ...

less so, although his edition of

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

seems to have been well regarded. He was often referenced in works of 19th century classical scholarship, such as the ''

Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology The ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology'' (1849, originally published 1844 under a slightly different title) is an encyclopedia/biographical dictionary. Edited by William Smith, the dictionary spans three volumes and 3,700 p ...

'' of William Smith. However, early 20th century critics felt that as an editor he was too much given to the accumulation of details, and was deficient in judgment and critical method.

Works

*''Catalogus Artificium'' (1827) **''Dictionary of the Artists of Antiquity: architects, carvers, engravers, modellers, painters, sculptors, statuaries, and workers in bronze, gold, ivory, and silver, with three chronological tables''; by Julius Sillig, tr. by the Rev. H. W. Williams, to which are added C. Plinii Secundi Naturalis historiae libri XXXIV-XXXVI. c. 8 .e.15. With four indexes and a preface, by E. H. Barker. London: Black and Armstrong, 1837. *''P. Virgilii Maronis opera varietate lectionis et perpetua adnotatione illustratus.'' Vol. 4. Leipzig: Sumtibus Librariae Hahnianae (1832, revision of works of

) *''

Kleine Schriften ' is a German phrase ("short writings" or "minor works"; la, Opuscula) often used as a title for a collection of articles and essays written by a single scholar over the course of a career. "Collected Papers" is an English equivalent. These short ...

'' (1837, editor) *''Opuscula'' (1837, editor)

References

1801 births 1855 deaths German classical scholars Writers from Dresden {{germany-academic-bio-stub