Ludwig Preller (15 September 1809 – 21 June 1861) was a German

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 ...

and

antiquarian An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

Biography

Born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, 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 ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

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 ...

, in 1838 he was appointed to the professorship of philology at the

University of Dorpat The University of Tartu (UT; et, Tartu Ülikool; la, Universitas Tartuensis) is a university in the city of Tartu in Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is the only classical university in the country, and also its biggest ...

, which, however, he resigned in 1843. He afterwards spent some time in Italy, but settled 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 ...

in 1844, where he became professor in 1846. In 1847 he relocated as head librarian to

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

. His chief works are: ''Demeter und Persephone'' (1837), ''Griechische Mythologie'' (1854–1855) and ''Römische Mythologie'' (1858). He also co-operated with

Heinrich Ritter Heinrich August Ritter (; 21 November 1791 – 3 February 1869) was a German philosopher and historian of philosophy. He was born in Zerbst, and studied philosophy and theology at the University of Göttingen and Berlin until 1815. In 1824 he be ...

in the preparation of ''Historia philosophiae graecae et romanae ex fontium locis contexta'' (1838). WorldCat Identities
(publications) He contributed extensively to

Ersch Johann Samuel Ersch (23 June 1766 – 16 January 1828) was a German bibliographer, generally regarded as the founder of German bibliography. Biography He was born in Großglogau (now Głogów), in Silesia. In 1785 he entered the University of H ...

and Gruber's '' Allgemeine Encyklopädie'' and Pauly's '' Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft''. He died in Weimar.

Selected works

*''Demeter und Persephone. Ein Cyclus mythologischer Untersuchungen'', 1837. *with

: ''Historia philosophiae Graecae et Romanae ex fontium locis contexta'', 1838. *''Polemonis Periegetae fragmenta'', Leipzig 1838. *''Die Regionen der Stadt Rom'', Jena 1846. *''Carl Otto v. Madai zur Erinnerung an ihn für seine Freunde'', Breitkopf und Härtel, Leipzig 1850.
''Griechische Mythologie'', 2 vols.
Weidmann, Berlin 1854.
''Römische Mythologie''
1858.

References

* 1809 births 1861 deaths Writers from Hamburg German philologists German antiquarians University of Tartu faculty University of Jena faculty German male non-fiction writers {{Germany-academic-bio-stub