Paul Gerhard Schmidt (25 March 1937 – 25 September 2010) was a German medievalist and professor emeritus of medieval Latin philology.
Biography
Schmidt was born on 25 March 1937 in Pieske near
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...
. He took his abitur in 1956 at the ''Evangelischen Gymnasium'' in
Berlin-Grunewald
Grunewald () is a locality (''Ortsteil'') within the Berlin borough (''Bezirk'') of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Famous for the homonymous forest, until 2001 administrative reform it was part of the former district of Wilmersdorf.
Next to Licht ...
, and studied classical and medieval Latin philology in Berlin and
Göttingen. He received his Ph.D. in July 1962 from the
University of Göttingen, with the dissertation ''Supplemente lateinischer Prosa in der Neuzeit: Ein Überblick über Rekonstruktionsversuche zu lateinischen Autoren von der Renaissance bis zur Aufklärung'', and then went to Rome where after a two-year study of
Auxiliary sciences of history he received the diploma ''Palaeographus et Archivarius Vaticanus''. His 1970
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
in Göttingen was based on a critical edition of the ''Architrenius'' by
Johannes de Hauvilla, which was published in 1974. Schmidt became professor at the
University of Marburg in 1978. In 1989 he moved to the
University of Freiburg, where he was a professor of medieval Latin philology. He died on 25 September 2010 of a
heart attack, and is buried on the
Bergäckerfriedhof.
Schmidt was an extraordinary member of the Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, corresponding member of the
Göttingen Academy of Sciences and the academic society of the
Goethe University Frankfurt
Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...
, and member of the
Istituto Lombardo. He had visiting professorships in Oxford, Florence, Fribourg (Wolfgang-Stammler-Gastprofessur 1993–94), Siena, Tartu, and Paris.
Schmidt occupied much of his time with
palaeography and
codicology
Codicology (; from French ''codicologie;'' from Latin , genitive , "notebook, book" and Greek , '' -logia'') is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. ...
. He was editor or co-editor of the series ''Datierte Handschriften in Bibliotheken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland'', ''Mittellateinische Studien und Texte'', and the journal ''Itineraria: Letteratura di viaggio e conoscenza del mondo dall’Antichità al Rinascimento''. Until the end of 1999 he was president of the department of manuscript catalogs of the
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. He was also a member of the council of the ''Onderzoekschool Mediëvistiek'' (Leiden/Groningen/Utrecht) and the Institute for European Cultural History (Augsburg).
Schmidt directed 16 dissertations (including that by
Johannes Schilling
Johannes Schilling (23 June 1828 in Mittweida – 21 March 1910 in Klotzsche near Dresden) was a German sculptor.
Life and work
Johannes Schilling was the youngest of five children. A year after his birth, his family moved to Dresden, where he g ...
and 3 habilitations (
Udo Kühne,
Thomas Haye and
Elisabeth Stein).
Bibliography
* Andreas Bihrer and Elisabeth Stein (eds.): ''Nova de Veteribus. Mittel- und neulateinische Studien für Paul Gerhard Schmidt'', München and Leipzig: Saur 2004.
External links
*
Paul Gerhard Schmidt an der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität FreiburgBücher und Aufsätze von Paul Gerhard Schmidt im Opac der
Regesta Imperii
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Paul Gerhard
1937 births
2010 deaths
20th-century philologists
German medievalists
German philologists
German Latinists
German palaeographers
Academic staff of the University of Freiburg
Academic staff of the University of Göttingen
Academic staff of the University of Marburg
German male non-fiction writers
Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities