''Synopsis Universae Philologiae'' is an early work on comparative linguistics by Gottfried Hensel (''Godofredus Henselius''; 1687–1767), a rector in Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra),

Lower Silesia Lower Silesia ( pl, Dolny Śląsk; cz, Dolní Slezsko; german: Niederschlesien; szl, Dolny Ślōnsk; hsb, Delnja Šleska; dsb, Dolna Šlazyńska; Silesian German: ''Niederschläsing''; la, Silesia Inferior) is the northwestern part of the ...

. Its full title reads: ''Synopsis universae philologiae: in qua: miranda unitas et harmonia linguarum totius orbis terrarum occulta, e literarum, syllabarum, vocumque natura & recessibus eruitur. Cum Grammatica, LL. Orient. Harmonica, Synoptice tractata; nec non descriptione Orbis Terr. quoad Linguarum situm & propagationem, mappisque geographico-polyglottis''. It was published in 1741 in

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

by commission of the Homann heirs company. A second edition appeared in 1754. The book proposes to present all the world's languages known at the time together with their various

writing system A writing system is a method of visually representing verbal communication, based on a script and a set of rules regulating its use. While both writing and speech are useful in conveying messages, writing differs in also being a reliable fo ...

s. As was common at the time due to the enduring

Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel ( he, , ''Mīgdal Bāḇel'') narrative in Genesis 11:1–9 is an origin myth meant to explain why the world's peoples speak different languages. According to the story, a united human race speaking a single language and mi ...

myth, Hensel attempted to derive all languages from a common origin in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

, following ''A philosophicall essay for the reunion of the languages, or, the art of knowing all by the mastery of one'' (1675) by Pierre Besnier (1648–1705).Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, ''Geschichte der neuern Sprachenkunde'' (vol. 5 of ''Geschichte der Litteratur von ihrem Anfang bis auf die neuesten Zeiten''), 1807
p. 11

References

1741 books 1754 books History of linguistics Comparative linguistics Linguistics books Books about cultural geography 18th-century Latin books {{historical-linguistics-stub