Victor Emil Gardthausen (26 August 1843 – 27 December 1925) was a German ancient historian,

palaeographer Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

, librarian, and Professor from

Leipzig University Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December ...

. He was author and co-author of some books; editor of ancient texts.

Life

Gardthausen was born on 26 August 1843 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 ar ...

. Between 1865 and 1869 Gardthausen studied philology in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern Germany, German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the J ...

and

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. In Kiel

Alfred von Gutschmid Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *'' Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series * ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne * ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera by Antonín Dvořák *"Alfred (Interl ...

was his professor. After the Franco-Prussian War he was sent to Italy and Greece for

palaeographical Palaeography ( UK) or paleography ( US; ultimately from grc-gre, , ''palaiós'', "old", and , ''gráphein'', "to write") is the study of historic writing systems and the deciphering and dating of historical manuscripts, including the analysi ...

research. In 1873 he started work at the Leipziger Stadtbibliothek and from 1875 at the

Leipzig University Library Leipzig University Library (german: Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig), known also as ''Bibliotheca Albertina'', is the central library of the University of Leipzig. It is one of the oldest German university libraries. History The library was foun ...

. From 1877 he was an extraordinary professor for ancient history. In 1887/1888 he was active again as a university librarian, becoming the main librarian in 1901. In 1907 he left the library service. Gardthausen died on 27 December 1925 in

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 ...

. He examined

Codex Sinaiticus The Codex Sinaiticus (Shelfmark: London, British Library, Add MS 43725), designated by siglum [Aleph] or 01 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), δ 2 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts) ...

Codex Boernerianus Codex Boernerianus, designated by G, G or 012 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering of New Testament manuscripts), α 1028 (in the von Soden numbering of New Testament manuscripts), is a small New Testament codex, measuring 25 x 18 cm, written in ...

Uspenski Gospels The Uspenski Gospels, ''Minuscule 461'' (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), ε 92 ( Soden), are a New Testament minuscule manuscript written in Greek, dated at 835 AD, and now in St Petersburg in Russia. They are the oldest known dated manuscript o ...

, manuscripts housed in the monastery at Sinai among many others. According to him, the Codex Sinaiticus was written in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...

and is younger than the

Codex Vaticanus The Codex Vaticanus ( The Vatican, Bibl. Vat., Vat. gr. 1209), designated by siglum B or 03 (in the Gregory-Aland numbering), δ 1 ( von Soden), is a fourth-century Christian manuscript of a Greek Bible, containing the majority of the Greek Old ...

by at least fifty years. According to him, the Uspenski Gospels were seen by

Johann Martin Augustin Scholz Johann Martin Augustin Scholz (8 February 1794 – 20 October 1852) was a German Roman Catholic orientalist, biblical scholar and academic theologian. He was a professor at the University of Bonn and travelled extensively throughout Europe a ...

when he visited

Mar Saba The Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas, known in Arabic and Syriac as Mar Saba ( syr, ܕܝܪܐ ܕܡܪܝ ܣܒܐ, ar, دير مار سابا; he, מנזר מר סבא; el, Ἱερὰ Λαύρα τοῦ Ὁσίου Σάββα τοῦ Ἡγιασμέ� ...

. Gardthausen dated Codex Boernerianus to the years 850-900 A.D. The evidence for this date range includes the style of the script, the smaller uncial letters in Greek, the Latin interlinear written in Anglo-Saxon minuscule and the separation of words. He investigated the

nomina sacra In Christian scribal practice, nomina sacra (singular: ''nomen sacrum'' from Latin ''sacred name'') is the abbreviation of several frequently occurring divine names or titles, especially in Greek manuscripts of the Bible. A nomen sacrum consists ...

. Gardthausen stated: "Ist die Handschrift gefunden, so orientiert man durch eine detaillierte Beschreibung, die im Verlaufe der Arbeit durch Beispiele vervollständigt wird" (''Any intensive study of a manuscript begins with a detailed description, which in the course of its study is completed through illustration''). The main work of Gardthausen is "Griechische Paläographie" (''Greek palaeography''); the first edition appeared in 1879, the second in 1911/1913. It was the most important work since the time of

Bernard de Montfaucon Dom Bernard de Montfaucon, O.S.B. (; 13 January 1655 – 21 December 1741) was a French Benedictine monk of the Congregation of Saint Maur. He was an astute scholar who founded the discipline of palaeography, as well as being an editor of works ...

. It remains a standard work until the present day.

Works

*''Die geographischen Quellen Ammians Probevortrag; Montag den 20. Januar 1873'', Leipzig, 1873. * * ''Mastara oder Servius Tullius: Mit einer Einleitung über die Ausdehnung des Etruskerreiches'', Leipzig, 1882. * ''Augustus und seine zeit'', 2 vol., Leipzig, 1861–1904. * *''Sammlungen und Cataloge griechischer Handschriften'', Leipzig, 1903. *''Der Altar des Kaiserfriedens, Ara Pacis Augustae'', Leipzig, 1908. * M. Vogel − V. Gardthausen,
Die griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalters und der Renaissance
', Leipzig, 1909. *''Amtliche Zitate in römischen Urkunden'', Berlijn – e.a., 1910. * ''Griechische Paleographie''
1 vol.2 vol.
Leipzig, 1911–1913. *''Die Schrift, Unterschriften, und chronologie im Altertum und im byzantinischen Mittelalter'', Leipzig, 1913. *''Handbuch der wissenschaftlichen Bibliothekskunde'', 2 vol., Leipzig, 1920. *''Die Alexandrinische Bibliothek, ihr Vorbild, Katalog und Betrieb'', Leipzig, 1922. *''Das alte Monogramm'', Leipzig, 1924. *''Autobiographie'', eipzig, 1926

References

External links

Literatur von und über Victor Gardthausen
in ''Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek'' (DNB)
Bücher und Aufsätze von Victor Gardthausen im Opac der ''Regesta Imperii''

at the Universität Leipzig
Victor Gardthausen
at the Professorenkatalog der Universität Leipzig {{DEFAULTSORT:Gardthausen, Victor 1843 births 1925 deaths Historians of antiquity German palaeographers German librarians Academic staff of Leipzig University 19th-century German historians German male non-fiction writers

Life

Works

References

Further reading

External links