Eduard Wölfflin (1 January 1831 – 8 November 1908) was a Swiss classical philologist. He was the father of

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

Heinrich Wölfflin Heinrich Wölfflin (; 21 June 1864 – 19 July 1945) was a Swiss art historian, esthetician and educator, whose objective classifying principles (" painterly" vs. "linear" and the like) were influential in the development of formal analysis in ...

Biography

Eduard Wölfflin was born in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

on 1 January 1831. From 1848 to 1854, he studied at the Universities of

and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) 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. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

, where he was a pupil of

Karl Friedrich Hermann Karl Friedrich Hermann (4 August 1804 – 31 December 1855) was a German classical scholar and antiquarian, antiquary. Biography He was born at Frankfurt-am-Main. Having studied philosophy at the universities of university of Heidelberg, Heide ...

. Following graduation, he worked as an assistant

librarian A librarian is a person who professionally works managing information. Librarians' common activities include providing access to information, conducting research, creating and managing information systems, creating, leading, and evaluating educat ...

at the University of Basel (1854–61). Wölfflin spent the next decade as schoolteacher in

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

(1861–71), and in the meantime became an associate professor in Latin

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

(1869). In 1871, he attained a full professorship at the

University of Zurich The University of Zurich (UZH, ) is a public university, public research university in Zurich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of the ...

. From 1875 to 1880, Wölfflin was a professor at the

University of Erlangen A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, and from 1880 to 1906, was a professor at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

. Wölfflin was a member of the

Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art The Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art () was first established on 28 November 1853 by King Maximilian II von Bayern. It is awarded to acknowledge and reward excellent and outstanding achievements in the field of science and art. From ...

Published works

He was a primary catalyst in the establishment of the ''

Thesaurus Linguae Latinae The ''Thesaurus Linguae Latinae'' (abbreviated as ''ThLL'' or ''TLL'') is a monumental dictionary of Latin founded on historical principles. It encompasses the Latin language from the time of its origin to the time of Isidore of Seville (die ...

'', a comprehensive

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

of the

Latin language Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

— a project that first got underway in 1894. He was also editor of the ''Archiv für lateinische Lexikographie und Grammatik'' (from 1884), a periodical that grown to 15 volumes at the time of Wölfflin's death in 1908. Other significant writings by Wölfflin include: * ''De Lucii Ampelii libro Memoriali quaestiones criticae et historicae'' (dissertation). Göttingen 1854. * ''Caecilii de Balbi nugis philosophorum quae sunt super'', Basel 1855. * ''Polyaeni libri octo strategicon'', Leipzig 1860. * ''Livianische Kritik und Livianischer Sprachgebrauch'', Berlin 1864 – Critical examination of

Livy Titus Livius (; 59 BC – AD 17), known in English as Livy ( ), was a Roman historian. He wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people, titled , covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional founding i ...

. * ''Publii Syri sententiae''. Leipzig 1869 * ''Antiochos von Syrakus und Coelius Antipater'', 1872 –

Antiochus of Syracuse Antiochus of Syracuse () was a Greek historian of Magna Graecia, who flourished around 420 BC. Little is known of Antiochus' life, but his works, of which only fragments remain, enjoyed a high reputation because of their accuracy. He wrote a ''Hist ...

and

Lucius Coelius Antipater Lucius Coelius Antipater was a Roman jurist and historian. He is not to be confused with Coelius Sabinus, the Coelius of the Digest. He was a contemporary of Gaius Gracchus, C. Gracchus (b. c. 123); Lucius Licinius Crassus, L. Crassus, the orator, w ...

. * ''Lateinische und romanische Comparation'', 1878 – Latin and Roman comparation. * ''Zur Composition der Historien des Tacitus'', 1901 – Composition on the histories of

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

.OCLC WorldCat
published works

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfflin, Eduard 1831 births 1908 deaths People from Basel-Stadt Swiss philologists Academic staff of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Academic staff of the University of Zurich University of Basel alumni University of Göttingen alumni