Johann David Köhler (18 January 1684 – 10 March 1755) was a German

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. His academic focuses were on

Roman coins Roman currency for most of Roman history consisted of gold, silver, bronze, orichalcum and copper coinage. From its introduction to the Republic, during the third century BC, well into Imperial times, Roman currency saw many changes in form, de ...

as historical artifacts, ancient weapons, and

genealogy Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...

. Köhler also served as university librarian at Altdorf and contributed to the early

library science Library science (often termed library studies, bibliothecography, and library economy) is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and ...

literature.

Life

Köhler was born in

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of the ...

in the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charl ...

and studied at the

University of Wittenberg Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university in ...

. He was a professor of logic and history at universities in Altdorf and later

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 ...

and served briefly as university librarian at Altdorf. He died in Göttingen.

Influence

Köhler came into scholarly prominence in a transitional period for European scholarship. From the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

and into the Enlightenment,

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

scholars A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

were part of a "common culture of scholarship", a ''respublica litteraria'' (Eskildsen 2005: 421). That common culture of scholarship was subjected to a series of nationalistic and religious pressures across the eighteenth century so that as Köhler came into prominence in the eighteenth century, there had been a shift from the pan-European imagined community to a more parochial nationalist one (Anderson 1991). His credentials as a library and information scientist are based upon three of his monographs: ''Syllogie aliquot Scriptorum de bene ordinanda et ornanda Bibliotheca'', published in 1728; ''Hochverdiente und aus bewährten Urkunden wohlbeglaubte Ehren-Rettung Johann Guttenbergs, eingebohrnen Bürgers in Mayntz'' in 1741; and ''Anweisung für reisende Gelerte, Bibliothecken, Münz-Cabinette, Antiquitäten-Zimmer, Bilder-Sale, Naturalien- und Kunst-Kammern, u.d.m mit Nutzen zubesehen'' from 1762. The 1728 ''Syllogie…'' is a bibliographic examination of major history texts of the day and is in keeping with the role of historians then and now. The 1741 ''Hochverdiente…'' is an examination of the assertion that Johann Gutenberg was indeed the inventor of

movable type Movable type (US English; moveable type in British English) is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document (usually individual alphanumeric characters or punctuatio ...

– the

printing press A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in which the ...

– against competing claims. Bernhard von Mallinckrodt (1591-1664) is credited with writing the first defense of Gutenberg as the inventor of the printing press in 1639 (Schmidmaier 2001), but Köhler is said to have authored second and definitive defense (Eck 2000). Köhler's third and most important work within this context is the 1792 ''Anweisung für reisende Gelerte, Bibliothecken, Műnz-Cabinette, Antiquitäten-Zimmer, Bilder-Sale, Naturalien und Kunst-Kammern, u.d.m mit Nutzen zubesehen.'' Acta Eruditorum - IV monete, 1738 – BEIC 13460219

Acta Eruditorum - IV monete, 1738 – BEIC 13460219

Acta Eruditorum - VI monete, 1745 – BEIC 13413569

Acta Eruditorum - II monete, 1745 – BEIC 13413569

Finally, Köhler published a scholarly journal on Roman coins and

numismatics Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

in general. His son Johann Tobias Köhler continued that interest. This journal is important to library science in that it is among the first true serials ever published.

Works

* ''Orbis terrarum in nuce, sive Compendium historiae civilis chronologicum in sculptura memoriali'' * 1719: ''Bequemer Schul- und Reise-Atlas''. Nürnberg: Christoph Weigel * 1724: ''Anleitung zu der verbesserten neuen Geographie, vornemlich zum Gebrauch der Weigelschen Landcharten''. Nürnberg: Christoph Weigel * 1726: ''Genealogische Geschichte der Herren und Grafen von Wolfstein'' * 1730: ''Kurze und gründliche Anleitung zu der alten und mittleren Geographie''. Nürnberg: Christoph Weigel

References

* Anderson, Benedict (1991). ''Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism'', rev. ed. London: Verso. *Eck, Reimer (2000) "Drei Schritte Göttinger Frühdruckforschung, Johann David Köhlers 'Ehren-Rettung Johann Guttensberg',

Karl Dziatzko Karl Franz Otto Dziatzko (27 January 1842 - 13 January 1903, Göttingen) was a German librarian and scholar, born in Neustadt, Silesia.

s Wiederbelebung der Gutenbergforschung, Elmar Mittlers Digitalisierung der Göttinger Schlüsseldokumente zur Erforschung des Frühdrucks", in Köhler, Johann David (1741, reprint 2000), ''Hochverdiente und aus bewährten Urkunden wohlbeglaubte Ehren-Rettung Johann Guttenbergs, eingebohrnen Bürgers in Mayntz…'', with afterword by Reimer Eck. Munich: Saur, pp. 109–121. *Eskildsen, Kaspar (2005) "How Germany Left the Republic of Letters", ''

Journal of the History of Ideas The ''Journal of the History of Ideas'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering intellectual history and the history of ideas, including the histories of philosophy, literature and the arts, natural and social sciences, religion, ...

'', vol. 65, 3, pp. 421–432. *Schmidmaier, Dieter (2001) "Johann David Köhlers Verdienst", '' Bibliothek Forschung und Praxis'', vol. 25, 2, pp. 253–255

External links

Hathi Trust
Works by Köhler {{DEFAULTSORT:Kohler, Johann David 1684 births 1755 deaths People from Colditz German numismatists German classical scholars People from the Electorate of Saxony University of Wittenberg alumni University of Altdorf faculty University of Göttingen faculty German genealogists German male non-fiction writers

Life

Influence

Works

References

Further reading

External links