Johann Friedrich Dübner (20 December 180213 December 1867) was a German classical scholar (naturalized a

Frenchman French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the native speakers of langues d'oïl from nort ...

Biography

He was born in Hörselgau, near

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

. After studying at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

he returned to Gotha, where from 1827 to 1832 he held a post (''inspector coenobii'') in connection with the gymnasium. During this period he made his name known by editions of

Justin Justin may refer to: People and fictional characters * Justin (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Justin (historian), Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527) ...

and

Persius Aulus Persius Flaccus (; 4 December 3424 November 62 AD) was a Roman poet and satirist of Etruscan origin. In his works, poems and satire, he shows a Stoic wisdom and a strong criticism for what he considered to be the stylistic abuses of his ...

(after Casaubon). In 1832 he was invited by the brothers Didot to Paris, to cooperate in a new edition of Estienne's ''Greek Thesaurus''. He also contributed largely to the ''Bibliotheca Graeca'' published by the same firm, a series of Greek classics with Latin translation, critical notes and valuable indexes. One of Dübner's most important works was an edition of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

undertaken by command of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

, which obtained him the cross of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

. His editions are considered to be models of literary and philological criticism, and did much to raise the standard of classical scholarship in France. He violently attacked Burnouf's method of teaching

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

, but without result. Dübner may have gone too far in his zeal for reform, and his opinions may have been too harshly expressed. Dübner died in Montreuil, near Paris.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dubner, Johann Friedrich 1802 births 1867 deaths German classical scholars French classical scholars Emigrants from the German Confederation Immigrants to France University of Göttingen alumni Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour