Philipp Jaffé (17 February 1819 – 3 April 1870) was a German historian and philologist. He was one of the most important German

medievalist The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

s of the 19th century.

Biography and career

After graduating from the gymnasium at Posen in 1838 he went to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, entering a banking-house. Two years later he abandoned commercial life and studied at

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

(Ph.D. 1844). Seven years later appeared his great work, ''

Regesta Papal regesta are the copies, generally entered in special registry volumes, of the papal letters and official documents that are kept in the papal archives. The name is also used to indicate subsequent publications containing such documents, in c ...

Pontificum Romanorum ab Condita Ecclesia ad Annum p. Ch. n. 1198'', containing 11,000 papal documents, (Berlin, 1851. 2nd ed. by Löwenfeld, Kaltenbrunner, and Ewald. Leipzig, 1885–88). This work made him well known, but he had still to earn a livelihood; he therefore again entered the university, this time as a student of medicine, at Berlin and later at

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. Graduating as

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

from Berlin in 1853, he engaged in practise in that city for a year, and then became one of the editors of the ''

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The (Latin for "Historical Monuments of Germany"), frequently abbreviated MGH, is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of parts of Northwestern, Central and Souther ...

.'' This position he resigned in 1863, his chief work having been vols. xii, xvi, xvii, xviii, xix, and xx of the ''Scriptores''. In 1862 Jaffé was appointed assistant professor of history at Humboldt University of Berlin, where he lectured on

Latin 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 ...

paleography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

and medieval

chronology Chronology (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , , ; and , ''wikt:-logia, -logia'') is the science of arranging events in their order of occurrence in time. Consider, for example, the use of a timeline or sequence of events. It is also "the deter ...

. In 1868 he became a

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

. During the last year of his life he suffered from ''

delirium Delirium (formerly acute confusional state, an ambiguous term that is now discouraged) is a specific state of acute confusion attributable to the direct physiological consequence of a medical condition, effects of a psychoactive substance, or ...

persecutionis.'' Jaffé wrote, in addition to the above-mentioned works, ''Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches unter Lothar dem Sachsen,'' Berlin, 1843; ''Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches unter Konrad III.'' Hanover, 1845; and ''Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum,'' ib. 1864–1871. The latter series contained editions of the correspondence and ''vitae'' of

Saint Boniface Boniface, OSB (born Wynfreth; 675 –5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of Francia during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

; his edition of the Boniface correspondence was praised as the first critical edition of the letters, and formed the basis for subsequent translations and editions of the letters, including that by Georg Pfahler. Jaffé furthermore collaborated with Wilhelm Wattenbach in editing the ''Ecclesiæ Metropolitanæ Coloniensis Codices,'' which was published (Berlin, 1879) by Wattenbach after Jaffé's death. Jaffé committed suicide at

Wittenberge Wittenberge (; ) is a town of eighteen thousand people on the middle Elbe in the district of Prignitz, Brandenburg, Germany. Geography Wittenberge is situated at the right (north-eastern) bank of the middle Elbe at its confluence with the Step ...

on 3 April 1870.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffe, Philipp 1819 births 1870 deaths 1870s suicides Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia People from Swarzędz 19th-century German Jews 19th-century German historians German philologists Jewish historians German medievalists 19th-century German male writers Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin

Biography and career

See also

References