Philipp Jaffé (17 February 1819 – 3 April 1870) was a German historian and philologist. The Schwersenz (then

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

) native, despite discrimination against his Jewish religion, was one of the most important German

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

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 and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

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

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

(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 ...

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 en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. Graduating as

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...

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 ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empire ...

.'' 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 branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

paleography 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 ...

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 ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and medieval

chronology Chronology (from Latin ''chronologia'', from Ancient Greek , ''chrónos'', "time"; and , '' -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. I ...

. In 1868 he became a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

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

delirium Delirium (also known as acute confusional state) is an organically caused decline from a previous baseline of mental function that develops over a short period of time, typically hours to days. Delirium is a syndrome encompassing disturbances in ...

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 ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...

; 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 Wilhelm Wattenbach (22 September 181920 September 1897), was a German historian. He was born at Rantzau in Holstein. He studied philology at the universities of Bonn, Göttingen and Berlin, and in 1843 he began to work upon the ''Monumenta G ...

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 Stepe ...

on 3 April 1870.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jaffe, Philipp 1819 births 1870 deaths 1870s suicides People from Swarzędz 19th-century German Jews 19th-century German historians German philologists Jewish historians German medievalists 19th-century male writers

Biography and career

See also

References