Editing August Immanuel Bekker

{{short description|German classical scholar and philologist (1785–1871)}}
{{Infobox artist
| image            = Immanuel Bekker - Imagines philologorum.jpg
| birth_name       = August Immanuel Bekker
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1785|05|21|df=y}}
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1871|06|07|1785|05|21|df=yes}}
| education        = [[University of Halle]]
}}

'''August Immanuel Bekker''' (21 May 1785{{snd}}7 June 1871) was a German [[philologist]] and [[critic]].

==Biography==
Born in [[Berlin]], Bekker completed his classical education at the [[University of Halle]] under [[Friedrich August Wolf]], who considered him as his most promising pupil. In 1810 he was appointed professor of [[philosophy]] in the [[University of Berlin]]. For several years, between 1810 and 1821, he travelled in France, [[Italy]], England and parts of Germany, examining classical manuscripts and gathering materials for his great editorial labours. {{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=661}}

Some of the fruits of his researches were published in the ''[[Anecdota Graeca]]'' (3 vols, 1814–1821),<ref>Vol. 1. Lexica Segueriana 1814 (e.g. Δικῶν ὀνόματα, pp. 181–194; Λέξεις ῥητορικαί, pp. 195–318 etc) – v. 2. Apollonii Alexandrini de coniunctionibus (p. 477) et de adverbiis (p. 527) libri. Dionysii Thracis Grammatica (p. 627). Choerobosci, Diomedis, Melampodis, Porphyrii, Stephani in eam scholia (pp. 645–927). Berolini: apud G. Reimerum 1816 – v. 3. Theodosii canones (p. 975). Editoris annotatio critica (p. 1065). Indices (pp. 1299–1466). Berolini: Typis et impensis G. Reimeri 1821.</ref> but the major results are to be found in the enormous array of classical authors edited by him. His industry extended to nearly the whole of [[Greek literature]] with the exception of the tragedians and lyric poets. His best known editions are those of [[Plato]] (1816–1823), ''Oratores Attici'' (1823–1824), [[Aristotle]] (1831–1836), [[Aristophanes]] (1829), and twenty-five volumes of the ''[[Corpus Scriptorum Historiae Byzantinae]]''.<ref>Bekker oversaw the series from 1831, following [[Barthold Georg Niebuhr|Barthold G. Niebuhr]]'s death. However, he never enjoyed the job. Dieter R. Reinsch noted that he wrote prefaces only to those authors he thought "worth", and in any case never exceeding a single page which he used to utter all his displeasure. The ''CFHB'' volumes edited by Bekker became infamous for the misprints and errors and August Heisenberg, according to Franz Dölger, once said that he must have revised those texts 'lying on the sofa with the cigar in his mouth'. See {{Cite book |last=Reinsch |first=Dieter Roderich |title=The Byzantine World |publisher=Routledge |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-415-44010-3 |editor-last=Robinson |editor-first=Paul |location=London – New York |page=441 |chapter=Editing Byzantine historiographical texts}}</ref> The only Latin authors edited by him were [[Livy]] (1829–1830) and [[Gaius Cornelius Tacitus|Tacitus]] (1831).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=661}}

Bekker confined himself entirely to manuscript investigations and textual criticism; he contributed little to the extension of other types of scholarship.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=661}} [[Bekker numbering|Bekker numbers]] have become the standard way of referring to the works of Aristotle and the Corpus Aristotelicum. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1861.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=30 May 2011}}</ref> He died in Berlin aged 86.

==Works==
* Ducas, Michael, ''Ducae : Michaelis Ducae Nepotis Historia Byzantina'', ed. by Bekker, August Immanuel (Bonn: Weber, 1834).
* Khoniátis, Nikítas, ''Narrattive of Events after the Capture of the City [by the Franks]'', ed. by Bekker, August Immanuel (Bonn:  Weber, 1835).
* Phrantzis, G., ''Chronicon'', ed. by Bekker, August Immanuel (Bonn:  Weber, 1838).
* Khalkokondhýlis, ''‘Laónikos' (i.e. Nikólaos), De Origine et Rebus Gestis Turcarum'', ed. by Bekker, August Immanuel (Bonn:  Weber, 1843).
* Attaleiátis, Michael, ''Historia'', ed. by Bekker, August Immanuel (Bonn:  Weber, 1853).

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{EB1911 |wstitle=Bekker, August Immanuel |volume=3 |page=661}} Endnotes:
** H. Sauppe, Zur Erinnerung an Meineke und Bekker (1872); 
** M. Haupt, “Gedächtnisrede auf Meineke und Bekker”, in his Opuscula, iii.;
** Ernst Immanuel Bekker, “Zur Erinnerung an meinen Vater”, in the ''Preußische Jahrbücher'', vol. 29 (Berlin 1872).

==Further reading==
* ''Apollonii Dyscoli de Pronomine liber'', ed. I. Bekker, Berolini 1813.
* ''Apollonii Alexandrini de Constructione Orationis libri quatuor ex rec. I.'' Bekkeri, Berolini 1817.
* ''Aristotelis Opera edidit Academia Regia Borussica'', Berlin, 1831–1870. (5 volumes).

==External links==
* {{commons category-inline}}
* [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.BEKKER Guide to the Immanuel Bekker Papers 1806–1853] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bekker, August Immanuel}}
[[Category:1785 births]]
[[Category:1871 deaths]]
[[Category:Writers from Berlin]]
[[Category:German philologists]]
[[Category:German scholars of ancient Greek philosophy]]
[[Category:Aristotle scholars]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)]]
[[Category:People from the Margraviate of Brandenburg]]
[[Category:Scholars from the Kingdom of Prussia]]
[[Category:University of Halle alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:German male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:German classical philologists]]
[[Category:German Byzantinists]]
[[Category:Scholars of Byzantine literature]]
[[Category:German literary scholars]]
[[Category:Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities]]