Editing Friedrich August Wolf

{{Short description|German philologist (1759–1824)}}
{{more footnotes|date=January 2013}}
[[Image:Friedrich August Wolf - Imagines philologorum.jpg|thumb|right|Friedrich August Wolf]]
'''Friedrich August Wolf''' ({{IPAc-en|v|ɔː|l|f}}; {{IPA|de|vɔlf|lang}}; 15 February 1759 &ndash; 8 August 1824) was a German [[classicist]] who is considered the founder of [[classics#Philology|classical]] and modern [[philology]].

==Biography==

Wolf was born in [[Hainrode]], near [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]]. His father was the village schoolmaster and [[organist]]. In [[grammar school]], he studied [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Greek language|Greek]] as well as [[French language|French]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[music]].{{sfn|Monro|1911|p=770}}

In 1777, after two years of independent study, at the age of eighteen, Wolf went to the [[University of Göttingen]].{{sfn|Monro|1911|p=770}} Legend has it that he chose to enroll in the department of "[[philology]]", despite the fact that the university had none.  His enrollment was nonetheless accepted as submitted.{{Citation needed|date=December 2016}}  At the time [[Christian Gottlob Heyne]] was a member of the faculty. Heyne excluded Wolf from his lectures, and criticized Wolf's views on [[Homer]]. Wolf was undeterred and pursued his studies through the university's library.{{sfn|Monro|1911|pp=770–771}}

From 1779 to 1783, he taught at [[Ilfeld]] and [[Ostróda|Osterode]]. He published an edition of ''[[Symposium (Plato)|Plato's Symposium]]'', and in 1783, he was awarded a chair at the [[University of Halle]] in [[Prussia]].{{sfn|Monro|1911|p=771}}

It was in [[Halle, Saxony-Anhalt|Halle]] (1783–1807), with the support of ministers serving under [[Frederick the Great]], that Wolf first laid down the principles of the field he would call "Philology".<ref name="Klein2012">{{cite book|last=Thompson Klein|first=Julie |author-link=Julie Thompson Klein|title=Humanities, Culture, and Interdisciplinarity: The Changing American Academy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=75kyfNSw8u4C|access-date=21 December 2016|date=1 February 2012|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8267-4|page=27|chapter=1}}</ref>  He defined philology as the study of [[human nature]] as exhibited in antiquity.  Its methods include the examination of the history, writing, art and other examples of ancient cultures.  It combines the study of history and language, through interpretation, in which history and linguistics coalesce into an organic whole. This was the ideal of Wolf's philological ''seminarium'' at Halle.

During Wolf's time at Halle he published his [[Commentary (philology)|commentary]] on the ''[[Leptines]]'' of [[Demosthenes]] (1789), which influenced his student [[Philipp August Böckh]].{{sfn|Monro|1911|p=771}}  He also published the ''[[Prolegomena ad Homerum]]'' (1795), which led to accusations of plagiarism by Heyne.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Tate|first=Aaron Phillip|date=2010|title=Herder, Heyne, and F.A. Wolf: An Homeric Controversy and its Relevance Today|url=http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1608207|journal=SSRN Electronic Journal|language=en|doi=10.2139/ssrn.1608207|issn=1556-5068}}</ref>

[[File:Medaille Friedrich August Wolf 1840.png|thumb|Medal Friedrich August Wolf 1840]]

The Halle professorship ended after the [[Battle of Halle|French invasion of 1806]]. He relocated to [[Berlin]], where he received assistance from [[Wilhelm von Humboldt]]. Later he once more took a professorship, but he no longer taught with his old success, and he wrote very little. His most finished work, the ''Darstellung der Alterthumswissenschaft'', though published
at Berlin (1807), belongs essentially to the Halle time.{{sfn|Monro|1911|p=771}}

Taking medical advice, Wolf travelled to the south but died on the road to [[Marseille]], and was buried there. In 1840 a medal was struck in his honor.<ref>http://hdl.handle.net/10900/100742 S. Krmnicek und M. Gaidys, Gelehrtenbilder. Altertumswissenschaftler auf Medaillen des 19. Jahrhunderts. Begleitband zur [http://online-Ausstellung%20im%20Digitalen%20Münzkabinett%20des%20Instituts%20für%20Klassische%20Archäologie%20der%20Universität%20Tübingen online-Ausstellung im Digitalen Münzkabinett des Instituts für Klassische Archäologie der Universität Tübingen], in: S. Krmnicek (Hrsg.), Von Krösus bis zu König Wilhelm. Neue Serie Bd. 3 (Tübingen 2020), 69-71.</ref>

==See also==
* [[Hermeneutics]]<ref name="Hermen">Friedrich Schleiermacher, "Ueber<!--[sic]--> den Begriff der Hermeneutik mit Bezug auf F. A. Wolfs Andeutungen und Asts Lehrbuch", lecture delivered on 13 August 1829; published in ''Friedrich Schleiermachers sämtliche Werke'' III/3, 1838 (Schleiermacher makes reference to Ast's ''Grundlinien der Grammatik, Hermeneutik und Kritik'' (1808) and Wolf's ''Vorlesungen über die Enzyklopädie der Altertumswissenschaft'' (1831)); Richard E. Palmer, ''Hermeneutics'', Northwestern University Press, 1969, ch. 6.</ref>

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last = Markner |editor1-first = Reinhard |editor2-last = Veltri |editor2-first = Giuseppe |editor2-link = Giuseppe Veltri |year = 1999 |title = Friedrich August Wolf |language = de }}
* {{EB1911 |wstitle = Wolf, Friedrich August |volume=28 |pages=770–771 |first=David Binning |last=Monro |author-link=David Monro (scholar)}}
{{refend}}

==Further reading==
*Reinhard Markner, "[https://www.academia.edu/6000924/Friedrich_August_Wolf._Eine_Bibliographie Friedrich August Wolf. Eine Bibliographie]."

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolf, Friedrich August}}
[[Category:1759 births]]
[[Category:1824 deaths]]
[[Category:Corresponding members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]]
[[Category:German classical philologists]]
[[Category:German classical scholars]]
[[Category:German philologists]]
[[Category:Hellenists]]
[[Category:Hermeneutists]]
[[Category:Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:People from Südharz]]
[[Category:Philosophers of linguistics]]
[[Category:University of Göttingen alumni]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Halle]]
[[Category:Members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Geheimrat]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg]]
[[Category:German Freemasons]]
[[Category:18th-century German scholars]]