Editing Karl Böttiger

{{Short description|German archaeologist (1760–1835)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2019}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Karl August Böttiger
| image              = Böttiger by Kügelgen.jpg
| alt                = Karl Böttiger
| caption            = Karl Böttiger. Painted by [[Gerhard von Kügelgen]], ca 1812, [[Tartu University Library]]
| birth_date         = {{Birth date|df=y|1760|06|08}}
| birth_place        = [[Reichenbach im Vogtland|Reichenbach]]
| death_date         = {{Death date|df=y|1835|11|17}} (aged 75)
| death_place        = [[Dresden]]
| nationality        = German
| occupation         = [[Archaeologist]] and [[Classics|Classicist]]
}}
'''Karl August Böttiger''' (8 June 1760 – 17 November 1835) was a German [[archaeologist]] and [[classics|classicist]], and a prominent member of the literary and artistic circles in [[Weimar]] and [[Jena]].<ref name="hcs">{{cite book  | last = Sandys  | first = John Edwin  | author-link = John Edwin Sandys  | title = A History of Classical Scholarship  | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]]  | year = 1908  | location = Cambridge  | pages = 70, 74  | isbn = 9780524034224 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PSdN05UllRMC  }}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:Karl August Böttiger.jpg|thumb|Karl Böttiger|upright]]  
Böttiger was born in [[Reichenbach im Vogtland|Reichenbach]], in the [[kingdom of Saxony]],<ref name=nie>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Böttiger, Karl August|year=1905}}</ref> and educated at [[Schulpforta]] and [[Leipzig]]. Under the influence of [[Johann Gottfried Herder]], he was for 13 years headmaster at the [[Gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] and [[consistory (Protestantism)|consistorial]] councillor<ref name=nie/> in Weimar, from 1790 to 1804.  For the remaining 31 years of his life, he resided at [[Dresden]] as director of the Museum of Antiquities, and was active as a journalist and public lecturer.  As a schoolmaster, he had published a considerable number of pedagogic and [[philology|philological]] programs.  In 1810, Böttiger with Swiss painter [[Heinrich Meyer]] released a [[monograph]] on the painting in the [[Apostolic Palace|Vatican]] known as the "[[Aldobrandini]] marriage".  His [[archaeology|archaeological]] works, mainly produced at Dresden, fall into three groups:

The first of these is private antiquities, best represented by his ''Sabina, or morning scenes in the dressing room of a wealthy Roman lady'' ({{langx|de|link=no|Sabina, oder Morgenszenen im Putzzimmer einer reichen Römerin}}; 1803, 2 vols.; 2nd edition, 1806), which was translated into French and served as a model for [[Wilhelm Adolf Becker]]'s ''Gallus'' and ''Charicles''.<ref>{{cite book  | last = Peck  | first = Harry Thurston  | author-link = Harry Thurston Peck  | title = A History of Classical Philology from the Seventh Century, B.C. to the Twelfth Century, A.D.  | publisher = [[Macmillan Publishers|Macmillan & Co.]]  | year = 1911  | location = New York  | pages = 428  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=tyMSAAAAIAAJ  }}</ref> The second, the [[Theatre of ancient Greece|Greek theatre]], which Böttiger had been interested in since his time as a drama critic in Weimar; his unfavorable review of [[August Wilhelm Schlegel]]'s ''Ion'' was withdrawn at the request of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]].  It was mainly as a schoolmaster in Weimar that he wrote his papers on the distribution of the parts, on the masks and dresses, and on the machinery of the ancient stage, as well as a dissertation on the masks of the [[Furies]] in 1801.  Thirdly, he worked in the domain of ancient art and [[mythology]]; his work in this area was popular but, according to some 20th-century critics, superficial.<ref name="hcs"/>

His accomplishments in Dresden led him to be noticed by the court of the [[Kingdom of Saxony]], and he was the Aulic councilor of the [[List of rulers of Saxony#Kings of Saxony|kings of Saxony]].<ref>{{cite book  | last = Strang  | first = John  | title = Germany in MDCCCXXXI  | publisher = John Macrone  | year = 1831  | location = London  | pages = 107–108  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ZFsBAAAAYAAJ  }}</ref> Böttiger supplied the descriptive letter-press to the 1797 German edition of [[Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein|Tischbein]]'s reproductions from [[William Hamilton (diplomat)|William Hamilton]]'s second collection of [[Pottery of ancient Greece|Greek vases]], and thus introduced the study of Greek vase-painting into Germany.  He published lectures on the history of ancient sculpture in 1806, and painting in 1811, and edited the three volumes of an archaeological periodical called ''Amalthea'' from 1820 to 1825, which included contributions from the most eminent classical archaeologists of the day.<ref name="hcs"/>

[[File:Medaille Karl August Böttiger 1830.png|thumb|Medal Karl August Böttiger 1830]]
[[File:Medaille Karl August Böttiger 1835.png|thumb|Medal Karl August Böttiger 1835]]

In 1832 Böttiger was elected a member of the [[French Institute]].<ref name=nie/> He died in Dresden.<ref name=ac/> His pupil, who edited many of Böttiger's works after his death, was the German [[classics|classicist]] [[Karl Julius Sillig]]. There are two medals that were commissioned for him. One on the occasion of his 70th birthday in 1830 and the other after he died.<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), 42-46.</ref>

His son, Karl Wilhelm Böttiger (15 August 1790 – 26 November 1862; not to be confused with the Swedish writer [[Carl Wilhelm Böttiger]]), was a historian and biographer of his father.  He wrote ''Karl August Böttiger. Eine biographische Skizze'', a biographical sketch (Leipzig, 1837). From his father's papers, he edited the posthumous work ''Litterarische Zustände und Zeitgenossen'' (Literary circumstances and contemporaries, 2 vols., Leipzig, 1838).<ref name=nie/><ref name=ac>{{AmCyc|wstitle=Böttiger, Karl August|inline=1}}</ref> Karl Wilhelm Böttiger contributed the history of [[Kingdom of Saxony|Saxony]] to Heeren and Ukert's ''Europäische Staatengeschichte'', and his ''Allgemeine Geschichte für Schule und Haus'' (Universal history for school and home) and ''Deutsche Geschichte für Schule und Haus'' (German history for school and home) passed through many editions. From 1821 until his death he was professor of history in [[University of Erlangen|Erlangen]].<ref name=ac/>

==Works==
* ''Griechische Vasengemälde'' (1797–1800)
* ''Ideen zur Archäologie der Malerei'', i. (1811)
* ''Kunstmythologie'' (1811)
* ''Vorlesungen und Aufsätze zur Alterthumskunde'' (1817)
* ''Amalthea'' (1821–1825)
* ''Ideen zur Kunstmythologie'' (1826–1836)
* ''Opuscula et Carmine Latino'' (1837)
* ''Kleine Schriften'', includes a complete 56-page list of his works (1837–1838)

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Böttiger, Karl August|volume=4|page=309}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bottiger, Karl}}
[[Category:1760 births]]
[[Category:1835 deaths]]
[[Category:Archaeologists from Dresden]]
[[Category:Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres]]
[[Category:People from Reichenbach im Vogtland]]
[[Category:Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities]]
[[Category:18th-century German scholars]]