August Immanuel Bekker

August Immanuel Bekker (21 May 1785 – 7 June 1871) was a German philologist and critic.

August Immanuel Bekker
Born	August Immanuel Bekker (1785-05-21)21 May 1785
Died	7 June 1871(1871-06-07) (aged 86)
Education	University of Halle

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. ^[1]

Some of the fruits of his researches were published in the Anecdota Graeca (3 vols, 1814–1821),^[2] 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.^[3] The only Latin authors edited by him were Livy (1829–1830) and Tacitus (1831).^[1]

Bekker confined himself entirely to manuscript investigations and textual criticism; he contributed little to the extension of other types of scholarship.^[1] 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.^[4] 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

1. Chisholm 1911, p. 661.
2. 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.
3. Bekker oversaw the series from 1831, following 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 Reinsch, Dieter Roderich (2010). "Editing Byzantine historiographical texts". In Robinson, Paul (ed.). The Byzantine World. London – New York: Routledge. p. 441. ISBN 978-0-415-44010-3.
4. "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 30 May 2011.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bekker, August Immanuel". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 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

• Media related to August Immanuel Bekker at Wikimedia Commons
• Guide to the Immanuel Bekker Papers 1806–1853 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center