Gottfried Bernhardy

Who was Gottfried Bernhardy?

Gottfried Bernhardy, German philologist and literary historian, was born at Landsberg an der Warthe in the Neumark.

He was the son of Jewish parents in reduced circumstances. Two well-to-do uncles provided the means for his education, and in 1811 he entered the Joachimsthal gymnasium at Berlin. In 1817 he went to Berlin University to study philology, where he had the advantage of hearing F.A. Wolf, August Böckh and P. Buttmann. In 1822 he took the degree of doctor of philosophy at Berlin, and in 1825 became extraordinary professor. In 1829 he succeeded Christian Carl Reisig as ordinary professor and director of the philological seminary at Halle, and in 1844 was appointed chief librarian of the university.

The most important of Bernhardy's works were his histories of Greek and Roman literature:

Grundriss der römischen Litteratur

Grundriss der griechischen Litteratur:

Pt. i, Introduction and General View, 1836

Pt. ii, Greek Poetry, 1845

pt. iii, Greek Prose Literature, was never published.

A fifth edition of pts. i. and ii., by R. Volkmann, began in 1892. Other works by Bernhardy are:

Eratosthenica