All Scholars

GARDTHAUSEN, Victor

  • Victor Gardthausen
  • Date of Birth: August 26, 1843
  • Born City: Copenhagen
  • Born State/Country: Denmark
  • Parents: Hans, postmaster in Neumünster, Holstein, Germany, & Sophie Rehwald G.
  • Date of Death: December 27, 1912
  • Death City: Leipzig
  • Death State/Country: Germany
  • Education:

    Study at School of Altona (Hamburg); Bonn, Ph.D., Kiel, 1969; study in Italy and Greece; habil., Leipzig, 1873.
  • Dissertation:

    "Coniectanea Ammianea codice adhibito Vaticano" (Ph.D., Kiel, 1968); "Die geographischen Quellen Ammians" (Habil., Leipzig, 1873).
  • Professional Experience:

    Private docent, Leipzig; curator, Leipziger Stadtsbibliothek, 1873-5;  curator of library, Leipzig, 1875-87; librarian 1887-1901; chief librarian 1901-7; prof. extraordinarius (ancient history & palaeography), 1877-91; dir. Seminar for Ancient History, 1891-1920; hon. prof. ancient history, 1920.
  • Publications:

    Ammianus Marcellinus. Rerum gestarum libri qui supersunt 2 vols. (Leipzig; Teubner, 1874-5; repr. 1967); Griechische Paläographie, 2 vols. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1879; rev. ed. Leipzig: Veit, 1911-13); Mastara oder Servius Tullius: Mit einer Einleitung über die Ausdehnung des Etruskerreiches (Leipzig: Veit, 1882); Zu Geschichte des griechischen Alphabets (1885) Catalogus codicum graecorum sinaiticorum (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886); Augustus und seine Zeit, 3 vols. (Leipzig: Teubner, 1891, rev. 1904; bibliographical supplements, 1918-19; repr. 1964); Kataloge der griechischen handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek zu Leipzig (Leipzig: Harrasowitz, 1898); Sammlungen und Kataloge griechischer Handschriften Byzantinischer Archiv 3 (Leipzig: Teubner,  1903); Geschichte der griechischen Tachygraphie(???, 1906); Der Altar des Kaiserfriedens. Ara Pacis Augustae (Leipzig: Veit, 1908); Die griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalter und der Renaissance, with Marie Vogel, (Leipzig: Harrasowitz, 1909; repr. Hildesheim: Olms, 1966); Amtliche Zitate in römischen Urkunden (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1910); Bewegliche Typen un Plattendruck zur Vorgeschichte der Buchdruckerkunst (n.p.: n.pub., 1911) Die Schrift, Unterschriften und Chronologie im Altertum und im Byzantinischen Mittelalter (Leipzig: Veit, 1913); Wiedergefundene Originale historischer Inschriften (Leipzig: Teubner, 1914); Di emu der ägyptischen Notare: Ein Beitrag zur Urkundenlehre (Leipzig: Haessel, 1917); Studien zur Palaeographie und Papyruskunde, XII with Carl Wessely & Victor Martin (Leipzig: Haessel, 1917); Studien zu Ammianus Marcellinus: Der Stammbaum der Ammianus-Handschriften (n.p, n.pub., 1917); Die griechischen Handzeichen Handbuch der wissenschaftlichen Bibliothekskunde (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1920); Die Alexandrinische Bibliothek, ihr Vorbild, Katalog und Beitrieb (Leipzig: Deutsches Museum für Buch und Schrift, 1922); Das alte Monogramm (Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1924).
  • Notes:

    Friedrich Heinrich Victor Emil Gardthausen was born to a Holstein family with German allegiances five years before the First Holstein War (1848-51). His early interest in history took him first to Kiel, where he worked under Alfred von Gutschmid (1835-87) and then to Bonn and its ancient historians Arnold Schaefer (1819-83) and Heinrich Nissen (1839-1912). Following service in the Franco-Prussian War, he returned to Kiel where his dissertation on the text of Ammianus Marcellinus and his habilitation in Leipzig on the geography of Ammianus (aided by his study of sites in Italy and Greece) led to a two-volume edition of that author in the next year. His next major publication was Augustus und seine Zeit in 1891 in which he argued strenuously that Augustus had no intention of returning to a republican form of government. His interest in Augustus continued with his study of the monumentum Ancyranum and its insights into governance under the emperor.

    Gardthausen is best known today for his work as a palaeographer, in which role he published a handbook on Greek palaeography, which immediately became the definitive work and remained so well into the 20th century. His catalogues of Greek manuscripts both ancient and through to the Renaissance that are still of value. The enduring usefulness of all of his major works is demonstrated by their republication as late as the 1960s. 
  • Sources:

    Autobiography: Die Geshichtswissenschaft der Gegenwart in Selbstdarstellungen, ed. Sigfrid Steinberg (Leipzig: Meiner, 1926) 85-109; sel. bibl. 109-10;

    A. Schramm, Zeitschrift des Deutschen vereins für Buchwesen und Schriftum (1925) 41-7; T.W.A., “Gardthausen’s Greek Manuscripts,” CR 18 (1904) 177; G. Baader, NDB 6 (1964) 71-2; A. Heisenberg, ByzZ 26 (1926) 251; Christian Wendt, Brill, 223.
  • Author: Ward Briggs