All Scholars

GEEL, Jacob

  • Date of Birth: November 12, 1789
  • Born City: Amsterdam
  • Born State/Country: Holland
  • Date of Death: November 11, 1862
  • Death City: Leiden
  • Death State/Country: Holland
  • Professional Experience:

    Librarian, Leiden, 1823-33; University Librarian & honorary prof., 1833-62.
  • Publications:

    Theocriti carmina cum veteribus scholiis ad fidem optimarum editionum recensita (Amsterdam: de Hengst, 1820); Dio Chrysostom, Olympikos; Historia critica sophistarum: qui Socratis aetate Athenis floruerunt (Utrecht: Althier, 1823); Polybii Historiarum excerpta Vaticana (Leiden: Luchtmans, 1829); Scholia in Suetonii vitas Caesarum (Leiden: Luchtmans, 1828); Gesprek op den Drachenfels (Leiden, 1835); Laurence Sterne: Sentimenteele reis door Frankrijk en Italië (trans.) (Amsterdam: Nayler, 1837); Onderzoek en phantasie (Leiden: Van der Hoek, 1838; 9th pr., ed. Willem van den Berg and Piet Gerbrandy, 2012); Dionis Chrysostomi Olympikos, ē, Peri tēs prōtēs tou theou ennoias (Leiden: Luchtmans, 1840); Euripidis Phoenissae Phoenissae, cum commentario edidit Jacobus Geelius : Scholia antiqua in Euripidis tragoedias partim inedita partim editis (Leiden: Hazenberg, 1846); Catalogus librorum bibliothecae publicae Universitatis Lugduno Batavae annis 1814–1847 illatorum (1848); Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum qui inde ab anno 1741 bibliothecae Lugduno Batavae accesserunt (1852).
  • Notes:

    Before Jacob Geel was named librarian at Leiden, he had edited Theocritus (1820) and written the first scientific history of the Greek Sophists.   Once at Leiden, he edited the Phoenissae (1846) and regularly contriubtted to Rheinisches Museum and to the journal he helped found, Bibliotheca Critica Nova. He and  his Leidern colleague Janus Bake (1787-1864) were highly attractive and influential teachers who expanded the classics program at Leiden and produced a number of students who went on to successful careers as classicists. As a librarian, he compiled useful catalogues of the manuscripts in the Leiden library and as a translator he translated German and English works into Dutch, particularly Lawrence Sterne's Sentimental Journey.
  • Sources:

    A.G. Wientjes, De Jacobo Geelio philology classico  (Leiden: Van der Hoek, 1909); Sandys,3:280.
  • Author: Ward Briggs