All Scholars

HARLES, Adolf Gottlieb Christoph

  • Date of Birth: June 21, 1738
  • Born City: Culmbach
  • Born State/Country: Germany
  • Parents: Johann Georg & Anna Cunigunda Schniegel H.
  • Date of Death: November 2, 1815
  • Death City: Erlangen
  • Death State/Country: Germany
  • Married: Katharina Isabella Kiessling
  • Education:

    Erlangen, 1757-9; Halle, 1759-60; Jena, 1760.
  • Professional Experience:

    Extraordinarius, Göttingen, 1765; teacher oriental langs. & rhetoric, Casimirianum Gymnasium, Coburg, 1765-9; prof. poetry and eloquence & Margravial Court Councilor, Erlangen, 1770-1815; university librarian, 1776-1815. 
  • Publications:

    De praeconum apud Graecos officiis diatribe (Jena: Schillian, 1760); Gedanken von dem Zustand der Schulen und ihren Verbesserungen (n.p., 1761) De fato Homeri  (Göttingen: Rosenbusch, 1762); Introductio in historiam linguae latinae(Bremen: Foerster, 1764) De vitis philologorum nostra aetate clarissimorum, 4 vols. (Bremen: Foerster, 1764-72); De pedantismo philologico (Coburg: Findeis, 1765); Gesammelte Nachrichten von dem Leben und den Stiftungen des ehemaligen hiesigen Kanzlers (Coburhg: Findeisen, 1766); De galantismo aesthetico et philologico (Coburg: Findeis, 1768); De vitis philologorum nostra aetate clarissimorum itae philologorum, 4 vols. (Bremen: Foerster, 1764-72); Gedanken von den Real-Schulen (n.p., 1761); Chrestomathia graeca poetica (Coburg: Findeisenian, 1768) Christophori Cellari orthographia Latina 2 vols. (Altenburg: Richter, 1768) Demosthenis oratio de Corona (Altenburg: Richter, 1769);Publii Ouidii Nasonis Tristium libri V ; Ex Ponto libri IIII (Erlangen: Walther, 1772); M. Fabii Quintiliani institutionum oratoriarum, libri duodecim, ad usum scholarum accommodate, 2 vols. (Altenburg: Richter, 1773, 1882); Introductio in historiam linguae latinae (Bremen: Foerster, 1773); Cornelii Nepotis Vitae excellentivm imperatorvm (Erlangen: Walther, 1774); Anthologia Latina poetica (Altenburg: Richter, 1774); Anthologia Graeca poetica (Nuremberg: Felsecker, 1775, 1792); M.T. Ciceronis ad Qvintvm fratrem dialogi tres De oratore. Animaduersiones interpretum excerpsit suasque adiecit(Nuremberg: Felsecker, 1776); Aristophanis comoedia Plutus (Nuremberg: Felsecker, 1776); Caii Crispi Sallustii Bellum Catilinarum atque Iugurthinum (Nuremberg: Felsecker, 1778, 1792); Theocriti Reliquiae Graecae et Latinae (Leipzig: Weidmann et Reich, 1780); Aristotelis De poetica liber: Graece et Latine (Leipzig: Crusius, 1780); Anthologia graeca prosaica ( (1781); C. Valerii Flacci Setini Balbi Argonavticon libri octo cvm notis Petri Bvrmanni I. integris et selectis Lvovici Carrionis, aegidii Maserii, Lavrentii Balbi ... (Altenburg: Richter, 1781); M. Tulli Ciceronis Orationes Verrinae  (Erlangen: Palme, 1784); Himerii sophistae Oratio qua laudes urbis Constantinopoleos et Iuliani Augusti celebrantur e recensione et cum commenario Gottlieb Wernsdorfii (Erlangen: Walther, 1785; Itinerarivm; sive, De reditu qvae supersvnt. Recensvit, varietatem lectionis et Gottlieb cortii notarvm in Rvtilivm (Erlangen: Palmius, 1786); Aristophanis comoedia Nubes graece et latine (Leipzig: Weidmann, 1788); J.A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Graeca 12 vols. (Hamburg 1790-1809); Introductio in notitiam litteraturae romanae inprimis scriptorium latinorum (Leipzig: Barth, 1794).
  • Notes:

    Gottlieb Harles (later Harleß) began his studies in theology at the Margravial University of Erlangen but soon switched to classics and moved to Halle, where the teaching precepts of the theologian Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen (1670-1739) and his successor Gotthilf August Francke (1696-1769) were in use. He moved to Jena in 1760 where he developed a friendship with the philologist and polemicist Christian A. Klotz (1738-71), who stressed to him the need for educational reform and the need to appreciate and explicate the beauty of literary works. In 1762 he joined the Philological Seminar at Göttingen, but while it was under the temporary aegis of the biblical scholar Johann David Michaelis (1717-91), Harles returned to Erlangen to complete his licensing and to contribute to the local newspaper. There he founded a philological seminar which produced many teachers for the area. When he became extraordinarius in Göttingen in 1765, he did not forsake his engagement with secondary education and in fact left quickly for a position in the Coburg Gymnasium. In his four years there he published works on new teaching methodology in line with Klotz’s views. Summoned back to Erlangen by the Margrave, Harles assumed a professorship that he would keep for the rest of his life. He was extremely productive for his entire career, sometimes publishing editions of nearly every Greek and Latin author read in classrooms (A selected bibliography follows.). Sometimes he even produced two editions in one year, but most were expressly built on editions by others. Harles was a mediocre text critic without a feel for literary value; his service to the field consisted in revising or enlarging obscure or long-forgotten editions of previous scholars.  His student G.W.A. Fikenscher listed 277 publications through 1801, the most notable and enduring was his edition of J.A. Fabricius’s bibliographical and historical work, Bibliotheca Graeca in 12 volumes (vols. 13 & 14 were withheld by the printer). This publication and his continuing efforts to read classical authors in schools were his chief contributions.
  • Sources:

    G.W.A. Fikenscher, Lexikon Gelehrtes Fürstenthum Baireuth (Erlangen & Nuremburg, 1801-4) 3:269-91; Johann Christian Friedrich Harless, Vita…Gottlieb Christophori Harless…descripta a filio natu maximo (Erlangen: Hilpert, 1817); Iwan von Müller, ADB 10 (1879) 603-4; O. Stählin, Das Seminar für Klassische Philologie au der Universität Erlangen (Erlangen: Palm & Enke, 1928) 6-12.
  • Author: Ward Briggs