All Scholars

HERBIG, Gustav

  • Gustav Herbig
  • Date of Birth: June 3, 1868
  • Born City: Kaiserslautern
  • Born State/Country: Germany
  • Parents: Johann Heinrich, a merchant, & Johanna Gelbert H.
  • Date of Death: October 1, 1925
  • Death City: Munich
  • Death State/Country: Germany
  • Married: Emilie Scharzenbach, 1897
  • Education:

    Maximilianeum (Munich), 1888; State Lic. 1892; study at Leipzig, 1892-3; D.Phil. Munich, 1895; Phil. Habil., Munich, 1910.
  • Dissertation:

    "Aktionsart und Zeitstufe, Beiträge zur Funktionslehre des indogermanischen Verbums" (D. phil., Munich 1895); Tituli Faleriorum Veterum Linguis Falisca et Etrusca Conscripti. Edited by Gustav Herbig. Leipzig, Barth, 1910 (Phil. Habl., 1910, publ. Leipzig: Barth, 1910 ).
  • Professional Experience:

    Intern, assistant, secretary, Bavarian Library Service, Munich, 1893-9; Librarian, Court and State Library, 1899-1913; lectr., indo-European linguistics and Etruscology, Munich, 1910-13; ordinarius, Rostock, 1913-21; rector, 1919-20; ordinarius, Breslau 1921-2; Munich, 1922-5.
  • Publications:

    Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum, Vol. II, ed. with Olof August Danielsson with the assistance of Bartolomeo Nogara (Leipzig: Barth, 1893-1919); “Indogermanische Sprachwissenschaft und Etruskologie,” IF 26 (1909) 360-81; “Altitalische Verbalformen, IF 32 (1913) 71-87; “Falisca,” Glotta 2 (1909) 83-110, 181-200; “Epigraphik und Sprachwissenschaft, NeueJ 25 (1910) 571-9; “Die etrusk. Leinwandrolle d. Agramer Nat.-Mus., ABAW 25,4 (1911); Die etruskische leinwandrolle des Agramer national-museums (Munich: Verlag der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1911); Religion und Kultus der Etrusker (Breslau: M&N Marcus, 1912); “Neue etrusk. Funde aus Grotte S. Stefano u. Montagna,” IF  4 (1913) 165-87; 5 (1914) 253; “Asia Minor-Egyptian Name Equations” supplement to Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Philosophical-Historical Class 1914/II), Kleinasiatisch-etruskische Namengleichungen(Munich: J.Roth, 1914); “Eine oskische Altarinschrift in Lukanien,” Philologus 73 (1916) 449-61; “Zur Vorgesch. d. röm. pontifices,” Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung 47 (1916) 211-32; “Etruskisches Latein” IF 37 (1916) 163-87; “Satre-Saturnus,”  Philologus 74 (1918) 446-59; Corpus inscriptionum etruscarum Academiae litterarum regiae borussicae et Societatis litterarum regiae saxonicae munificentia adiutus in societatem operis adsumpto Olavo Augusto Danielsson edidit Carolus Pauli. Supplementum (Leipzig: Barth, 1919); Libri lintei Etrusci fragmenta Zagrabiensia (Leipzig: Barth, 1919-21); “Wege und Ziele der hethit. Sprachforschung,” IJ 8 (1922) 1-20; “Die Geheimsprache der disciplina Etrusca,” supplement to Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1923).
  • Notes:

    Gustav Herbig studied classical philology and Indo-European studies in Leipzig under three eminent linguists: Karl Brugmann (1849-1919), founder of the Neogrammarian School, the Germanist Eduard Sievers (1850-1932), and August Leskien (1840-1916).  He served as a librarian for 20 years while receiving his doctorate and finally making his habilitation. In 1913, he was named professor at Rostock. Eight years later he moved to Breslau and one year later to Munich, where he remained for the rest of his career. 

             Herbig is remembered chiefly for his contributions to the second volume of Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum(CIE). When the early Etruscologist Carl Pauli (1839–1901) died after completing only Volume One, Herbig and the Swedish Etruscologist Olof August Danielsson (1852-1933), with the encouragement of Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903), collaborated on volumes 2 and 3, with the assistance of Bartolomeo Nogara (1868-1954). Pauli had previously assigned Herbig the Instrumentum inscriptions. Herbig's aim was to use archaeology and epigraphy to enlarge the knowledge of linguistic development, particularly the contributions of Etruscan to Latin. He ultimately was able to define these contributions in his seminal article, “Etruscan Latin.” Among his important additions to the CIE were the Faliscan inscriptions (1910) and the Zagreb mummy wrappings (1919). Through epigraphic discoveries he was able conclusively to place the Etruscan settlement to the east. Toward the end of his relatively short career, he was branching out into Lydian and Hittite. His son, Reinhard Herbig (1898-1961), became an accomplished archaeologist. 
  • Sources:

    Autobiography:  Geistiges und Künstlerisches München in Selbstbiographien  (Munich: Kellerer, 1913) 162-565; 

    E. Berneker, Jahrbuch der Bayerisch Akademie der Wissenschaft (1925) 18-20; G. Deeters, Morgenland. 5 (1926) 189-200; O. A. Danielsson, Gnomon 2 (1926) 622-4; E. Fiesel, IJ 11 (1927) 573-86; M. Leumann, BBJ 48 (1928)1-10; bibliography 10-14; Gerhard Baader, NDB 8 (1969) 583-4.
  • Author: Ward Briggs