Döderlein

, a great classical scholar and teacher, was born at Jena, December 19th, 1791. He began his higher studies at Pforta when sixteen years of age, continuing them under Thiersch at Munich, under Kreuzer and Voss at Heidelberg, and under Boeckh, Buttmann, and Wolf at Berlin. He reached the doctorate at Erlangen in 1813, and in 1815 was called to the chair of philosophy at Bern, transferring himself in 1819 to Erlangen, with the titles of Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Philological Seminary in the University, and Rector of the Gymnasium. At Erlangen he remained until his death, November 9th, 1863. His publications comprise editions of Tacitus (Halle, 1847); Horace (Epistles, Leipzig, 1856-58; Satires, 1860); and the Iliad (Leipzig, 1863-64); besides the following works, some of them of enduring value: Latein. Synonyme und Etymologien, 6 vols. (Leipzig, 1826-38); Lat. Wortbildung (Leipzig, 1838); Handbuch d. lat. Synonymik (Leipzig, 1839- 49); Handbuch d. lat. Etymologie (Leipzig, 1841); Reden und Aussätze (Frankfort, 1860); Homerisches Glossarium, 3 vols. (Erlangen, 1850-58); and a German Anthology—Deutsche Mustersammlung (1840).

Döderlein was fully as remarkable as a teacher as for his scholarship, and appears to have made upon his hearers a profound and ineffaceable impression. To great acuteness and unfailing tact he added an enthusiasm, energy, and vigour that carried at once himself and his hearers away. Thoroughly imbued with the very genius of antiquity, the great masters of classical literature were to him not subjects of study but, as he himself called them, “intimate and cherished friends,” and into all who listened to him he inspired much of his own passionate zeal. An untiring worker, rising every morning soon after midnight to pursue his researches, he left behind him both in his works and in the memories of his pupils the figure of a great and impressive personality.