Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13).
- Date:
- 1830-33
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 13). Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![BOUth, nearly parallel with the Rhine, and forming a continuation of the Jura moun- tains, which separate France from Swit- zerland. Beginning in the vicinity of Bel- fort, in the ancient Sundgau, they divide Alsace from Lorraine, and, bending to- wards the German provinces on the Rhine, they te/minate, towards the north-east, on the Rhine and the Moselle, under the name of Hundsri'ick (^. v.), and towards the north-west, in the grand duchy of Lux- emburg, under the name of the Ardennes. Alsace, situated on the German side of the Vosges, has been in the possession of France for a century ; yet the language is still German. The highest summits at- tain an elevation of nearly 4500 feet above the surface of the sea. They have a gen- tle declivity, and, on the eastern and southern sides, are often covered with vineyards. Great part of the Vosges mountains are covered with forests ; and they are rich in game, wild fowl, silver, copper, iron, lead, coal and antimony. They also contain excellent pasturage; and the inhabitants breed many cattle, and make large quantities of cheese, known under the name of Munster cheese. The 111, Lauter, Moselle, Meurthe, Saar and Saonne rise in this chain of moun- tains. Vosges ; a department in the eastern part of France. (See Department.) Voss, John Henry, was born in 1751, in Mecklenburg. Till his fourteenth year, he was educated in the small town of Penzlin. In 1766, he was placed at the school of New Brandenburg. He early devoted himself to the classical languages, and made verses. Being without funds to support him at the university, he ac- cepted the place of tutor in aprivate fami- ly, in order to obtain the necessary means. After having been occupied with instruct- ing five or six hours a day, he found rec- reation in Greek, music and poetry. In 1772, he went to Gcttingen, where he joined a society of young men, at the head of which were Boje and Burger, and which has since become important in the history of German literature. Voss studied theology, which, however, he soon gave u]), in order to devote himself entirely to philology. Heyne was one of his chief teachers ; but with him he quanelled. In 1778, he was appointed rector at Otten- dorf. In 1781, after the jjublication of several treatises, h<3 produced his Gennan Odyssey, a work which, whatever may be the opinion of some respecting it, has rendered this grand poem national with the Germans, and may be compared, in 3* this respect, with Schlegel's translation of Shakspeare. In 1782, the state of his health obliged him to go to Eutin. His disputes with Heyne continued. In 1793, appeared his translation of the Iliad, and that of the Odyssey, in a new form, in which, however, it did not please so much as before, being more simple. Besides many philological and antiquarian works, he published an idyl in the epic form, called lAiise, in 1795. It had previously appeared in 1783, but was now produced with improvements. It is much liked by many Germans: others consider it an un- fortunate attempt to give an epic charac- ter to the events of an ordinary life. In 1799, appeared his translation of the whole of Virgil into German. In 180J, he added a volume of pastoral poems to a new edi- tion of Luise, and, in 1802, four volumes of lyric poems, to which was added the Zeitmessimg Deutscher Sprache, a work of considerable importance. In 1802, his German Homer appeared anew, in an improved fomi. In 1802, he went to Je- na ; in 1805, to Heidelberg, in order to aid the new organization of the university. Here appeared, in 1806, his German Hor- ace, Hesiod, and Orpheus the Argonaut; in 1807, a new edition of Lmise, and of his Homer; in 1808, a German Theocritus, Bion and Moschus ; in 1810, Tibullus and Lygdamus, in German ; in 1811, the Lat- in text of the same, prepared from manu- scripts. In 1814, he published a much- improved edition of his German Homer. In 1821, appeared his translation of Aris- tophanes ; in 1824, a translation of Ara- tus. He also undertook to translate, with his sons Henry (died in 1822) and Abra- ham, the whole of Shakspeare, of which the three first volumes appeared in 1819. This translation cannot stand a compari- son with Schlegel's. In 1823, Voss came out, in opposition to Creuzer (q. v.), with his Antisymbolik (Stuttgart, 1823). The second volume was published by his son Abraham, from manuscript, in 1826. Al- most at the same time, he made an attack on Catholic mysticism, principally in con- sequence of his friend count Stolberg be- coming a Catholic. He died in 1826, in Heidelberg. (See Paulus's Lebens- und Todeskunden von J. H. Voss, 1826.) His translations are the best existing of classic authors, and have contributed much to the advancement of German liferature ; while Schlegel's translations of Shak- speare and other modern writers, and his treatises on romantic literature, have pre- vented the classical element from becom- ing excessive.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136828_0033.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
