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 8).
- 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 8). 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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![De Inventoribus Rerum, which first ap- peared in print in 1499. The true father of literary history is the famous Conrad Gesner, whose Bibliotheca Universalis contains stores of knowledge not yet ex- hausted. In his 25th year, he began to execute his grand plan of a general work on literature, and, in three years, his ma- terials were so far prepared, that they could be arranged for printing. Accord- ing to his plan, the work was to be divided into three parts—an alphabetical dictiona- ry of authors, a general systematic view of literature, Which even cites single dis- sertations and passages, and an alphabeti- cal index of matters and subjects treated. (See Ebert's Bibliog. Lex., article Gesner.) The first edition of the first division ap- peared in 1545.* Peter Lambeck gave in- struction in literary history at the gymna- sium of Hamburg, in 1656, on the plan of Gesner and Virgil, and published, in 1659, outlines, as a text-book for his lec- tures, the title of which is Prodromus Histories. Literaria. Daniel George Mor- hof 's Polyhistor Literarius, Philosophicus et Practicus, the first edition of which appeared in 1688, contributed to promote the study of literary history. Since the beginning of the eighteenth century, lite- rary history has been a favorite study of the learned, and has been taught in the * Lord Bacon, in his Advancement of Learning (De Aug. Set. ii. 5), seems to have been the first (1605) to have traced out the objects and extent of a general literary history (Historia Literarum, Historia Literaria). History, says he, is natural, civil, ecclesiastical and literary; where- of the first I allow to be extant, the fourth I note as deficient. For no man hath propounded to himself the general state of learning to be de- scribed and represented from age to age, as many have done the works of nature, and the state civil and ecclesiastical, without which the history of the world seemeth to me to be as the statue of Polyphemus with his eye out, that part being wanting which doth show the spirit and life of the person : and yet I am not ignorant that in divers particular sciences, as of the jurisconsults, the mathematicians, the rhetoricians, the philoso- phers, there are set down some small memorials of the schools, authors and books; and so like- wise some barren relations touching the invention of arts or usages. But a just story of learning, containing the antiquities and originals of knowl- edges, and their sects, their inventions, their tra- ditions, their divers administrations and man- agings, their flourishings, their oppositions, decays, depressions, oblivions, removes, with the causes and occasions of them, and all other events con- cerning learning, throughout the ages of the world, I may truly affirm to be wanting. The use and end of which work I do not so much de- sign for curiosity or satisfaction of those that are lovers of learning, but chiefly for a more serious and grave purpose, which is, that it will make learned men wise in the use and administration of learning. vol. viii. 2 universities, and in higher schools, at least in Germany. To these lectures we owe several Introductions, General Views, and Systems of literary history. We mention, in chronological succession, Burkhard Gotthelf Struvius, professor at Jena ; Matthew Lobetanz, professor at Greifs- wald ; N. H. Gundling, professor in Halle ; Gottlieb Stoll, professor in Jena; G. G. Zeltner, professor in Altorf; C. C. Neu- feld, professor in Konigsberg; F. G. Bier- ling, professor in Rinteln; and others. Reimmann must also be mentioned on ac- count of his Introduction to Historia ]A.t- eraria (1708), and his Idea Systematis An- tiquitatis Literaria. Still more important was Chr. Aug. Heumann's Conspectus Republican Literaria, a work much superior to any that had preceded it, in arrange- ment, acute criticism and richness of ma- terials. John Andrew Fabricius's Sketch of a General History of Literature (1/52) is a comprehensive work, and unites the synthetic and analytic method. A. Y. Goguet was the first to introduce a more philosophical treatment of literary history ; and the Italian Denina rivals him in brilliancy of manner, without equalling- him in thoroughness and originality of views or in judgment. It began to be more and more clearly felt, that literary history, though an independent branch of history, would remain a mere list of names, titles, and dates, if it were not treated with constant reference to the state of religion, politics, morals, and the arts. Attempts have been made to treat it as a part of the general history of civili- zation by Iselin, Ferguson, Home, and particularly by Herder. In recent times, the Germans have taken the lead in this science, both in extent of knowledge and comprehensiveness of views. J. G. Eich- horn's and L. Wachler's work is of high value, as are also those of S. G. Wald, J. G. Meusel and Fr. Schlegel. It would exceed our limits were we to mention here the different productions upon the literary history of single nations and par- ticular periods. A work on an extensive plan, though not of a general nature, is the great enterprise of the literary society of Gottingen—History of Arts and Sci- ences in Europe, since the Restoration of the same, until the End of the Eighteenth Century. — Literary history is naturally divided into ancient, middle and modern. The ancient terminates with the retire- ment of science into the convents, in the sixth century; the middle begins with the downfall of the great Roman empire (about 500 A. D.) and the commencement](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21136774_0019.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
