Family Name: Heyne
First Name: Christian
Birth Date: Sat, Sep 24, 1729
Birth Place: Chemnitz
Death Date: Mon, Jul 13, 1812
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Leipzig 1747 1752
Place From To
Dresden 1752 1759
Place From To
Göttingen 1762 1811
Personal info:
Education

Heyne was born in a poor family, and his education was entirely paid by his godfather. He attended the Latin school in Chemnitz before moving to Leipzig in 1748 to study at the university.

Heyne attended the philology lectures by Johann August Ernesti and Johann Friedrich Christ and the law lectures by Johann August Bach. Christ in particular encouraged him to learn Latin and Greek by lending Heyne his books and introduced him to archeology.

In 1752 Heyne received his Master's degree.
Career

Heyne struggled financially during his studies and had to work as a tutor for the family of a French merchant.

In 1752 he was summoned to Dresden by the statesman Heirich Graf, count von Brühl because of an elegy he had composed, and in November 1753 he was appointed copyist in Brühl's private library. He started supplementing his salary with his first translations, borrowing copies of classical literature from Brühl and using them as sources.

The 1760 bombardment of Dresden destroyed all of Heyne's possessions, and he had to accept the position of land-stewart in Lusatia in the service of Baron von Löben.

In 1763, Heyne was called by Göttingen University and appointed professor of poetry and eloquence. He then became director of the University Library, contributing to enlarge its collection through several international acquisitions and the revolutionary introduction of the alphabetical nominal catalogue (1777-1787). Under Heyne's guidance, the university library became one of the leading European academic centres of the Enlightenment period.

While secretary of the prestigious Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen from 1770, in 1789 Heyne was also nominated Fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1802 he became a foreign associate of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.
Financial Situation

As a copyist, Heyne earned the sum of one hundred thalers a year.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Heyne worked as a translator mainly at the beginning of his career, to supplement his salary and better his knowledge of Latin and Greek.




secondary bibliography references

U. Schindel, 'Heyne, Christian Gottlob', Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 9, 1972, pp. 93-95.

M. Heidenreich, Christian Gottlob Heyne und die Alte Geschichte, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 2012.

B. Bäbler and H.-G. Nesselrath, eds., Christian Gottlob Heyne: Werk und Leistung nach zweihundert Jahren, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 2014.

Translations

  • Callirhoe

  • Translation Title: Charitons Liebesgeschichte des Chäreas und der Callirrhoe
  • Original Author: Chariton of Aphrodisias
  • Original title: Callirhoe
  • lang: Greek
  • Title: ΧΑΡΙΤΩΝΟΣ Αφροδισιέως τῶν περὶ ΧΑΙΡΕΑΝ καὶ ΚΑΛΛΙΡΡΟΗΝ ΕΡΩΤΙΚΩΝ ΔΙΗΓΗΜΑΤΩΝ ΛΟΓΟΙ Η
  • Pub. Place: Amsterdam
  • Pub. Year: 1749
  • Lang: Greek and Latin
  • Translation: Charitons Liebesgeschichte des Chäreas und der Callirrhoe
  • Pub. Place: Leipzig
  • Pub. Date: 1752
  • Lang: German
  • Note:

    Heyne translated from the Greek version that published alongside a Latin translation in 1750.

  • De vita Mosis

  • Translation Title: Philo vom Lebe Moses, das ist: von der Gottesgelahreit und dem prophetische Geiste
  • Original Author: Philo of Alexandria
  • Original title: De vita Mosis
  • lang: Latin
  • Translation: Philo vom Lebe Moses, das ist: von der Gottesgelahreit und dem prophetische Geiste
  • N° Editions: 2
  • Pub. Place: Dresden?
  • Pub. Date: 1754
  • Lang: German
  • Note:

    What original Heyne used for this translation is unclear. A second edition was printed in Dresden in 1778.

  • Esprit de Sully: ou, Extrait de tout ce qui se trouve dans le Memoires de Bethune, duc de Sully

  • Translation Title: Esprit de Sully, Oder: Auszug aus den Nachrichten des Herzogs von Sully, vornehmsten Ministers Heinrichs des Grossen
  • Original Author: Maximilien de Béthune Sully
  • Original title: Esprit de Sully: ou, Extrait de tout ce qui se trouve dans le Memoires de Bethune, duc de Sully
  • Publ. Year From: 1767 to:
  • lang: French
  • Translation: Esprit de Sully, Oder: Auszug aus den Nachrichten des Herzogs von Sully, vornehmsten Ministers Heinrichs des Grossen
  • N° Editions: 1
  • Pub. Place: Warsaw and Dresden
  • Pub. Date: 1768
  • Lang: German

  • A General History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Time

  • Translation Title: Allgemeine Weltgeschichte von der Schöpfung an bis auf gegenwärtige Zeit
  • Original Author: William Guthrie and John Gray
  • Original title: A General History of the World, from the Creation to the Present Time
  • Publ. Year From: 1763 to: 1766
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Allgemeine Weltgeschichte von der Schöpfung an bis auf gegenwärtige Zeit
  • Pub. Place: Leipzig
  • Pub. Date: 1764
  • Lang: German
  • Note:

    Heyne translated the first four parts out of seventeen in total, that is the first seven volumes.

calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista