Family Name: Michaelis
First Name: Johann
Birth Date: Fri, Feb 26, 1717
Birth Place: Halle
Death Date: Sun, Aug 21, 1791
Death Place: Göttingen
Main places of activity:
Place From To
Halle 1728 1744
Place From To
Göttingen 1744 1790
Personal info:
Education

Son of a theologian and orientalist, Michaelis was at first educated privately and from 1729 he attended the school of the Orphanage in Halle.

After considering the study of medicine, from 1733 to 1739 he followed his father's path and was trained for academic life, studying theology and Oriental languages at the Halle's university.

In 1741-1742 Michaelis undertook a journey to England, where he stayed eighteen months to complete his studies. This period of time contributed to loosen the bonds of conservative Lutheranism he had experienced in Halle and to adopt a more latitudinarian and deist perspective on Biblical studies. The encounter with the Dutch philologist Albrecht Schultens in Leiden and the lectures of Robert Lowth in Oxford in particular had a strong impact on his formation as a linguist.
Career

From 1739 Michaelis was a lecturer in Halle, a position he held alongside preaching until 1745.

In 1745 he moved to Göttingen, where he continued to lecture in oriental languages. He was then appointed professor of philosophy from 1750 until the end of his life, becoming the most influential figure at the university together with his rival Christian Gottlieb Heyne.

Michaelis was also part of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities, first as secretary under Albert von Haller in 1751 and then as director from 1761 to 1770.
Translations Other Works

translations activities

Michaelis was one of the foremost German scholars of the Hebrew language, promoting a reading and translation of the Bible that went beyond a particular confessional doctrine and was rather based on historical and philological accuracy.

In one of his early works, Michaelis described languages as a ongoing collective project of communities, constantly modifying themselves. He criticised the French tradition of translation, which produced loose versions too far from the original texts. Michaelis advocated a faithful
literary translation, to avoid the dangers of "domesticating" the texts according to the target language. Michaelis accordingly looked to the English scholarly tradition, becoming a mediator of it for the German-speaking world, through the translation of George Benson and James Peirce.

He translated into German and Latin, from English, Arabic and Hebrew.

secondary bibliography references

C. Bultmann, 'Michaelis, Johann David', Neue Deutsche Biographie, vol. 17, Berlin, 1994, pp. 427-429.

A.-R. Löwenbrück, Judenfeindschaft im Zeitalter der Aufklärung. Eine Studie zur Vorgeschichte des modernen Antisemitismus am Beispiel des Göttinger Theologen un Orientalisten Johann David Michaelis (1717-1791), Frankfurt, Peter Lang, 1995.

M. C. Legaspi, The Death of Scripture and the Rise of Biblical Studies, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010, passim.

J. Shehan, The Enlightenment Bible: Translation, Scholarship, Culture, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 184-220.

D. Shantz, 'Pietism as a Translation Movement', in D. Shantz, ed., A Companion to German Pietism, 1660-1800, Leiden, Brill, 2014, pp. 319-347 (326-327).


Translations

  • Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady

  • Translation Title: Clarissa : die Geschichte eines vornehmen Frauenzimmers
  • Original Author: Samuel Richardson
  • Original title: Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady
  • Publ. Year From: 1747 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Clarissa : die Geschichte eines vornehmen Frauenzimmers
  • N° Editions: 2
  • Pub. Place: Göttingen
  • Pub. Date: 1747
  • Lang: German

  • A paraphrase, and notes on the Epistle to the Hebrews

  • Translation Title: Iacobi Peircii Paraphrasis et notae philologicae atqve exegeticae in epistolam ad Hebraeos
  • Original Author: James Peirce
  • Original title: A paraphrase, and notes on the Epistle to the Hebrews
  • Publ. Year From: 1733 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Iacobi Peircii Paraphrasis et notae philologicae atqve exegeticae in epistolam ad Hebraeos
  • Pub. Place: Halle
  • Pub. Date: 1746
  • Lang: Latin
  • Note:

    It is not clear whether Michaelis used this version of Peirce's work for the translation, or the identical one that had been issued as part of A paraphrase and notes on the Epistles of St. Paul to the Colossians, Philippians, and Hebrews (London, 1733)
      

  • A paraphrase and notes on the Epistle of St. James. Attempted in imitation of Mr. Locke’s manner. With a dissertation on James II.

  • Translation Title: Georgii Bensonii Paraphrasis Et Notae Philologicae Atque Exegeticae In Epistolam
  • Original Author: George Benson
  • Original title: A paraphrase and notes on the Epistle of St. James. Attempted in imitation of Mr. Locke’s manner. With a dissertation on James II.
  • Publ. Year From: 1737 to:
  • lang: English
  • Translation: Georgii Bensonii Paraphrasis Et Notae Philologicae Atque Exegeticae In Epistolam
  • N° Editions: 5
  • Pub. Place: Halle
  • Pub. Date: 1745
  • Lang: Latin

  • Description of Egypt

  • Translation Title: Abvlfedae descriptio Aegypti, Arabice et Latine
  • Original Author: Abū al-Fidāʼ Ismāʻīl ibn ʻAlī
  • Original title: Description of Egypt
  • lang: Arabic
  • Translation: Abvlfedae descriptio Aegypti, Arabice et Latine
  • N° Editions: 3
  • Pub. Place: Göttingen
  • Pub. Date: 1775
  • Lang: Latin
  • Note:

    This volumes, published for the first time from a manuscript version, contains both the original Arabic text and Michaelis' Latin translation.

    In his Preface, Michaelis explains how existing translations of the Kurdish medieval historian and geographer Abu Al-Fida helped him to complete his work. He refers in particular to the Huguenot refugee in England Jean Gagnier's partial translation of A Sketch of the Countries ( تقويم البلدان‎, commonly known as the Geography) and to his Orientalist colleague Johann Jacob Reiske's Abulfedae annales Moslemici (1754) (a Latin version of  المختصر في أخبار البشر - تاريخ أبى الفداءThe Concise History of Humanity of Chronicles)

    Moreover, we know from the Preface it was during the French occupation of Göttingen in the Seven Years' War that Michaelis obtained the Paris manuscript from which he edited Abu Al-Fida's description of Egypt, through the friendly relationship he cultivated with the army officers.

  • Bible

  • Translation Title: Joh. Dav. Michaelis deutsche Übersetzung des (Alten und Neuen) Testaments
  • Original Author: Anonymous
  • Original title: Bible
  • Translation: Joh. Dav. Michaelis deutsche Übersetzung des (Alten und Neuen) Testaments
  • Pub. Place: Göttingen
  • Pub. Date: 1768
  • Lang: German

  • Old Testament

  • Translation Title: Deutsche Übersetzung des Alten Testaments, mit Anmerkungen für Ungelehrte.
  • Original Author: Anonymous
  • Original title: Old Testament
  • Translation: Deutsche Übersetzung des Alten Testaments, mit Anmerkungen für Ungelehrte.
  • Pub. Place: Göttingen
  • Pub. Date: 1772
  • Lang: German
calamaio

By:

  • Giovanni Lista