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GROTEFEND, GEORG FRIEDRICH (1775-1853)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 621 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GROTEFEND, GEORG See also:FRIEDRICH (1775-1853) , See also:German epigraphist, was See also:born at See also:Munden in See also:Hanover on the 9th of See also:June 1775. He was educated partly in his native See also:town, partly at See also:Ilfeld, where he remained till 1795, when he entered the university of See also:Gottingen, and there became the friend of See also:Heyne, Tychsen and See also:Heeren. Heyne's recommendation procured for him an assistant mastership in the Gottingen gymnasium in 1797. While there he published his See also:work De pasigraphia sive scriptura universali (1799), which led to his See also:appointment in 1803 as prorector of the gymnasium of See also:Frankfort-on-See also:Main, and shortly afterwards as conrector. Grotefend was best known during his lifetime as a Latin and See also:Italian philologist, though the See also:attention he paid to his own See also:language is shown by his Anfangsgrunde der deutschen Poesie, published in 1815, and his See also:foundation of a society for investigating the German See also:tongue in 1817. In 1821 he became director of the gymnasium at Hanover, a See also:post which he retained till his retirement in 1849. In 1823–1824 appeared his revised edition of Wenck's Latin See also:grammar, in two volumes, followed by a smaller grammar for the use of See also:schools in 1826; in 1835–1838 a systematic See also:attempt to explain the fragmentary remains of the Umbrian See also:dialect, entitled Rudimenta linguae Umbricae ex inscriptionibus antiquis enodata (in eight parts); and in 1839 a work of similar See also:character upon Oscan (Rudimenta linguae Oscae). In the same See also:year he published an important memoir on the coins of See also:Bactria, under the name of See also:Die Munzen der griechischen, parthischen, and indoskythischen K6nige von Bactrien and den Ldndern am See also:Indus. He soon, however, returned to his favourite subject, and brought out a work in five parts, Zur Geographic and Geschichte vonAltitalien (184o–1842.). Previously, in 1836, he had written a See also:preface to Wagenfeld's See also:translation of the See also:spurious Sanchoniathon of See also:Philo Byblius, which was alleged to have been discovered in the preceding year in the Portuguese See also:convent of See also:Santa Maria de Merinhao. But it was in the See also:East rather than in the See also:West that Grotefend did his greatest work. The See also:cuneiform See also:inscriptions of See also:Persia had for some See also:time been attracting attention in See also:Europe; exact copies of them had been published by the See also:elder See also:Niebuhr, who lost his eyesight over the work; and Grotefend's friend, Tychsen of See also:Rostock, believed t See also:hat he had ascertained the characters in the See also:column, now known to be See also:Persian, to be alphabetic.

At this point Grotefend took the See also:

matter up. His first See also:discovery was communicated to the Royal Society of Gottingen in 1800, and reviewed by Tychsen two years afterwards. In 1815 he gave an See also:account of it in Heeren's See also:great work on See also:ancient See also:history, and in 1837 published his Neue Beitrage zur Erlduterung der persepolitanischen Keilschrift. Three years later appeared his Neue Beitrage zur Erlduterung der babylonischen Keisschrift. His discovery may be summed up as follows: (1) that the Persian inscriptions contain three different forms of cuneiform See also:writing, so that the decipherment of the one would give the See also:key to the decipherment of the others; (2) that the characters of the Persian column are alphabetic and not syllabic; (3) that they must be read from See also:left to right; (4) that the See also:alphabet consists of See also:forty letters, including signs for See also:long and See also:short vowels; and (5) that the Persepolitan inscriptions are written in Zend (which, however, is not the See also:case), and must be ascribed to the See also:age of the Achaemcnian princes. The See also:process whereby Grotefend arrived at these conclusions is a prominent See also:illustration of persevering See also:genius (see CUNEIFORM). A solid basis had thus been laid for the See also:interpretation of the Persian inscriptions, and all that remained was to work out the results of Grotefend's brilliant discovery, a task ably performed by See also:Burnouf, See also:Lassen and See also:Rawlinson. Grotefend died on the 15th of See also:December 1853.

End of Article: GROTEFEND, GEORG FRIEDRICH (1775-1853)

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