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WYTTENBACH, DANIEL ALBERT (1746—1820)
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See also:WYTTENBACH, See also:DANIEL See also:ALBERT (1746—1820) , See also:German-Swiss classical See also:scholar, was See also:born at See also:Bern, of a See also:family whose See also:nobility and distinction he loved to recall. In particular, he wasproud of his descent from See also: The disorder was cured by Spangenberg. The See also:principal study of the third See also:year was See also:metaphysics, which took Wyttenbach entirely See also:captive. The See also:fourth and last year was to be devoted to theology and Christian See also:dogma. Wyttenbach had hitherto submitted passively to his father's wishes concerning his career, in the See also:hope that some unexpected occurrence might set him See also:free. But he now turned away from theological lectures, and privately devoted his time to the task of deepening and extending his knowledge of Greek literature. He possessed at the time, as he tells us, no more acquaintance with Greek than his own pupils at a later time could acquire from him during four months' study. He was almost entirely without equipment beyond the See also:bare texts of the authors. But Wyttenbach was undaunted, and four years' persistent study gave him a knowledge of Greek such as few Germans of that time possessed. His love for philosophy carried him 'towards the Greek philosophers, especially See also:Plato. During this See also:period Ruhnken's notes on the Platonic See also:lexicon of See also:Timaeus See also:fell into his hands. Ruhnken was for him almost a superhuman being, whom he worshipped See also:day and See also:night, and with whom he imagined himself as holding converse in the spirit. When Wyttenbach was twenty-two he determined to seek elsewhere the See also:aids to study which Marburg could not afford. His father, fully realizing the strength of his son's pure See also:passion for scholarship, permitted and even advised him to seek See also:Heyne at See also:Gottingen. From this teacher he received the utmost kindness and encouragement, and he was urged by him to dedicate to Ruhnken the first-fruits of his scholarships. Wyttenbach therefore set to See also:work on some notes to See also:Julian, See also:Eunapius and See also:Aristaenetus, and Heyne wrote to Ruhnken to bespeak his favourable See also:consideration for the work. Before it reached him Ruhnken wrote a See also:kind See also:letter to Wyttenbach, which the recipient " read, re-read and kissed," and another on See also:receipt of the See also:tract, in which the great scholar declared that he had not looked to find in See also:Germany such know-ledge of Greek, such See also:power of See also:criticism, and such mature See also:judgment, especially in one so young. By Heyne's See also:advice, he worked hard at Latin, which he knew far less thoroughly than Greek, and we soon find Heyne praising his progress in Latin See also:style to both Ruhnken and Valckenaer. He now wrote to ask their advice about his See also:scheme of coming to the See also:Netherlands to follow the profession of a scholar. Ruhnken strongly exhorted Wyttenbach to follow his own example, for he too had been designed by his parents for the Christian See also:ministry in Germany, but had settled at See also:Leiden on the invitation of See also:Hemsterhuis. Valckenaer's See also:answer was to the same effect, but he added that Wyttenbach's letter would have been pleasanter to him had it been free from excessive compliments. These letters were forwarded to the See also:elder Wyttenbach, with a strong recommendation from Heyne. The old See also:man had been himself in Leiden in his youth, and entertained an admiration for the scholarship of the Netherlands; so his consent was easily won. Young Wyttenbach reached Leiden in 1770. A year was spent with great contentment, in learning the See also:language of the See also:people, in attending the lectures of the great " duumviri " of Leiden, and in collating See also:MSS. of See also:Plutarch. At the end of 1771 a professor was wanted at See also:Amsterdam for the See also:College of the See also:Remonstrants. By the recommendation of Ruhnken, Wyttenbach obtained the See also:chair, which he filled with great success for eight years. His lectures took a wide range. Those on Greek were repeated also to the students of the university of Amsterdam (the " See also:Athenaeum "). In 1775 a visit was made to See also:Paris, which was fruitful both of new friendships and of progress in study. About this time, on the advice of Ruhnken, Wyttenbach began the issue of his Bibliotheca critica, which appeared at intervals for the next See also:thirty years. The methods of criticism employed were in the See also:main those established by Hemsterhuis, and carried on by Valckenaer and Ruhnken, and the publication met with See also:acceptance from the learned all over See also:Europe. In 1777 the younger See also:Burmann (" Burmannus See also:Secundus ") retired from his professor-See also:ship at the Athenaeum, and Wyttenbach hoped to succeed him. When another received the See also:appointment, he was sorely discouraged. Only his regard for Ruhnken and for Dutch freedom (in his own words " Ruhnkeni et Batavae libertatis cogitatio ") kept him in See also: His full See also:title was " professor of history and eloquence and Greek and Latin literature." He had hardly got to work in his new See also:office when Valckenaer died, and he received a See also:call to Leiden. Greatly to Ruhnken's disappointment, he declined to abandon the duties he had so recently undertaken. In 1787 began the See also:internal commotions in Holland, afterwards to be aggravated by See also:foreign interference. Scarcely during the remaining thirty-three years of Wyttenbach's See also:life was there a moment of See also:peace in the See also:land. About this time two See also:requests were made to him for an edition of the See also:Morelia of Plutarch, for which a recension of the tract De sera numinis vindicta had marked him out in the eyes of scholars. One See also:request came from the famous " Societas Bipontina," the other from the delegates of the See also:Clarendon See also:Press at See also:Oxford. Wyttenbach, influenced at once by the reputation of the university, and by the liberality of the Oxonians in tendering him assistance of different kinds, declined the offer of the Bipontine Society, very fortunately, since their press was soon destroyed by the See also:French. The fortunes of Wyttenbach's edition curiously illustrate the See also:text " habent sua fata libelli." The first portion was safely conveyed to Oxford in 1794. Then See also:war See also:broke out between Holland and Great See also:Britain. See also:Randolph, Wyttenbach's Oxford correspondent, advised that the next portion should be sent through the See also:British See also:ambassador at See also:Ham-See also:burg, and the MS. was duly consigned to him " in a little See also:chest well protected by See also:pitch." After sending Randolph a number of letters without getting any answer, Wyttenbach in disgust put all thought of the edition from him, but at last the missing See also:box was discovered in a forgotten corner at See also:Hamburg, where it had lain for two years and a See also:half. The work was finally completed in 18os. Meanwhile Wyttenbach received invitations from his native See also:city Bern, and from Leiden, where vacancies had been created by the refusal of professors to swear See also:allegiance to the new Dutch See also:republic set up in 1795, to which Wyttenbach had made submission. But he only See also:left Amsterdam in 1799, when on Ruhnken's See also:death he succeeded him at Leiden. Even then his See also:chief See also:object in removing was to facilitate an arrangement by which the necessities of his old master's family might be relieved. His removal came too See also:late in life, and he was never so happy at Leiden as he had been at Amsterdam. Before See also:long appeared the ever-delightful Life of See also:David Ruhnken. Though written in Latin, this See also:biography deserves to See also:rank high in the See also:modern literature of its class. Of Wyttenbach's life at Leiden there is little to tell. The continual changes in See also:state affairs greatly disorganized the universities of Holland, and Wyttenbach had to work in See also:face of much detraction; still, his success as a teacher was very great. In 1805 he narrowly escaped with his life from the great See also:gunpowder See also:explosion, which killed 150 people, among them the Greek scholar Luzac, Wyttenbach's colleague in the university. One of Wyttenbach's letters gives a vivid See also:account of the disaster. During the last years of his life he suffered severely from illness and became nearly See also:blind. After the conclusion of his edition of Plutarch's Morelia in 18o5, the only important work he was able to publish was his well-known edition of Plato's See also:Phaedo. Many honours were conferred upon him both at See also:home and abroad, and in particular he was made a member of the French See also:Institute. Shortly before his death, he obtained the See also:licence of the See also: In See also:character he was upright and See also:simple-minded, but shy and retiring, and often failed to make himself appreciated. His life was not passed without strife, but his few See also:friends were warmly attached to him, and his many pupils were for the most See also:part his enthusiastic admirers. Wyttenbach's biography was written in a somewhat dry and lifeless manner by Mahne, one of his pupils. who also published some of his letters. His Opuscula, other than those published in the Bibliotheca critica, were collected in two volumes (Leiden, 1823). (J. S. 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