Ersch, JOHANN SAMUEL

Ersch, JOHANN SAMUEL, a great German bibliographer, was born at Grossglogau, in Lower Silesia, 23d June 1766; studied theology, next history, at Halle; and after some years of journalism at Jena and Hamburg, became in 1800 librarian to the university of Jena. Three years later, he was called to Halle as professor of Geography and Statistics; and in 1808 was also appointed principal librarian. He died at Halle, 16th January 1818. Ersch was long engaged in miscellaneous bibliographical work for other scholars; but in 1818, along with Gruber, commenced the publication at Leipzig of the famous yet unfinished Allgemeine Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste (see ENCYCLOPÆDIA). By his Handbuch der Deutschen Litteratur seit der Mitte des 18 Jahrh. (4 vols. 1812-14) he first established modern German bibliography in the technical sense of the word.