Heyne, CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB

Heyne, CHRISTIAN GOTTLOB, a German classical scholar, was born at Chemnitz, in Upper Saxony, 25th September 1729, the son of a poor weaver. In spite of extreme poverty and often absolute hunger, Heyne struggled perseveringly at Leipzig; and in 1753 he obtained the situation of under-clerk in the Brühl library at Dresden. An edition of Tibullus and one of the Enchiridion of Epictetus, which he published about this time, gained for him the patronage of the celebrated scholar, Ruhnken of Leyden. But the outbreak of the Seven Years' War threw Heyne out of employment, and for some time he led a precarious life, being often without bread, and supporting himself as best he could by writing for booksellers. But in 1763, on the recommendation of Ruhnken, he was appointed professor of Eloquence at Göttingen, and the rest of his long life was spent in comfort and professorial activity. By his lectures and the thorough knowledge he displayed of all departments of ancient Greek and Roman life, he was chiefly instrumental in raising Göttingen to its pre-eminent position as a school of classical study. He is said to have trained more than 130 professors. Heyne died 14th July 1812. His principal works, besides those mentioned, are his editions of Virgil (1767; new ed. 1830-44), Pindar (1773), Apollodorus (1782), and Homer's Iliad (8 vols. 1802); numerous translations; six volumes of Opuscula Academica (1785-1812); and about 7500 reviews of books in the Göttinger Gelehrte Anzeigen, of which he was editor from 1770. Compare the Life of Heyne by his son-in-law, Ludwig Heeren (1813), and Carlyle's essay in vol. ii. of the Miscellanies.