Georg Curtius

Curtius was born in Lübeck, and was the brother of the historian and archeologist Ernst Curtius.{{cite book |last= Thomson de Grummond |first= Nancy |author-link= |date= 11 May 2015|title= Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LeE4CQAAQBAJ|access-date= 23 March 2022|location= Oxon | publisher= Routledge | page= 341| isbn= 978-1-134-26854-2}} After an education at Bonn and Berlin, he was for three years schoolmaster in Dresden, until (in 1845) he returned to Berlin University as a privatdocent.{{cite book |last= Edwin Sandys|first= John |author-link= |date= 17 Feb 2011|title= A History of Classical Scholarship: The Eighteenth Century in Germany and the Nineteenth Century in Europe and the United States of America| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=IFL5bcOayfcC|access-date= 23 March 2022|location= Cambridge | publisher= Cambridge University Press | page= 207| isbn= 978-1-108-02708-3}} In 1849 he was placed in charge of the Philological Seminary at Prague, and two years later was appointed professor of classical philology in Prague University. In 1854, he moved from Prague to a similar appointment at Kiel, and again in 1862 from Kiel to Leipzig.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He was teaching lndo-European and the historical grammar of the classical languages at Leipzig.{{cite book |last= Morpurgo Davies|first= Anna |author-link= |date= 2 Dec 2004|title= The Cambridge Companion to Saussure| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KRy-xWG1MvIC|access-date= 23 March 2022|location= Cambridge | publisher= Cambridge University Press | page= 11| isbn= 978-0-521-80486-8}} His contributions were focused "to bridge the gulf between classical philology and Aryan linguistics."{{cite book |last= Jespersen |first= Otto |author-link= |date= 28 Sep 2020|title= Language: Its Nature, Development and Origin| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qzUpDwAAQBAJ|access-date= 23 March 2022|location= Alexandria | publisher= Library of Alexandria | page= NA| isbn= 978-1-465-61627-2}} As a professor he constantly attempted " to bring Classical Philology and the Science of Language into closer relation with each other." This is clearly reflected in the works of his pupils, and of his own.

His philological theories exercised a widespread influence. The more important of his publications are:

• Die Sprachvergleichung in ihrem Verhältniss zur classischen Philologie (1845; Eng. trans. by FH Trithen, 1851)
• Sprachvergleichende Beiträge zur griechischen und lateinischen Grammatik (1846)
• Grundzüge der griechischen Etymologie (1858–1862, 5th ed. 1879)
• Das Verbum der griechischen Sprache (1873).

The last two works were translated into English by Augustus Samuel Wilkins and Edwin Bourdieu England.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

From 1878 until his death Curtius was general editor of the Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie. His Griechische Schulgrammatik, first published in 1852, passed through more than twenty editions and was edited in English. In his last work, Zur Kritik der neuesten Sprachforschung (1885), he attacked the views of the emerging Neogrammarian school of philology.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Curtius died in Hermsdorf am Kynast, aged 65, and was succeeded at Leipzig by his student{{cite book |last= Gagarin|first= Michael |author-link= |date= 31 December 2009|title= The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Volume 1| url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lNV6-HsUppsC|access-date= 23 March 2022|location= Cambridge | publisher= Cambridge University Press | page= 256| isbn= 978-0-195-17072-6}}Karl Brugmann. The Opuscula of Georg Curtius were edited after his death by Ernst Windisch (Kleine Schriften von E. C., 1886–1887).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} He was posthumously elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1886.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?year=1886;smode=advanced;startDoc=1|access-date=2021-05-24|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}

{{reflist}}

• {{EB1911|wstitle=Curtius, Ernst|display=Curtius, Ernst s.v. Georg Curtius|volume=7|page=653}} This work in turn cites:
• {{Cite ADB|47|597|602|Curtius, Georg|Richard Meister|ADB:Curtius, Georg}}
• Ernst Windisch in Conrad Bursian's Biographisches Jahrbuch für Alterthumskunde (1886)

• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Georg Curtius}}
• {{Librivox author |id=2095}}

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{{EB1911 article with no significant updates}}

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Category:1820 births

Category:1885 deaths

Category:German philologists

Category:Writers from Lübeck

Category:Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society