Carel Gabriel Cobet (28 November 1813 – 26 October 1889) was a Dutch classical scholar.

Biography

He was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, but educated in the Netherlands, at the

Gymnasium Haganum The Gymnasium Haganum is one of the oldest Public school (government funded), public schools in the Netherlands, located in the city of The Hague. First mentioned in 1327, the school is currently housed in a monumental Renaissance Revival architec ...

and the

University of Leiden Leiden University (abbreviated as ''LEI''; ) is a public research university in Leiden, Netherlands. Established in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange as a Protestant institution, it holds the distinction of being the oldest university in the Neth ...

. The university conferred on him an honorary degree, and recommended him to the government for a travelling pension. The ostensible purpose of his journey was to collate the texts of

Simplicius of Cilicia Simplicius of Cilicia (; ; – c. 540) was a disciple of Ammonius Hermiae and Damascius, and was one of the last of the Neoplatonists. He was among the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for ...

, which, however, engaged but little of his time. He contrived to study almost every

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

manuscript in the Italian libraries, and returned after five years with an intimate knowledge of

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

. In 1846 Cobet was married, and in the same year was appointed to an extraordinary professorship at Leiden. He spent the rest of his life there. An appreciative obituary notice by WG Rutherford appeared in the '' Classical Review'' of December 1889.

Works

In 1836 Cobet won a gold medal for an essay entitled ''Prosopographia Xenophontea'', a description of the characters in the ''

Memorabilia A souvenir (French language, French for 'a remembrance or memory'), memento, keepsake, or token of remembrance is an object a person acquires for the memory, memories the owner associates with it. A souvenir can be any object that can be collecte ...

'', ''

Symposium In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

'' and ''

Oeconomicus The ''Oeconomicus'' () by Xenophon is a Socratic dialogue principally about household management and agriculture. ''Oeconomicus'' comes from the Ancient Greek words '' oikos'' for home or house and ''nemein'' which means management, literally ...

'' of

Xenophon Xenophon of Athens (; ; 355/354 BC) was a Greek military leader, philosopher, and historian. At the age of 30, he was elected as one of the leaders of the retreating Ancient Greek mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, the Ten Thousand, who had been ...

. His ''Observationes criticae in Platonis comici reliquias'' (1840) revealed his critical faculty. Cobet's 1846 inaugural address, ''De Arte interpretandi Grammatices et Critices Fundamentis innixa'', has been called the most perfect piece of

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

prose written in the 19th century. In 1850 Cobet published a major critical edition of the ''Lives of Eminent Philosophers'' (''Diogenis Laertii De Clarorum philosophorum vitis, dogmatibus et apophthegmatibus libri decem'', Pariisis, Didot). In 1856 he became joint editor of ''

Mnemosyne In Greek mythology and ancient Greek religion, Mnemosyne (; , ) is the goddess of memory and the mother of the nine Muses by her nephew Zeus. In the Greek tradition, Mnemosyne is one of the Titans, the twelve divine children of the earth-godde ...

'', a

philological Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

review, which he soon raised to a leading position among classical journals. He contributed to it many critical notes and emendations, which were afterwards collected in book form under the titles ''Novae Lectiones, Variae Lectiones'' and ''Miscellanea Critica''. In 1875, he took a prominent part in the Leiden Tercentenary, and impressed all his hearers by his facility in Latin improvisation. In 1884, when his health was failing, he retired as

emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

professor. Cobet's special weapon as a critic was his consummate knowledge of

, but he also had a rare acumen and wide knowledge of classical literature. He may have been over-enthusiastic in his emendation of difficult passages, ignoring the comments of other scholars. He had little sympathy for the German critics, and maintained that the best combination was English good sense with French taste. He always expressed his obligation to the English, saying that his masters were three Richards:

Richard Bentley Richard Bentley FRS (; 27 January 1662 – 14 July 1742) was an English classical scholar, critic, and theologian. Considered the "founder of historical philology", Bentley is widely credited with establishing the English school of Hellenis ...

Richard Porson Richard Porson (25 December 1759 – 25 September 1808) was an English classical scholar. He was the discoverer of Porson's Law. The Greek typeface '' Porson'' was based on his handwriting. Early life Richard Porson was born at East Ruston, ne ...

and Richard Dawes.

References

Attribution: * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobet, Carel Gabriel 1813 births 1889 deaths Linguists from the Netherlands Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Academic staff of Leiden University Leiden University alumni