Christian Karl Friedrich Hülsen (born in

Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a German town law, town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Kingdom ...

, 29 November 1858; died in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence was a centre of medieval European t ...

, on 19 January 1935) was a German architectural

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

of the

classical era Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilization ...

who later changed to studying the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

Biography

Hülsen was born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. He studied classical philology, ancient history and archaeology with Ernst Curtius, Johann Gustav Droysen (1808-1884), Emil Hübner (1834-1901), Johannes Vahlen (1830-1911), and

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; ; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th ce ...

(1817-1903). His dissertation, on

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, was directed by Mommsen and Hübner. Through Mommsen, he was awarded a stipend from the DAI ( Deutsches Archäologisches Institut) to travel to Rome where he assisted in the compilation of the ''

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum The ''Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum'' (''CIL'') is a comprehensive collection of ancient Latin inscriptions. It forms an authoritative source for documenting the surviving epigraphy of classical antiquity. Public and personal inscriptions throw ...

'' for the city of Rome. In 1904 he published his ''Das Forum Romanum'', an important and widely translated work on the

Roman Forum A forum (Latin: ''forum'', "public place outdoors", : ''fora''; English : either ''fora'' or ''forums'') was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, alon ...

. As a topographical scholar he gained equal fame with his volume on Roman topography, volume three of ''Topographie der Stadt Rom in Altertum'', appearing in 1907. Despite these accomplishments and his service as second secretary to the DAI in Rome (1887-1909) he was twice denied the appointment of first secretary. In disillusionment, Hülsen left the institute to live in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

, where he changed focus to medieval and renaissance art. In Florence he published studies on the historic drawings of Rome by

Maarten van Heemskerck Maarten van Heemskerck (born Maerten Jacobsz van Veen; 1 June 1498 – 1 October 1574), also known as Marten Jacobsz Heemskerk van Veen, was a Dutch portrait and religious painter, who spent most of his career in Haarlem. He was a pupil of Jan ...

, Giuliano da Sangallo, Giovanni Antonio Dosio and other artists. In 1927 his study on the churches of medieval Rome and published ''Le Chiese di Roma nel Medio Evo''. Like his other books in many disparate fields, it represented significant original scholarship. He remained in Florence for the remainder of his life except for five years as professor at the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

. He was the recipient of honorary degrees from Oxford, Erlangen, and New York. Hülsen died in Florence.

Works

#''Varronianae doctrinae quaenam in Ovidii fastis vestigia extent''. Berlin: Goetsch und Mann, 1880 ( dissertation). # with Henri Jordan: ''Topographie der Stadt Rom im Alterthum''. Volume I, part 3. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1907. #''Le chiese di Roma nel medio evo, cataloghi ed appunti''. Florence: L.S. Olschki, 1927; the bulk of it is online a
LacusCurtius
Reprint Hildesheim: Olms, 1975, . #with Heinrich Kiepert: ''Formae Urbis Romae antiquae''. 1896, (English ed., ''The Forum and the Palatine''. New York: A. Bruderhausen, 1909). #''Das

Forum Romanum A forum (Latin: ''forum'', "public place outdoors", : ''fora''; English : either ''fora'' or ''forums'') was a public square in a municipium, or any civitas, of Ancient Rome reserved primarily for the vending of goods; i.e., a marketplace, along ...

'' 1904; online, complete in Italian and partial in English, a
LacusCurtius
#''Die Skizzenbücher des Marten van Heemskerck''. Berlin: J. Bard, 1912-1916. #''Römische Antikengärten des XVI. Jahrhunderts'', 1917. # edited: ''Das Skizzenbuch des Giovannantonio Dosio im Staatlichen Kupferstichkabinett zu Berlin''. Berlin: H. Keller, 1933. # ''Le monument païen et la topographie du lieu''. In: ''Sainte Marie Antique''. Rome: M. Bretschneider, 1911, pp. 61–70. # ed., with Ernst Robert Fiechter: ''Römische Gebälke''. Toebelmann-Stiftung der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Heidelberg: C. Winter, 1923.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hulsen, Christian 1858 births 1935 deaths German architectural historians Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Writers from Berlin People from the Province of Brandenburg Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of Heidelberg University German male non-fiction writers

Biography

Works

Further reading

References

External links