Franz Pfeiffer (February 27, 1815 – May 29, 1868), was a Swiss literary scholar who worked in Germany and Austria.

Biography

Franz Pfeiffer was born in

Solothurn , neighboring_municipalities = Bellach, Biberist, Feldbrunnen-Sankt Niklaus, Langendorf, Rüttenen, Zuchwil , twintowns = Heilbronn (Germany), Kraków (Poland), Le Landeron (Switzerland) Solothurn ( , ; french: Soleure ; it, Soletta ; ...

as a

Bürger Bürger or Buerger is a surname. Notable people with the name include: * Gottfried August Bürger, German poet * Heinrich Bürger, German physicist and biologist * Heinrich Otto Wilhelm Bürger, German zoologist * Karl-Heinz Bürger, German S ...

(citizen) of Bettlach. After studying at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: link=no, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of ...

he went to Stuttgart, where in 1846 he became librarian to the royal library. In 1856 Pfeiffer founded ''Germania'', a quarterly periodical devoted to German antiquarian research. In 1857, having established himself as one of the foremost authorities on German

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

literature and

philology 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 especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

, he was appointed professor of these subjects at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich h ...

, and in 1860 was made a member of the

Imperial Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; russian: Росси́йская акаде́мия нау́к (РАН) ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across t ...

. In his later years he traveled regularly to

Überlingen am Bodensee Überlingen is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis (district), and a ce ...

to take the waters at the city's spa. He died in Vienna.

Works

Pfeiffer's most significant work is arguably the second volume of his ''Die deutschen Mystiker'' (German Mysticism). In this volume Pfeiffer collected the surviving German texts of the 14th Century mystic

Meister Eckhart Eckhart von Hochheim ( – ), commonly known as Meister Eckhart, Master EckhartBarlaam und Josaphat'',

Rudolf von Ems Rudolf von Ems (c. 1200 – 1254) was a Middle High German narrative poet. Life Rudolf von Ems was born in the Vorarlberg in Austria. He took his name from the castle of Hohenems near Bregenz, and was a knight in the service of the Counts of Mon ...

(1843) * ''Der Edelstein'', Ulrich Boner (1844) * ''Die deutschen Mystiker des 14. Jahrhunderts'' (1845-1857) * Nikolaus von Jeroschin, ''Deutsche Ordenschronik'' ("Chronicle of the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

," 1854) * ''Buch der Natur of Konrad von Megenberg'', a 14th-century writer (1861) * ''Die Predigten des Berthold von Regensburg'', vol. 1 and vol. 2 (1862, 1880) * Poems of

Walther von der Vogelweide Walther von der Vogelweide (c. 1170c. 1230) was a Minnesänger who composed and performed love-songs and political songs (" Sprüche") in Middle High German. Walther has been described as the greatest German lyrical poet before Goethe; his hundr ...

(1864; 6th ed., 1880) This work was his contribution to a series he founded called Deutsche Klassiker des Mittelalters ("German classics of the Middle Ages").

References

* This work in turn cites: ** Biographical sketch by Karl Bartsch in Franz Pfeiffer, ed., ''Uhlands Briefwechsel mit Freiherrn von Lassberg'' (1870) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfeiffer, Franz 1815 births 1868 deaths Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Academic staff of the University of Vienna German librarians Austrian non-fiction writers German non-fiction writers Swiss non-fiction writers Swiss male writers Swiss emigrants to Austria German male non-fiction writers People from Solothurn