Jacob Bernays (11 September 182426 May 1881) was a German

philologist 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 ...

and

philosophical Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

writer.

Life

Jacob Bernays was born in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish parents. His father,

Isaac Bernays Isaac Bernays ( ; ; ; 29 September 1792 – 1 May 1849) was Chief Rabbi in Hamburg. Life Bernays was born in Weisenau (now part of Mainz). He was the son of Jacob Gera, a boarding house keeper at Mainz, and an elder brother of Adolphus Bernays. ...

(1792–1849) was a man of wide culture and the first orthodox German

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

to preach in the vernacular; his brother, Michael Bernays, was also a distinguished scholar. Between 1844 and 1848, Bernays studied classical philology at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

under

Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (4 November 1784 – 17 December 1868) was a German classical philologist and archaeologist. Biography Welcker was born at Grünberg, Hesse-Darmstadt. Having studied classical philology at the University of Giesse ...

Christian August Brandis Christian August Brandis (13 February 179021 July 1867) was a German philologist and historian of philosophy. Biography Brandis was born at Hildesheim, and was the son of the physician Joachim Dietrich Brandis. His father moved to Copenhagen in ...

, and

Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl Friedrich Wilhelm Ritschl (6 April 1806 – 9 November 1876), a first cousin of theologian Albrecht Ritschl, was a German scholar best known for his studies of Plautus. Biography Ritschl was born in Großvargula, in present-day Thuringia. Hifa ...

, of whom Bernays became a favourite pupil. In 1853, he accepted the chair of

classical philology Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek and Roman literature and their original languages, ...

at the newly founded

Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau The Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau (official name: ) was an institution in Breslau for the training of rabbis, founded under the will of Jonah Frankel (businessman), Jonah Fränckel, and opened in 1854. It was the first modern rabbinical ...

, where he formed a close friendship with

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 ...

. In 1866, when Ritschl left Bonn for

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Bernays returned to his old university as extraordinary professor and chief librarian. He remained in Bonn until his death on 26 May 1881. Upon his death, he bequeathed his Hebrew library to the Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau.

Scholarship

Bernays was most famous for his boo
''Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles über Wirkung der Tragödie''
His medical interpretation of

catharsis Catharsis is from the Ancient Greek word , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing", commonly used to refer to the purification and purgation of thoughts and emotions by way of expressing them. The desired result is an emotional state of renewal an ...

greatly influenced Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. Bernays was the first scholar to suggest that

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

's '' Protrepticus'' inspired

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, orator, writer and Academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises tha ...

to write the ''

Hortensius Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114–50 BC) was a Roman Republic, Roman lawyer, an orator and a statesman. Politically he belonged to the Optimates. He was consul in 69 BC alongside Quintus Caecilius Metellus Creticus. His nickname was ''Dionysia ( ...

''. He further suggested that the ''Hortensius'' should be used as the base by which the ''Protrepticus'' could be reconstructed.Chroust, Anton-Hermann. ''Aristotle: New Light on His Life and On Some of His Lost Works, Volume 2'' Routledge, 1973. Web.
/ref>

Works

His chief works, which deal mainly with the

Greek philosophers Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics ...

, are:
''Joseph Justus Scaliger''
(1855) *''Über das Phokylidische Gesicht'' (1856) *''Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles über Wirkung der Tragödie'' (1857)
''Über die Chronik des Sulpicius Severus''
(1861) *''Die Dialoge des Aristoteles im Verhältniss zu seinen übrigen Werken'' (1863) *''Theophrastos' Schrift über Frömmigkeit'' (1866) *''Die Heraklitischen Briefe'' (1869)
''Lucian und die Kyniker''
(1879) *''Zwei Abhandlungen über die Aristotelische Theorie des Dramas'' (1880). The last of these was a republication of his ''Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlungen des Aristoteles über die Wirkung der Tragödie'' (1857), which aroused considerable controversy.

Notes

References

*Notices in ''Biographisches Jahrbuch für Alterthumskunde'' (1881), and ''

Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB; ) is one of the most important and comprehensive biographical reference works in the German language. It was published by the Historical Commission of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences between 1875 and 1912 in 56 volumes, printed in Lei ...

'', xlvi. (1902) *article in the ''

Jewish Encyclopedia ''The Jewish Encyclopedia: A Descriptive Record of the History, Religion, Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People from the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' is an English-language encyclopedia containing over 15,000 articles on the ...

'' *

John Edwin Sandys Sir John Edwin Sandys ( "Sands"; 19 May 1844 – 6 July 1922) was an English classical scholar. Life Born in Leicester, England on 19 May 1844, Sandys was the 4th son of Rev. Timothy Sandys (1803–1871) and Rebecca Swain (1800–1853). Livin ...

, ''History of Class. Schol.'' iii. I 76 (1908). *

Arnaldo Momigliano Arnaldo Dante Momigliano (5 September 1908 – 1 September 1987) was an Italian historian of classical antiquity, known for his work in historiography, and characterised by Donald Kagan as "the world's leading student of the writing of history ...

, ''Jacob Bernays'', in Id., '' Pagine ebraiche'', a cura di

Silvia Berti Silvia Berti is a history professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza. Her fields of interest are the relationship between Jewish and Christian culture in the Moderna era, issues of history of historiography, European anti-Christian attitudes, ...

Einaudi Einaudi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), Italian politician * Mario Einaudi (1904–1994), Italian political scientist, son of Luigi * Giulio Einaudi (1912–1999), Italian publisher, s ...

, Torino 1987, pp. 167–180. *Bollack, Jean, ''Ein Mensch zwischen zwei Welten: der Philologe Jacob Bernays''. Goettingen: Wallstein Verlag, 2009. *''Du, von dem ich lebe! Letters to Paul Heyse''. Ed. W. M.Calder III & Timo, Günther. Wallstein, Göttingen 2010. *Ugolini, Gherardo. ''Jacob Bernays e l’interpretazione medico-omeopatica della catarsi tragica. Con traduzione del saggio di Bernays, Grundzüge der verlorenen Abhandlung des Aristoteles über Wirkung der Tragödie (1857)'', Cierre Grafica, Verona 2012. Attribution *

External links