Jakob Langebek (23 January 1710 - 16 August 1775) was a Danish

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 ...

, linguist, lexicographer, and archivist. Langebek, Jacob, 1710-75 ''Danish biographical Lexikon'' Retrieved December 1, 2020

Biography

He was born at Skjoldborg Parish in Thisted Municipality, Denmark. His father was a parish priest. He obtained his education at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen (, KU) is a public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in Scandinavia, after Uppsala University. ...

Langebek became a theology candidate in 1732. He was a favored student of historian Hans Gram.History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North
by Frederik Winkel Horn He studied Danish history, and it was by critical articles on contemporary writers in this field that he attracted attention. In 1737, he was employed at the

Danish Royal Library The Royal Library () in Copenhagen is the national library of Denmark and the academic library of the University of Copenhagen. It is among the largest libraries in the world and the largest in the Nordic countries. In 2017, it merged with the ...

and in 1748 he became an archivist. In 1745 he founded a society for the study of the language and history of Denmark, ''Det kongelige danske Selskab for Fædrelandets Historie og Sprog'' (Royal Danish Society for Fatherland History and Language), and was its perpetual

archivist An archivist is an information professional who assesses, collects, organizes, preserves, maintains control over, and provides access to records and archives determined to have long-term value. The records maintained by an archivist can cons ...

. He edited the society's journal ''Danske Magazin'' (1745–53). His works consist of valuable contributions on his favorite subject to the journals, and to the ''Danske Magazin'', which he edited and nearly all of which he wrote himself. His most important work was a collection of Danish historical documents from the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 ...

, titled ''Scriptores Rerum Danicarum Medii Œvi'' (1772–1774). He was unable to finish its publication, and the work was completed by

Peter Frederik Suhm Peter Frederik Suhm (18 October 1728 – 7 September 1798), was a Danish historian. Biography Suhm studied at the University of Copenhagen from 1746 to 1751, and one of his teachers was Ludvig Holberg. In 1749 he translated a comedy of Plautu ...

and others from original papers (1778). He also collected material for a Danish

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

. A collection of his letters was published in 1794.Most widely held works by Jacob Langebek
at

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Identities Langebek was elected a foreign member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 1753. He died at Copenhagen during 1775.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Langebek, Jakob 1710 births 1775 deaths People from Thisted Municipality University of Copenhagen alumni Danish archivists 18th-century Danish historians Danish lexicographers Danish magazine editors Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 18th-century lexicographers Scholars from Denmark–Norway