Johann Gottfried Gruber (29 November 1774 – 7 August 1851) was a German

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or govern ...

and literary historian.

Biography

Gruber was born at

Naumburg Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. ...

on the

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Franconian Saale, ...

, in the

Electorate of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charl ...

. He received his education at the town school of Naumburg and the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

, after which he resided successively at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...

, Leipzig,

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

and

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg an ...

, occupying himself partly in teaching and partly in various literary enterprises, and enjoying in Weimar the friendship of Herder, Wieland and

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

. In 1811 he was appointed professor at the University of Wittenberg, and after the division of Saxony he was sent by the senate to

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

to negotiate the union of the University of Wittenberg with that of

Halle Halle may refer to: Places Germany * Halle (Saale), also called Halle an der Saale, a city in Saxony-Anhalt ** Halle (region), a former administrative region in Saxony-Anhalt ** Bezirk Halle, a former administrative division of East Germany ** Hall ...

. After the union was effected he became in 1815 professor of philosophy at Halle. He was associated with Johann Samuel Ersch in the editorship of the great work '' Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste''; and after the death of Ersch he continued the first section from vol. xviii. to vol. liv. He also succeeded Ersch in the editorship of the ''Allgemeine Literaturzeitung''. Gruber was the author of a large number of works, the principal of which are ''Charakteristik Herders'' (Leipzig, 1805), in conjunction with Johann T. L. Danz (1769–1851), afterwards professor of

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing th ...

at Jena; ''Geschichte des menschlichen Geschlechts'' (2 vols, Leipzig, 1806); ''Wörterbuch der altklassischen Mythologie'' (3 vols, Weimar, 1810–1815); a life of Christoph Martin Wieland (''Wielands Leben'', 2 parts, Weimar, 1815–1816), and of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (''Klopstocks Leben'', Weimar, 1832). He also edited Wieland's collected works (''Wielands sämmtliche Werke'', Leipzig, 1818–1828).

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gruber, Johann Gottfried 1774 births 1851 deaths People from Naumburg (Saale) People from the Electorate of Saxony German encyclopedists German literary critics German male non-fiction writers Leipzig University alumni University of Jena alumni University of Wittenberg faculty Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg faculty