Paul Gerhard Schmidt (25 March 1937 – 25 September 2010) was a German medievalist and professor emeritus of medieval Latin philology.

Biography

Schmidt was born on 25 March 1937 in Pieske near

Frankfurt (Oder) Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (, ; Central Marchian: ''Frankfort an de Oder,'' ) is the fourth-largest city in the German state of Brandenburg after Potsdam, Cottbus and Brandenburg an der Havel. With around 58,000 inh ...

. He took his abitur in 1956 at the ''Evangelischen Gymnasium'' in Berlin-Grunewald, and studied classical and medieval Latin philology in Berlin and

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) 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. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. He received his Ph.D. in July 1962 from the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

, with the dissertation ''Supplemente lateinischer Prosa in der Neuzeit: Ein Überblick über Rekonstruktionsversuche zu lateinischen Autoren von der Renaissance bis zur Aufklärung'', and then went to Rome where after a two-year study of

Auxiliary sciences of history Auxiliary (or ancillary) sciences of history are scholarly disciplines which help evaluate and use historical sources and are seen as auxiliary for historical research. Many of these areas of study, classification and analysis were originally deve ...

he received the diploma ''Palaeographus et Archivarius Vaticanus''. His 1970

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

in Göttingen was based on a critical edition of the ''Architrenius'' by Johannes de Hauvilla, which was published in 1974. Schmidt became professor at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

in 1978. In 1989 he moved to the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially ), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The university was founded in 1 ...

, where he was a professor of medieval Latin philology. He died on 25 September 2010 of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

, and is buried on the Bergäckerfriedhof. Schmidt was an extraordinary member of the Società Internazionale per lo Studio del Medioevo Latino, corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and the academic society of the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University Frankfurt () is a public research university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealthy and active liberal citizenry of Frankfurt ...

, and member of the Istituto Lombardo. He had visiting professorships in Oxford, Florence, Fribourg (Wolfgang-Stammler-Gastprofessur 1993–94), Siena, Tartu, and Paris. Schmidt occupied much of his time with

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

and

codicology Codicology (; from French ''codicologie;'' from Latin , genitive , "notebook, book" and Greek , ''-logia'') is the study of codices or manuscript books. It is often referred to as "the archaeology of the book," a term coined by François Masai. ...

. He was editor or co-editor of the series ''Datierte Handschriften in Bibliotheken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland'', ''Mittellateinische Studien und Texte'', and the journal ''Itineraria: Letteratura di viaggio e conoscenza del mondo dall’Antichità al Rinascimento''. Until the end of 1999 he was president of the department of manuscript catalogs of the

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation ( ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2019, the DFG had a funding bu ...

. He was also a member of the council of the ''Onderzoekschool Mediëvistiek'' (Leiden/Groningen/Utrecht) and the Institute for European Cultural History (Augsburg). Schmidt directed 16 dissertations (including that by Johannes Schilling and 3 habilitations ( Udo Kühne, Thomas Haye and Elisabeth Stein).

Bibliography

* Andreas Bihrer and Elisabeth Stein (eds.): ''Nova de Veteribus. Mittel- und neulateinische Studien für Paul Gerhard Schmidt'', München and Leipzig: Saur 2004.

External links

*
Paul Gerhard Schmidt an der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Bücher und Aufsätze von Paul Gerhard Schmidt
im Opac der Regesta Imperii {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Paul Gerhard 1937 births 2010 deaths 20th-century philologists German medievalists German philologists German Latinists German palaeographers Academic staff of the University of Freiburg Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of the University of Marburg German male non-fiction writers Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities