Rudolf Carl Franz Otto Pfeiffer (20 September 1889 – 5 May 1979) was a German classical philologist. He is known today primarily for his landmark, two-volume edition of

Callimachus Callimachus (; ; ) was an ancient Greek poet, scholar, and librarian who was active in Alexandria during the 3rd century BC. A representative of Ancient Greek literature of the Hellenistic period, he wrote over 800 literary works, most of which ...

and the two volumes of his ''History of Classical Scholarship'', in addition to numerous articles and lectures related to these projects and to the fragmentary

satyr play The satyr play is a form of Attic theatre performance related to both comedy and tragedy. It preserves theatrical elements of dialogue, actors speaking verse, a chorus that dances and sings, masks and costumes. Its relationship to tragedy is st ...

s of

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; ; /524 – /455 BC) was an ancient Greece, ancient Greek Greek tragedy, tragedian often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is large ...

and

Sophocles Sophocles ( 497/496 – winter 406/405 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. was an ancient Greek tragedian known as one of three from whom at least two plays have survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or contemporary with, those ...

Early life and education

Pfeiffer was born in Augsburg on 20 September 1889.Bühler (1980) 402. His parents were Carl Pfeiffer, the proprietor of a print-shop, and Elise ().Vogt (2001) 323. The boy's grandfather Jakob, also a printer, had purchased the house of the

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential, and agency of human beings, whom it considers the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humanism" ha ...

Konrad Peutinger Konrad Peutinger (; 14 October 1465 – 28 December 1547) was a German Humanism, humanist, jurist, diplomat, politician, economist and archaeologist, serving as Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Maximilian I's chief archaeological adviser. ...

, and Pfeiffer would later consider it a special stroke of fate that he had been born and bred in the former home of a central figure from the golden age of humanism in Augsburg. A

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

, Pfeiffer studied at the Gymnasium of the

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

St. Stephen's Abbey, where he was a pupil of Beda Grundl, a follower of the philologist Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff. Pfeiffer spent his leisure time with Beda Grundl reading

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

and a host of other Greek authors.Bühler (1980) 403. Upon passing the

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in 1908, Pfeiffer moved on to

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

where he was inducted into the Stiftung Maximilianeum and began studying classical and German

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

at the

University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

.Vogt (2001) 323 and Bühler (1980) 403. There he studied under the Germanist Hermann Paul and Hellenist Otto Crusius. Although Pfeiffer would continue serious study of German literature while at the university, Crusius' influence upon him was great and set the stage for his later career as a scholar of

Hellenistic poetry Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic period, ar ...

. In 1913, under the direction of the literary historian Franz Muncker, Pfeiffer completed a dissertation on the 16th-century Augsburg

Meistersinger A (German for "master singer") was a member of a German guild for lyric poetry, composer, composition and a cappella, unaccompanied art song of the 14th to 16th centuries. The Meistersingers were drawn from middle class males for the most part ...

and translator of Homer and

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

, Johann Spreng, entitled , a revised version of which was published as a

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

in 1919. He dedicated his dissertation as an ''uxori carissimae sacrum'',

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for (roughly) "a gift of devotion to a wife most dear"—namely, Lili (), a Jewish painter from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

whom he had married earlier in 1913. In 1968 Pfeiffer would repeat this dedication in the first volume of ''History of Classical Scholarship'', closing the preface with:

My first publication in 1914 bears the dedication . I renew the words of the dedication with still deeper feeling for all that she has done for me in the course of more than half a century.

Lili died the next year; the couple had no children.

Academic career

Pfeiffer later remarked that his marriage to Lili was perhaps hasty, since his prospects for an academic position were still unclear. In 1912 he had taken up a position at the Universitätsbibliothek München which he would hold until 1921, but his academic career did not resume in earnest until, upon being wounded at

Verdun Verdun ( , ; ; ; official name before 1970: Verdun-sur-Meuse) is a city in the Meuse (department), Meuse departments of France, department in Grand Est, northeastern France. It is an arrondissement of the department. In 843, the Treaty of V ...

in 1916, he decided to rededicate himself to scholarship. His first passion during this period of renewed activity was the steadily accruing

papyri Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, ''Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'' or ''papyruses'') can ...

, several of which he had studied in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

before the war with Wilhelm Schubart, the foremost literary papyrologist of the age. In 1920 a promotion allowed Pfeiffer to take a year's leave and return to that city, where he made the acquaintance of Wilamowitz who recognized great potential in the young scholar and with whom Pfeiffer would have a lasting friendship. The following year Pfeiffer was habilitated into the University of Munich under the chairmanship of Eduard Schwartz, the successor to his former mentor Crusius.Bühler (1980) 404. The work that earned him his Habilitation, (1921), was soon followed by an edition of all the Callimachus papyri available at that time, entitled (1923). Recognition of Pfeiffer's early work on Callimachus was swift, and in 1923, with Wilamowitz's endorsement, he was appointed to the professorship at

Humboldt University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

that had been vacated by Eduard Fraenkel when he moved on to the University of Kiel. Later in the very same year, Pfeiffer took over the position at Frankfurt that Karl Ludwig Reinhardt had vacated at

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 ...

, only to move on again in 1927 to

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...

. Finally, in 1929 Pfeiffer returned to his alma mater as Ordinarius Professor of Greek,Elsner (2017), 31. and a colleague of Schwartz, at Munich. The stability afforded by this new position allowed Pfeiffer to not only redouble his focus upon Callimachus and Greek literature in general, but also to return to a topic which had from his youth held a special interest for him: the history of humanism and classical scholarship. Over the next ten years he would publish a series of articles on this topic, his first work in this vein since revising his dissertation in 1919. Archaic epic and lyric also drew his attention during this period, as well as the new papyrus finds that were adding to the corpus of the tragedians. But Callimachus remained his primary focus, and a series of articles on the still further fragments which were being published at this time solidified his reputation as the foremost scholar of the poet's work, and in 1934 he was recognized as a full member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities () is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledge within their subject. The general goal of th ...

. In 1937 Pfeiffer would have to move again: he was forced out of his chair at Munich because of his marriage to a Jewish woman and opposition to the Nazi regime.Vogt (2001) 324. He and Lili relocated to Oxford, where Pfeiffer gained a position in part due to the recommendation of Schwartz, who stated that Pfeiffer "towered over all the other" philologists of his generation.Bühler (1980) 406. Eduard Fraenkel had already been driven from Germany to Corpus Christi, and with the addition of Pfeiffer '' The Oxford Magazine'' declared, "Once more, Oxford gains what Nazi Germany has lost." At Oxford Pfeiffer had access to the Callimachus fragments in the vast collection of

Oxyrhynchus papyri The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrology, papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient Landfill, rubbish dump near Oxyrhync ...

and worked amicably with the great British papyrologist Edgar Lobel who had himself published valuable work on the poet. In his obiturary of Lobel, Sir Eric Gardner Turner wrote, "The partnership over Callimachus with Rudolf Pfeiffer went well on both sides, and ended in mutual affection and esteem and a notable edition of the poet." That edition of fragments, the first volume of Pfeiffer's magnum opus (1949), would be followed four years later by a second volume comprising the ''Hymns'', ''Epigrams'' and ''testimonia''. Pfeiffer was restored to his chair at Munich in 1951 from which he would retire in 1957. The remaining years of his life following the completion of his Callimachus were devoted to his interest in the history of classical scholarship that had been kindled while still a youth in Augsburg. In the preface to ''History of Classical Scholarship from the Beginnings to the Hellenistic Age'' (1968) he reports that, "As soon as the second volume of Callimachus was published in 1953 by the Clarendon Press, I submitted to the delegates a proposal for a ''History of Classical Scholarship''". In the ''History of Classical Scholarship'', which he published in English despite having returned to Munich, Pfeiffer drew parallels between the intellectual world of Hellenistic Greece and that of his fellow German exiles, particularly in the case of the scholars who fled Alexandria following the accession of Ptolemy VIII Physcon in 210 BCE.Elsner (2017), 31–33. This book was followed in 1976 by a volume treating the period from 1350–1800. He had intended to publish a third volume to cover the intervening period, but his interests in Hellenistic scholarship and the high humanist period (and the urging of Fraenkel) drew him to the bookends of his history. Upon his death on 5 May 1979, only a long abandoned sketch of the volume covering

Late Antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

and 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 ...

had been completed.Bühler (1980) 407.

Select works

Callimachus

Principal works

* ''Callimachus, vol. i: Fragmenta'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1949) . * ''Callimachus, vol. ii: Hymni et epigrammata'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953) .

Lesser and occasional works

* ''Kallimachosstudien. Untersuchungen zur Arsinoe und zu den Aitia des Kallimachos'' (Munich: Hüber, 1922). * ''Callimachi fragmenta nuper reperta'' (Bonn: Marcus & Weber, 1923). Edition of the papyrus finds to the point of publication. * "Arsinoe Philadelphos in der Dichtung", ''Antike'' 2 (1926) 161–174. * "Kallimachoszitate bei Suidas", in: ''Stephaniskos. Festschrift für Ernst Fabricius'' (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1927) 40–46. * "Ein neues Altersgedicht des Kallimachos", ''Hermes'' 63 (1928) 302–342. * "Βερενίκης πλόκαμος", ''Philologus'' 87 (1932) 179–228. * "Ein Epodenfragment aus dem Jambenbuche des Kallimachos", ''Philologus'' 88 (1933) 265–271. * ''Die neuen διηγήσις zu Kallimachos Gedichten'' (Munich: Beck, 1934). Short monograph. * "Zum Papyrus Mediolanensis des Kallimachos", ''Philologus'' 92 (1934) 483–485. * "Neue Lesungen und Ergänzungen zu Kallimachos-Papyri", ''Philologus'' 93 (1938) 61–73. * "The measurements of the Zeus at Olympia", '' Journal of Hellenic Studies'' 61 (1941) 1–5. * "Callimachus", ''Proceedings of the Classical Association'' (1941) 7-11. * "A fragment of Parthenios' ''Arete''", ''Classical Quarterly'' 37 (1943) 23–32. * "The image of the Delian Apollo and Apolline ethics", ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 15 (1952) 20–32. * "Morgendämmerung", in: ''Thesaurismata. Festschrift für I. Kapp zum 70. Geburtstag'' (Munich: Beck, 1954) 95–104. * "The future of studies in the field of Hellenistic poetry", ''Proceedings of the Classical Association'' 51 (1954) 43-45. * "The future of studies in the field of Hellenistic poetry", ''JHS'' 75 (1955) 69–73.

History of classical scholarship

Principal works

* ''History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the End of the Hellenistic Age'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968) . * ''History of Classical Scholarship: 1300–1850'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976)

Lesser and occasional works

* "Zum 200. Gebursttag von Chr. G. Heyne", ''Forschungen und Fortschritte'' 5 (1929) 313. * ''Humanitas Erasmiana'' (Leipzig: Teubner, 1931). Pamphlet. * "Wilhelm von Humboldt der Humanist", ''Antike'' 12 (1936) 35–48. * "Von den geschichtlichen Begegnungen der kritischen Philologie mit dem Humanismus. Eine Skizze", ''Archiv für Kulturgeschichte'' 28 (1938) 191–209. * "Erasmus und die Einheit der klassischen und der christlichen Renaissance", ''Historisches Jahrbuch'' 74 (1954) 175–188. * "Conrad Peutinger und die humanistische Welt", in: H. Rinn (ed.) ''Augusta: 955–1955'' (Munich, 1955) 179–186. * "Dichter und Philologen im französischen Humanismus", ''Antike und Abendland'' 7 (1958) 73–83. * ''Philologia perennis : Festrede gehalten in der öffentlichen Sitzung der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in München am 3. Dezember 1960'' (Munich: Beck, 1961). Published lecture. * "Augsburger Humanisten und Philologen", ''Gymnasium'' 71 (1964) 190–204.

Tragedians

* "Die Skyrioi des Sophokles", ''Philologue'' 88 (1933) 1–15. * "Die Niobe des Aischylos", ''Philologus'' 89 (1934) 1–18. * ''Die Netzfischer des Aischylos und der Inachos des Sophokles. Zwei Satyrspiel-Funde''. (München: Beck, 1938). Short monograph. * "Ein syntaktisches Problem in den Diktyulkoi des Aischylos", in: H. Krahe (ed.) ''Corolla linguistica. Festschrift F. Sommer zum 80. Geburtstag'' (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1955) 177–180. * ''Ein neues Inachos-Fragment des Sophokles'' (Munich: Beck, 1958). Short monograph. * "Sophoclea", ''Wiener Studien'' 79 (1966) 63–66.

Other works

* ''Die Meistersingerschule in Augsburg und der Homercbersetzer Johannes Spreng'' (Duncker & Humblot: Munich, 1919). A revised version of his dissertation. * "Gottheit und Individuum in der frühgriechischen Lyrik", ''Philologus'' 84 (1928) 137–152. * "Küchenlatein", ''Philologus'' 86 (1931) 455–59. * ''Die griechische Dichtung und die griechische Kultur'' (Munich: Hüber, 1932). Pamphlet. * "Wisdom and vision in the Old Testament", ''Zeitschrift für Alttestimentntliche Wissenschaft'' 52 (1934) 93–101. * "Hesiodisches und Homerisches", ''Philologus'' 92 (1937) 1–18. * "Vier Sappho-Strophen auf einem ptolemäischen Ostrakon", ''Philologus'' 92 (1937) 117–125. * "A Greek anecdote in Shakespeare's life", ''Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society'' 172–174 (1939) 5–6. * "Die goldene Lampe der Athene (Odyssee XIX,34)", ''Studi italiani di filologia classica'' 27/28 (1956) 426–433. * "Vom Schlaf der Erde und der Tiere (Alkman, fr. 58 D.)", ''Hermes'' 87 (1959) 1–6.

Honours

During his career, Pfeiffer received the following honours: * 1934 Member,

* 1949 Fellow,

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

* 1953 Member, German Archaeological Institute * 1955 Corresponding member, Austrian Academy of Sciences (made honorary member in 1972) * 1960 Honorary Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Oxford * 1961 Honorary Member, Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies * 1965 Honorary doctorate,

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

* 1971 Corresponding member,

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

* 1971 Honorary doctorate, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Notes

Works cited

* Bühler, W. (1980) "Rudolf Pfeiffer †", ''Gnomon'' 52: 402–410. * * Pfeiffer, R. (1968) ''History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginnings to the end of the Hellenistic Age'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press). * Turner, E.G. (1983) "Edgar Lobel †", ''Gnomon'' 55: 275–280. * Vogt, E. (2001
"Pfeiffer, Rudolf Carl Otto"
in: ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'', volume 20 (Berlin) 323–324. {{DEFAULTSORT:Pfeiffer, Rudolf 1889 births 1979 deaths Classical philologists German classical philologists German classical scholars 20th-century German philologists