Jacobs, Christian Friedrich
Wilhelm
, a distinguished classicist, was born at Gotha, October 6, 1764. He studied philology,
theology, and philosophy at the universities of Jena and Göttingen, and in 1785
became an iustructor in the Gymnasium at Gotha, with a position after 1802 in the Public
Library of that city. In 1807 he accepted the office of classical teacher in the Munich
Lyceum, returning, however, to Gotha in 1810 to assume full charge of the Library and of the
collection of numismatics and antiques. From 1831 to 1842 he was director of the art
collections of Gotha. He died March 30, 1847. Besides many special editions of the
classics, including the
Carmina Iliaca of Tzetzes, Aelian, Achilles Tatius, and
the
Imagines of the Philostrati, Jacobs was a prolific contributor to general
literature and a frequent translator. His essays on topics relating to classical philology
were published at various times with the title
Vermischte Schriften, and make
eight volumes in all
(1823-44). His most important classical work is an edition
of the
Anthologia Graeca, 13 vols.
(1794-1814). He also made
numerous translations from the Anthology, which he published under the title of
Tempe, in 2 vols.
(1803). His elemeutary book on Greek
(
Elementarbuch der griechischen Sprache), published in 1805, was long popular.
Of his other writings may be mentioned the
Geschichte des weiblichen
Geschlechts. See Bursian,
Geschichte der class. Philol. in Deutschland,
pp. 635-640.
