Hermann, Gottfried

Johann Gottfried Jacob Hermann (1772–1848) was a German philologist and teacher.

Johann Gottfried Jacob Herman
him Johann Gottfried Jakob Hermann
Date of Birth
Place of Birth
Date of death
Place of death
A country
Scientific field	philology
Place of work
Alma mater	Jena University
Famous students	Apel, Johann August , Wunder, Edward , Arnold Schaefer
Known as	scientist, teacher
Awards and prizes

He was a professor in Leipzig. He had an outstanding gift of presentation and attracted a lot of listeners. He introduced new views into the study of the Greek metric, leaving the historical method and creating a scientific system built on the Kantian doctrine of categories (see it: “De metris Graecorum et Romanorum poetarum” Lpts., 1796; “Elementa Doctrinae metricae”, 1816).

The rational study of Greek grammar founded by him had a great influence on the development of Latin and Germanic philology. His works on grammatical questions are very important: “De emendanda ratione Graecae grammaticae” (1801); Libri IV de particula άν (1831) and critical editions of some Greek classics: The Clouds of Aristophanes , the tragedies of Euripides , Aristotle 's De Arte poetica, published after his death. Bion and others

Seeing in the exact knowledge of the language the only way to familiarize oneself with the ancient life, Herman became the founder of the critical grammatical philological school, in contrast to Böck’s general school of philosophy. He led a long controversy with Beck and Otfried Miller, who accused him of one-sided views, and published a book on this subject: “Ueber Böckhs Behandlung der griechischen Inschriften”.

Honorary Member of St. Petersburg. AH from 06.07.1825.