Brill’s New Pauly Supplements I - Volume 6 : History of classical Scholarship - A Biographical Dictionary

Get access Subject: Classical Studies
Edited by: Peter Kuhlmann (Göttingen) and Helmuth Schneider (Kassel)

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This compendium gives a comprehensive overview of the history of classical studies. Alphabetically arranged, it provides biographies of over 700 scholars from the fourteenth century onwards who have made their mark on the study of Antiquity. These include the lives, careers and works of classical philologists, archaeologists, ancient historians, students of epigraphy, numismatics, papyrology, Egyptology and the Ancient Near East, philosophers, anthropologists, social scientists, art historians, collectors and writers. The biographies put the scholars in their social, political and cultural contexts while focusing on their scholarly achievements and their contributions to modern classical scholarship.

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Valckenaer, Lodewijk Caspar

(434 words)

Author(s): Landfester, Manfred
Dutch classical philologist. Born Leeuwarden 7. 6. 1715, died Leiden 15. 3. 1785. Son of a jurist. From 1731, after attending Latin school at Leeuwarden, studied theology at Franeker, also Greek philosophy with Tiberius Hemsterhuis; doctorate Franeker 1735 [5. Vol. 1, 3–102]. From 1737 studied especially Hebrew at Leiden, and studied the Bible there. 1740 deputy rector of Latin school at Kampen (Friesland); 1741 succeeded Hemsterhuis as prof. of Greek and Historia patria at Franeker; 1765 succeeded him as prof. at Leiden with the same portfolio [6. 97–251]. Work and influence As a stu…

Valla, Giorgio

(638 words)

Author(s): Gall, Dorothee
Italian scholar, mathematician and physician. Born Piacenza 1447 (or earlier), died 23. or 24. 2. 1500 in Venice. 1457–1462 educated at the court of the Prince of Vigoleno. From 1462, studied Greek in Milan, from 1464/65 also mathematics and medicine at Pavia. 1467–1479 teacher of rhetoric and Greek at Milan, Pavia and Genoa, 1480–1484 only Pavia. 1485–1500 prof. of poetry in Venice at the Scuola Grande di San Marco; 1496 eight-month political imprisonment. Career V., who according to his son was a distant relation of the more famous Lorenzo Valla [5], was born into a…

Valla, Lorenzo

(1,231 words)

Author(s): Pieper, Christoph
Also Laurentius Valensis, Lorenzo della Valle. Italian Humanist and rhetor. Born Rome 1406¶ (cf. [19. 229]; alternative dates 1405 and 1407), died there 1. 8. 1457. Schooled in Rome; 1431–1433 prof. of rhetoric in Pavia; 1435–1448 secretary to King Alfonso V of Aragon in Naples. 1448–1457 in Rome as scriptor litterarum apostolicarum (Apostolic clerk) to the Curia and from 1455 as Papal secretary. Also named canon at the church of S. Giovanni in Laterano; from 1450 also prof. of rhetoric in Rome. Career, philosophical and historical studies V. grew up in Rome (he proudly called himself Roma…

Vallauri, Tommaso

(425 words)

Author(s): Wenzel, Antonia
Italian classical philologist. Born Chiusa Pesio (Piedmont) 23. 1. 1805, died Rome 2. 9. 1897. Initial tuition in Italian literature and religion from his father; 1815–1817 school in Mondovì, then private tuition. 1817–1820 seminary; from 1820 studied law, then literature¶ at Turin. Graduated 1823. 1823/24 prof. of rhetoric in Alba; 1824–1825 schoolteacher in Mondovì, 1825–1830 in Fossano, 1830–1835 Latin teacher in Vercelli. 1836 prof. of Latin at Univ. of Turin; from 1838 deputy prof. of rhetoric at Univ. of Turin; from 1843 prof. o…

Vallet, Georges

(517 words)

Author(s): Gras, Michel
French archaeologist. Born Pierreclos (Burgundy) 4. 3. 1922, died Sain-Symphorien-d’Ancelles 29. 3. 1994. 1943–1946 studied at École normale supérieure (ENS) in Paris; agrégation (teaching certificate) 1948, then schoolteacher in Aix-les-Bains. 1948–1950 member of the École française de Rome (EFR). 1950 assistant, then lecturer ( maître de conférences) and 1956 prof. at Univ. of Clermont-Ferrand. 1962–1967 director of the Institut français at Naples. 1967 prof. at Univ. of Paris-Nanterre; 1968–1970 cultural attaché at the French Embassy in Rome. 1970–19…

Ventris, Michael

(413 words)

Author(s): Stephan, U. C. A.
British architect and linguist. Born Michael George Francis V., Wheathampstead (Herts.), 12. 7. 1922, died Hatfield (Herts.) 6. 9. 1956. Studied Latin and Greek at school. 1940–1948 studied architecture in London, interrupted by military service in World War II. Thereafter various activities as architect and amateur cryptographer. Deciphered Linear B with John Chadwick from 1952. OBE 1955. Work and influence Even as a schoolboy, V. showed great interest in ancient languages and cultures and in language and writing systems in general. At the age of 14, he…

Venuti, Ridolfino

(727 words)

Author(s): Bentz, Martin
Italian archaeologist and antiquarian. Born Cortona 1705, died Rome 30. 3. 1763. School and studies in Prato and Pisa; 1734 in the service of Cardinal Alessandro Albani in Rome. From 1744 until his death, commissar of all Roman excavations and superintendent of the Papal collections. Biography and career V. was born into an old family from Cortona, became a cleric, studied in Prato und Pisa, specializing in the classical languages but also learning Hebrew, English and French. Among other achievements, he founded the still-extant Accademia etrusca in Cortona with his brother Marc…

Vernant, Jean-Pierre

(858 words)

Author(s): Horst, Claudia
French historian, anthropologist and religious scholar. Born Provins 4. 1. 1914, died Sèvres 9. 11. 2007. 1937 agrégation (teaching certificate) in philosophy. From 1940 teacher in Toulouse. 1940–1944 leading member of the French Resistance. 1948–1962 attended the seminars of Louis Gernet at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in Paris. 1958–1975 director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études (later EHESS) there. 1964 founded the research institute Centre des Recherches Comparées sur les Sociétés Anciennes (now named after Gernet); 1975–19…

Vettori, Francesco

(663 words)

Author(s): Hermanns, Marcus Heinrich
Italian antiquarian, collector of antiquities and glyptologist. Born Ispello (Umbria) 1692 or 1693, died 1770. Studied in Rome at Collegio Nazareno; from 1757 prefect (curator) of the Museo Sacro in Rome. Work and influence The details of V.’s biography are mostly obscure [13. 211]; [16. 79, 116]. He completed his studies in Rome at the Collegio Nazareno [11]. As a glyptologist, he was acquainted with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who respected his work; V. owned a series of signed gems of which prints were also found in the collection of Baron Philipp…

Vettori, Piero

(612 words)

Author(s): Gall, Dorothee
Petrus Victorius; Italian Humanist, philosopher and philologist. Born Florence 1499, died there 8. 12. 1585. Studied mathematics and ancient languages in Florence. Before 1530, various positions in the service of the Republic of Florence; 1530–1538 studied philology and philosophy in San Casciano in Val di Pesa. 1538–1583 prof. of Latin and Greek at Florence. Life and works V. came from a noble Florentine family. He studied mathematics, astrology, physics and Greek in the city with Andrea Dazzi. He had begun studying law at Pisa in 1514, but broke off…