David Ruhnken

David Ruhnken(2 January 1723 – 14 May 1798) was a Dutchclassical scholarofGermanorigin.

David Ruhnken
David Ruhnken
Born	2 January 1723 Bedlin,Province of Pomerania,Kingdom of Prussia
Died	14 April 1798(1798-04-14)(aged 75) Leiden,Batavian Republic

Origins

Ruhnken was born inBedlin(today Bydlino) nearStolp,Pomerania Province,(today Słupsk,Poland). After he had attended Latin school atKönigsberg(1737–1741), his parents wanted him to enter the church, but after two years at theUniversity of Wittenberghe determined to live the life of a scholar. At Wittenberg, Ruhnken studied with two distinguished professors,Johann Daniel Ritterand Johann Wilhelm von Berger. To them he owed a thorough grounding in ancient history and Roman antiquities and literature; and from them he learned a pure and vividLatinstyle. At Wittenberg, Ruhnken also studiedmathematicsandRoman law.

The only thing that made him want to leave Wittenberg was a desire to exploreGreek literature.Neither at Wittenberg nor at any other German university was Greek being seriously studied at the time. It was taught to students in divinity for the sake of the GreekNew Testamentand the earlyfathers of the church.Friedrich August Wolfwas the real creator of Greek scholarship in modern Germany, andRichard Porson's gibe that "the Germans in Greek are sadly to seek" had some truth in it.

University of Leiden

Ruhnken followed the advice of his friends at Wittenberg and early in 1744 went to theUniversity of Leiden,where, stimulated by the influence ofRichard Bentley,Tiberius Hemsterhuishad founded the only real school of Greek learning on the Continent since the days ofJoseph Justus ScaligerandIsaac Casaubon.Hemsterhuis and Ruhnken were close friends during the twenty-three years between Ruhnken's arrival in the Netherlands in 1743 and the death of Hemsterhuis in 1766. Ruhnken andValckenaerwere the two pupils of the great master on whom his inheritance must devolve.

As Ruhnken's reputation spread, many efforts were made to attract him back to Germany, but after settling in Leiden, he only left the country once, when he spent a year in Paris, ransacking the public libraries (1755). For work achieved, this year of Ruhnken may compare even with the famous year whichRitschlspent inItaly.

In 1757 Ruhnken was appointed lecturer in Greek, to assist Hemsterhuis, and in 1761 he succeededOudendorp,with the title of "ordinary professor of history and eloquence", as Latin professor. This promotion attracted the enmity of some native Netherlanders, who deemed themselves more worthy of the chair of Latin. Ruhnken's defence was to publish works onLatin literaturewhich eclipsed and silenced his rivals.

In 1766Valckenaersucceeded Hemsterhuis in the Greek chair. The intimacy between the two colleagues was only broken by Valckenaer's death in 1785, and stood the test of common candidature for the office (an important one at Leiden) of12th Librarian of Leiden University,in which Ruhnken was successful. Ruhnken's later years were clouded by severe domestic misfortune, and by the political commotions which, after the outbreak of thewar with Englandin 1780, troubled the Netherlands without ceasing, and threatened to extinguish the University of Leiden.

Character

Soon after his Ruhnken's death, his pupilWyttenbachwrote his biography.He wrote that Ruhnken was not a recluse or a pedant, but was sociable and cared nothing for rank. Wyttenbach said of him in his early days that he knew how to sacrifice to theSirenswithout proving traitor to theMuses.Life in the open air had a great attraction for him; he was fond of sport, and would sometimes devote to it two or three days in the week. In his bearing towards other scholars Ruhnken was generous and dignified, distributing literary aid with a free hand, and meeting onslaughts for the most part with a smile. In the records of learning he occupies an important position, as a principal link in the chain which connects Bentley with the modern scholarship of the European Continent. The spirit and the aims of Hemsterhuis, the great reviver of Continental learning, were committed to his trust, and were faithfully maintained. He greatly widened the circle of those who valued taste and precision in classical scholarship. He powerfully aided the emancipation of Greek studies from theology.Ruhnken was one of the first scholars of the 18th century to study and interpret Plato's writings in ancient Greek rather than interpreting Plato's works through the prisms of translations by others.

Works

Ruhnken's principal works are editions of:

1. Timaeus'sLexicon of Platonic Words(1st ed. 1754 with commentary; 2nd ed. 1789; there appeared a revision of the second edition byGeorg Aenotheus Kochin 1828)
2. Thalelaeusand other Greek commentators on Roman law
3. Rutilius Lupusand othergrammarians
4. Velleius Paterculus
5. the works ofMuretus.

He also occupied himself much with the history of Greek literature, particularly the oratorical literature, with theHomerichymns, thescholiaor, Plato and the Greek and Roman grammarians andrhetoricians.A discovery famous in its time was that in the text of the work ofApsineson rhetoric a large piece of a work byLonginuswas embedded. Modern views of the writings attributed to Longinus have lessened the interest of this discovery without lessening its merit.

References

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Smith Reid, James (1911). "Ruhnken, David".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.