Johann David Köhler
Encyclopedia
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
. His academic focuses were on Roman coins as historical artifacts, ancient weapons, and genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
. Köhler also served as university librarian at Altdorf and contributed to the early library science
Library science
Library science is an interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology, education, and other areas to libraries; the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources; and the...
literature.
Life
Köhler was born in ColditzColditz
Colditz is a town in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, near Leipzig, located on the banks of the river Mulde. The town has a population of 5,188 ....
in the Electorate of Saxony
Electorate of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony , sometimes referred to as Upper Saxony, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire. It was established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356...
and studied at the University of Wittenberg. He was a professor of logic and history at universities in Altdorf
University of Altdorf
The University of Altdorf was a university in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, a small town outside Nuremberg. It was founded in the late 16th century, received university privileges in 1622 and was closed in 1809 by Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria....
and later Göttingen and served briefly as university librarian at Altdorf. He died in Göttingen.
Influence
Köhler came into scholarly prominence in a transitional period for European scholarship. From the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and into the Enlightenment
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an scholars were part of a "common culture of scholarship", a respublica litteraria (Eskildsen 2005: 421). That common culture of scholarship was subjected to a series of nationalistic and religious pressures across the eighteenth century so that as Köhler came into prominence in the eighteenth century, there had been a shift from the pan-European imagined community to a more parochial nationalist one (Anderson 1991).
His credentials as a library and information scientist
Library and information science
Library and information science is a merging of the two fields library science and information science...
are based upon three of his monograph
Monograph
A monograph is a work of writing upon a single subject, usually by a single author.It is often a scholarly essay or learned treatise, and may be released in the manner of a book or journal article. It is by definition a single document that forms a complete text in itself...
s: Syllogie aliquot Scriptorum de bene ordinanda et ornanda Bibliotheca, published in 1728; Hochverdiente und aus bewährten Urkunden wohlbeglaubte Ehren-Rettung Johann Guttenbergs, eingebohrnen Bürgers in Mayntz in 1741; and Anweisung für reisende Gelerte, Bibliothecken, Münz-Cabinette, Antiquitäten-Zimmer, Bilder-Sale, Naturalien- und Kunst-Kammern, u.d.m mit Nutzen zubesehen from 1762. The 1728 Syllogie… is a bibliographic examination of major history texts of the day and is in keeping with the role of historians then and now. The 1741 Hochverdiente… is an examination of the assertion that Johann Gutenberg was indeed the inventor of movable type
Movable type
Movable type is the system of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document ....
– the printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
– against competing claims. Bernhard von Mallinckrodt
Bernhard von Mallinckrodt
Bernhard von Mallinckrodt , dean of Münster cathedral, was a bibliophile from a noble family of Protestants, who converted to Catholicism....
(1591-1664) is credited with writing the first defense of Gutenberg as the inventor of the printing press in 1639 (Schmidmaier 2001), but Köhler is said to have authored second and definitive defense (Eck 2000). Köhler's third and most important work within this context is the 1792 Anweisung für reisende Gelerte, Bibliothecken, Műnz-Cabinette, Antiquitäten-Zimmer, Bilder-Sale, Naturalien und Kunst-Kammern, u.d.m mit Nutzen zubesehen.
Finally, Köhler published a scholarly journal on Roman coins and numismatics
Numismatics
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...
in general. His son Johann Tobias Köhler continued that interest. This journal is important to library science in that it is among the first true serials ever published.
Works
- Orbis terrarum in nuce, sive Compendium historiae civilis chronologicum in sculptura memoriali
- 1719: Bequemer Schul- und Reise-Atlas. Nürnberg: Christoph Weigel
- 1724: Anleitung zu der verbesserten neuen Geographie, vornemlich zum Gebrauch der Weigelschen Landcharten. Nürnberg: Christoph Weigel
- 1726: Genealogische Geschichte der Herren und Grafen von Wolfstein
- 1730: Kurze und gründliche Anleitung zu der alten und mittleren Geographie. Nürnberg: Christoph Weigel
Further reading
- Michael Diefenbacher, Markus Heinz, Ruth Bach-Damaskinos: „auserlesene und allerneueste Landkarten“. Der Verlag Homann in Nürnberg 1702–1848. Nürnberg: Tümmels 2002, S. 52
- Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr: Historische Nachricht von den Nürnbergischen Mathematicis und Künstlern. Nürnberg, 1730 Peter Conrad Monath
- Georg Andreas Will: Nürnbergisches Gelehrtenlexikon Bd. 1. Nürnberg: Lorenz Schüpfel 1755, S. 304-314
- Christian Gottlieb JöcherChristian Gottlieb JöcherChristian Gottlieb Jöcher was a German academic, librarian and lexicographer.Jöcher was born in Leipzig, and became professor of history at the University of Leipzig in 1732...
: Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexikon. Fortsetzungen und Ergänzungen von J. C. Adelung. Bd. 3. 1810. - Thomas Nicklas: "Johann David Köhler (1684–1755), Historiker". In: Fränkische Lebensbilder; 16 (1996). S. 79—93.
- Thomas Nicklas: "Der Historiker Johann David Köhler (1684–1755) und die Geschichte des gräflichen Hauses Wolfstein". In: Verhandlungen des Historischen Vereins für Oberpfalz und Regensburg; 135, 1995, S. 77—83.
- Detlev Hölscher: "Johann David Köhler, 1684-1755. Porträt eines bedeutenden Numismatikers des 18. Jahrhunderts". In: Münzen Revue; 26, 1994, H. 6, S. 728-737.
External links
- Hathi Trust. Works by Köhler