Page:Imperialdictiona02eadi Brandeis.pdf/338

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
FAB
312
FAB

publications for the study of the Greek classics. He published commentaries on Terence and parts of Cicero, and his life of Cicero—"Ciceronis historia per consules descripta"—is reprinted in Ernesti's, and several of the better editions of Cicero.—J. A., D.

FABRICIUS, Georgius, a distinguished German scholar, whose real name was Goldschmied, was born at Chemnitz, on the 23rd April, 1516; and after having studied at Leipzig, accompanied a young nobleman to Rome. He then lived at Strasburg, and afterwards was appointed headmaster of the gymnasium at Meissen, where he continued till his death, 13th July, 1571. He was highly successful and universally beloved as a teacher, and excelled as a Latin poet and an antiquary. He was made poet-laureate by Maximilian II. His most important works are—"Res Misnicæ," 1569; "Saxonia Illustrata," 1600; "Res Germaniæ et Saxoniæ Memorabiles," 1609; and his edition of Horace, Basle, 1555, 2 vols.—(See Schreber, Vita Geo. Fabricii, Lips., 1717; and Baumgarten-Crusius, De Geo. F. vita et scriptis, Misniæ, 1839.)—K. E.

FABRICIUS, Jakob, a celebrated physician, was born at Rostock in 1577, and died at Copenhagen in 1652. He followed the advice of Hippocrates, in conjoining the study of the mathematics with that of medicine. Fabricius had the happiness to be one of the pupils of the great Tycho Brahe. After some time spent in foreign travel, he was appointed professor of medicine and mathematics at Rostock, where he remained forty years. He then went to Copenhagen, and was appointed chief physician to the kings of Norway and Denmark.—R. M., A.

FABRICIUS, Johannes, surnamed Montanus, a learned and zealous promoter of the Reformation in the canton of the Grisons, was born in Alsace in 1526 or 1527. His mother was the sister of the Swiss reformer, Leo Juda, to whom at Zurich he was sent in his seventh year, and under whose care he was instructed in his first rudiments. He also studied at Basle, Strasburg, Marburg, and Wittemberg. Having returned to Zurich in 1547, he became a teacher in the public school, and in 1551 was appointed resident tutor of the students of theology attending the university of that city. In this office he continued six years, and in 1557 was recommended by the council of Zurich to the magistrates of Chur in the Grisons, as a man worthy to succeed Comander as pastor of that town—an office which placed him at the head of the reformed church of the canton. The period of his ministry there was one of great difficulty, owing to the conflicts which took place between opposing religious parties; but Fabricius maintained the interests of truth with equal firmness and ability, and he remained steadfastly at his post, till he was cut off in 1566 by a visitation of the plague, in which no fewer than fourteen hundred of the inhabitants of Chur died. His public contests at Chur hindered him in his favourite literary pursuits. His principal pieces were—"Historica Oratio, qua et vita Conradi Pellicani et temporis illius res continentur;" "Orationes tres contrariæ, in quibus disquiritur an libera gens aliqua se communi fœdere cum extero principe possit aut debeat conjungere." Several others of his writings are contained in Miscellanea Tigurina, tom. iii.—P. L.

FABRICIUS, Johann, a distinguished oriental scholar, was born in 1608 at Dantzig, and after studying at several German universities, repaired to Leyden, where he devoted himself, under the celebrated professor Golius, to the study of the Arabic and Persian languages. In 1635 he settled at Rostock, as a teacher of the oriental languages, where he published, in 1636, a dissertation "De dignitate et commendatione linguæ Arabicæ," and, in 1638, "Specimen Arabicum, quo exhibentur aliquot scripta Arabica, versione Latina donata, analysi grammatica expedita, notisque necessariis illustrata." He travelled extensively in Europe in the interest of his favourite branch of learning, and returning to Rostock in 1642, he succeeded Calov in the chair of theology and Hebrew. In 1653 he was cut off by the plague. He was one of the earliest orientalists of Germany—a succession of scholars to whom oriental studies, in all especially that relates to philology, are under immense obligations.—P. L.

FABRICIUS, Johann, a Lutheran theologian of the school of Calixtus, was born in 1644 at Altorf, where his father was professor of theology, and was educated in the schools of Nürnberg and the universities of Helmstädt and Altorf. His ancestors for four generations had been ministers of the Lutheran church, of the Melancthonian school—"pacis et concordiæ studiosi." From 1670 to 1677 he travelled through Germany and Italy, and was for some time pastor to a congregation of German merchants in Venice. In 1677 he was called to a theological chair at Altorf, and in 1697 to a similar chair at Helmstädt, which he continued to fill till 1709, when he was compelled to withdraw, in consequence of a dispute with Anthony Ulrich, duke of Brunswick. Fabricius was deeply imbued with the irenical views and tendencies of Calixtus; but in him they had degenerated into a vicious latitudinarianism, which called forth loud and just condemnation, not only from all the universities of Germany, both Lutheran and Reformed, but also from the court of George I. of England, who, as elector of Hanover, had a powerful voice in the affairs of the university of Helmstädt, and who demanded the resignation of Fabricius as an expiation of his offence. After his retirement from the chair he was appointed by Duke Anthony Ulrich general inspector of schools for the duchy; and he continued also to enjoy the revenues of his office as abbot of Königslutter till his death, which took place in 1729. He occupied the last years of his life in drawing up an interesting Catalogue Raisonnée of his ancestral library, in six quartos—"Historia Bibliothecæ Fabricianae"—published at Wolfenbüttel in 1717-24.—P. L.

FABRICIUS, Johann Albert, an eminent German scholar, whose vast erudition embraced almost all branches of human knowledge, was born at Leipzig, 11th November, 1668, and devoted himself to the study of philosophy, medicine, and theology in the university of his native town. He was appointed professor of eloquence and moral philosophy at the gymnasium of Hamburg, and declined a theological chair at Giessen, which was offered him by the landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt. Among his numerous works, his "Bibliotheca Græca," 4th edit., by Harles, 12 vols., takes the highest rank; it is a model of learned research and accomplished scholarship. His "Bibliotheca Latina," 3rd edit., by Ernesti, 3 vols.; his "Bibliotheca mediæ et infimae ætatis;" "Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica;" and "Bibliographia Antiquaria," are no less valuable works. A great amount of philological knowledge is also embodied in his editions of Sextus Empiricus and Dio Cassius. He died at Hamburg, 30th April, 1736.—(See Schröckh's Lebensbeschreibungen II., 344.)—K. E.

FABRICIUS, Johann Christian, a celebrated Danish entomologist, born at Tönder in 1748. His entomological writings gave a new value to this branch of zoology, and have in fact been mainly instrumental in its general development. His works are numerous—"Systema Entomologiæ;" "Entomologia Systematica," with an index and supplement; "Nomenclator Entomologicus;" "Mantiosa Insectorum;" "Philosophia Entomologica;" "Genera Insectorum;" "Reise nach Norwegen;" "Species Insectorum;" "Systema Antliatorum;" "Systema Piezatorum;" "Syst. Eleutheratorum;" "Syst. Rhynchotorum." From 1770 to 1775 he was professor in Copenhagen at the Royal Institute of Natural History at Charlottenborg. He died in 1801 at Kiel, where he was professor of natural history.—M. H.

FABRICIUS, Johann Ludwig, was born at Schaffhausen in Switzerland, 29th July, 1632; studied at Cologne, Schaffhausen, and Utrecht; became doctor and professor of theology in the university of Heidelberg; and died 1st February, 1697. He was a warm admirer of the theology of Calvin, and at his instance the candidates of theology in the university of Heidelberg were appointed to be examined in Calvin's Institutes and the Catechism of Ursinus, commonly called the Heidelberg Catechism. At the sack of Heidelberg by the French he honourably exerted himself to save its precious library from plunder and dispersion, and he succeeded in conveying the university records to Frankfort; but, as is well known, many of its MS. treasures were carried off to Paris and Rome. His most curious work was a dialogue on the lawfulness and utility of stage plays—"De Ludis Scenicis Dialexis Casuistica, quinquepartita," in which he exhibits first the judgments of philosophers and statesmen—then those of jurists and of the ancient doctors of the church—and next those of the modern theologians. In the fourth part he meets the objections drawn from the scriptures; and, summing up in the fifth, he concludes decidedly in favour of the drama, as an amusement "worthy of man, as helping to improve that which makes us men—the mind."—P. L.

FABRICIUS, Otto, bishop, professor, and doctor of theology, born at Rudkjöbing in 1744, one of the most celebrated naturalists of Denmark. From 1768 to 1773 he was the pastor of Frederikshaab in Greenland, and employed this time not alone in the study of the language of Greenland, but also in acquiring a very profound knowledge of the animal kingdom of