109 



GRIMM, JACOB LUDWIG CARL. 



GRONOVIUS, JOHN FREDERIC. 



210 



occupied for acme time, until a severe illness, by which be lost an eye, 

 compelled him to resign it. He returned to Gotha, where he died in 

 1807. After his death appeared his 'Correspondence LiteYaire, 

 Philosophiqne, et Critique,' 16 vols., Paris, 1312 ; another edition 

 with a euppleme it, by Alexander Barbier, 1814; and a new edition, 

 more complete th.u either of the preceding, was published at Paris, 

 1829, in 15 vols. 



GRIMM, JACOB LUDWIG CARL, was bora on the 4th of 

 January 1785, at Hanau, in the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel. When 

 he was about six years old, his father, who was a lawyer, was appointed 

 Amtmann at the small town of Steinau-an-der-Straase, where the 

 children, five sons and a daughter, were brought up in the principles 

 of the Calvinistic sect of Protestants. The father having died leaving 

 the mother with very small means, one of her sisters, who was lady 

 of the chamber (kammerfrau) to the Landgriifin of Hesse, assisted in 

 supporting the family; and at her cost in 1798 Jacob and his brother 

 Wilhelm were sent to the Lyceum at Cassel. In the spring of 1802, 

 a year earlier than Wilhelm, who at this time was attacked by a long 

 and severe illness, Jacob went to the university of Marburg, where 

 he studied law. not from inclination, but because his father, who 

 had been a jurist, had destined him for the legal profession, and his 

 mother also wished it One of the professors at Marburg was Sayigny, 

 the celebrated writer on Roman law, who having gone to Paris in the 

 mimmer of 1804, in January 1805 invited Jacob Grimm to join him, 

 in order to assist him in his literary occupations. He did so, and 

 remained with Savigny till September 1805, when he returned to 

 Camel, where his mother then resided, accompanied by Wilhelm, 

 whom he had met at Marburg, and who had then completed his 

 stu'lie'. In January 1806 Jacob obtained a situation in the office of 

 the Secretary of War, with a very small salary. His mother died in 

 May 1808, and not lonp; afterwards, when a large portion of the 

 Electorate of Hesse-C'assel had been incorporated by Napoleon I., in 

 the newly-formed kingdom of Westphalia, Jacob Grimm, through the 

 influence of Johann von Miiller, was appointed anperintendant of the 

 private library of the king, Jerome Bonaparte, which was formed in 

 his palace at WilhelmshiJhe. He received his appointment on the 

 5th of July 1808, with a salary of 2000 francs, which a few months 

 afterwards was increased to 3000. After the lapse of another short 

 interval the king himself told him, February 17, 1809, that he had 

 named him an auditeur to the state-council, and that he was still to 

 retain his place as librarian. His salary was then increased to 4000 

 francs (about 1601.) This income removed all anxiety as to tho means 

 of subsistence, and as his duties were very light he had abundant 

 leisure and means to pursue his favourite investigations into the 

 mediaeval literature of Germany. 



After Jerome Bonaparte bad been compelled, in October 1813, to 

 retire from Germany, and the Electorate of He*se-Casel had been 

 restored to its former state, with the Electoral its head, Jacob Grimm 

 was appointed in December 1813 Secretary of Legation, to accompany 

 the Hessian minister to the head-quarters of the allied army ; and in 

 April 1814 he was sent to Paris, and employed in reclaiming the books 

 which the French had carried away, at the fame time that his future 

 colleague Volkel was demanding the restitution of the pictures and 

 other works of art. Jacob Grimm attended the Congress of Vienna 

 M Secretary of Legation from October 1814 to June 1815. Soon 

 after his return home he was again sent to Paris to demand restitu- 

 tion of manuscripts carried away from the kingdom of Prussia, as 

 well as to transact some business for the Elector. 



Wilhelm Grimm had been employed about a year in the library at 

 Cassel, when in 1816 Jacob was engaged as second librarian, Volkel 

 being first librarian. In 1828 Volkel died, and Jacob Grimm expected 

 that he and his brother wonld receive the appointments of first and 

 second librarians. When therefore the situation of first librarian was 

 given to Rommel, historiographer and keeper of the archives, the 

 brothers were dissatisfied; and in October 1829 they removed to the 

 University of Gottingen, where Jacob Grimm received the appoint- 

 ments of professor and librarian, and Wilhelm that of sub-librarian. 

 Having been one of the seven professors of the university who in 

 1837 signed a protest against the measures taken by the new King of 

 Hanover to abrogate the constitution which had been established 

 some years previously, Jacob Grimm was dismissed from his employ- 

 ments in the university, and banished from the kingdom of Hanover. 

 He retired to Cassel, whither his brother, who had also signed the 

 protest, followed him in 1838, and where they remained occupied in 

 literary labours till March 1841, when they accepted an invitation of 

 the King of Prussia to remove to Berlin, where they were both elected 

 members of the Academy of Sciences, and appointed to professorships, 

 which they still retain. 



The works of Jacob Grimm are numerous. Speaking of them, he 

 lays, " All my labours have been either directly or indirectly devoted 

 to researches into our ancient language, poetry, and laws. These 

 studies may seem useless to many, but to me they have always 

 appeared a serious and dignified task, firmly and distinctly connected 

 with our common fatherland, and calculated to foster the love of it. 

 I have esteemed nothing trifling in these inquiries, but have used the 

 small for the elucidation of the great, popular tradition 1 ) for the eluci- 

 dation of written document 1 !. Several of ray books have been 



Bloc. DIV. vol. in. 



published iu common with my brother William. We lived from our 

 youth up in brotherly community of goods; money, books, and 

 collectanea, belonged to us iu common, aud it was natural to combine 

 our labours." One of his earliest works was ' Ueber den Alt- 

 Deutschen Meister-Geaang,' Svo, Gottingen, 1811. His principal 

 works are ' Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache ' (' History of the 

 German Language '), 2 vols. Svo ; ' Deutsche RechtsalterthUmer ' 

 (' German Legal Antiquities '), Svo, Gottingen, 1828 ; ' Deutsche 

 Mythologie,' Svo, 1835; and his great work on German grammar, 

 ' Deutsche Grammatik," 4 vols. Svo, Gottingen, 1826-37. He published 

 an edition of ' Reinhart Fuchs,' accompanied by a preface, in which he 

 discusses the characteristics of the fable-narrations of the middle age?, 

 and afterwards addressed an epistle to Lachmann on the same subject, 

 ' Sendschreibeu an Lachmann iiber Reinhart Fuchs,' Svo, Leipzic, 

 1840. He published a collection of 'German Axioms' ('Weisthii- 

 mer'), 3 vols. Svo, Gottbgen, 1840-42; and a collection of 'Old 

 Spanish Narrative Poems' ('Silva de Romances Viejos'). One of the 

 most popular of the publications of the brothers is the ' Kinder und 

 HauB-Miirchen,' of which there are three or four English translations. 

 Two of the latest are entitled ' Household Stories collected by tho 

 Brothers Grimm,' 2 vols. Svo, 1853, and ' Home Stories, newly trans- 

 lated by M. L. Davis,' Svo, 1855. 



The Brothers Grimm have been for about three years employed on 

 a large German Dictionary, which will be exceedingly valuable, and 

 when completed may justly be regarded as a national work. It is 

 entitled 'Deutsches Wbrterbuch, von Jacob Grimm und Wilhelm 

 Grimm,' 4to, 1852, &e. ; the fourth number of the second volume, 

 published in May this year (1S56), extends to 'Der.' 



* GRIMM, WILHELM CARL, was born at Hanover, on the 2ith 

 of February 1786. The leading facts of his life are stated in the 

 preceding biography of his brother, Jacob Grimm. His publications 

 consist for the most part of German poetry of the middle ages, such 

 ta that of 'Grave Ruodolf,' ' HildebrandslieJ,' the 'Freidank,' the 

 ' Rosengarten,' the ' Goldenen Schmiede,' and others. He published a 

 translation into German of Old Danish Hero-Ballads (' Alt-Diinische 

 Heldenlieder'), Heidelberg, 1811. His inquiry into the German Ruuic 

 inscriptions (' Ueber Deutsche Runen,' Gottingen, 1821) is a very 

 learned and curious investigation. He published an imitation of Crofton 

 Croker's ' Fairy Legends of Ireland,' under the title of 'Irische Elfen- 

 Miirchen,' Leipzig, 1826, with an introduction on the belief in fairies. 



GROCYN, WILLIAM, one of the revivers of literature, was born 

 at Bristol in 1442, and received his early education at Winchester 

 School. He was elected thence to New College, Oxford, in 1467, and 

 in 1479 was presented by the warden and fellows of that society to 

 the rectory of Newton Longueville, in Buckinghamshire. In 1485 he 

 was made a prebendary of Lincoln, aud iu 148S set out upon his 

 travels into foreign countries. His great object was to obtain a 

 thorough knowledge of the Greek language, which was then but little 

 cultivated in England. Accordingly he went into Italy, where he 

 studied for some time under Demetrius Chalcondylas, Politiauo, and 

 Hermolaus Barbarus. He returned to England, and fixed himself iu 

 Exeter College, Oxford, in 1491, where he took the degree of B.D. 

 Here too he publicly taught the Greek language, and was the first who 

 introduced a better pronunciation of it than had been before known 

 in England. The cultivation of thia language however in the uni- 

 versity alarmed many as a dangerous innovation ; and Wood informs 

 us that the members became divided upon it into two factions, distin- 

 guished by the appellations of Greeks and Trojans. It was at this 

 period that Erasmus visited Oxford, and resided during the greater part 

 of his stay there in Grocyn's house. Erasmus, who mentions him 

 with great and merited commendation, calls him ' patronus et pre- 

 ceptor.' In the course of his career Grocyn had one or two other 

 preferment*, and in 1506 became master of Allhallows College, at 

 Maidstone, in Kent, though he continued to live mostly at Oxford. 

 He died at Maidstone in 1519, of palsy, with which he had been 

 seized a year before. His will is printed in the Appendix to Knight's 

 ' Life of Erasmus.' A Latin epistle of Qrocyn to Aldus Manutius is 

 prefixed to Linacre's translation of Proclus's ' De Sphtera,' at the end 

 of the 'Astronomi Veteres' of 1499. The productions ascribed to 

 him by Bale, Leland, and Tanner are not extant in print. (Knight, 

 Life of Eratmut; Erasmi, Epiit., foL, Ludg. Bat., 1706, pp. 95, 294; 

 Wood, Athencc Oxon., ed. Bliss, i., 30 32.) 



GRONO'VIUS, the Latinised form of Gronov, was the name of a 

 family originally from Germany, but settled in Holland, several 

 members of which distinguished themselves by their classical learning 

 in the 17th and ISth centuries. 



Jonx FEEDEBTC GRONOV, born at Hamburg in 1611, studied at 

 Leipzig, Jena, and Altdorf; travelled through Holland, England, 

 France, and Italy ; was appointed professor of belles-lettres at Leyden 

 in 1658. He died in 1671. He published editions of several of the 

 classics, such as Livy, Sallust, Seneca, Pliny, &c. He wrote 'De 

 Sesterciis, seu Subsecivorum recunite veteris Grtecse et Romanes, 

 libri iv.,' Deventer, 1643, republiahed with important additions by his 

 son James Gronovius, Leyden, 1691; ' DC Musseo Alexandrine Exer- 

 citationes Academics} ; ' ' Lcctiones Plautinsc, quibus nou tantum 

 fabulae Plautinse et Terentianfe, verum etiam Cesar, Cicero, Livius, 

 illustrantur,' Amsterdam, 1740; and other works of classical 



erudition. 



p 



