Illustration for the article on Historia Osrhoena et Edessena ex numis illustrata by Theophilus Siegfried Bayer published in the 1736 volume of Acta Eruditorum

Theophilus (Gottlieb) Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738), was a German classical scholar with specialization in Sinology.[1] He was a Sinologist and professor of Greek and Roman Antiquities at St Petersburg Academy of Sciences between 1726 and 1737.[2]

Personal details

Bayer was a native of Königsberg, East Prussia. His father Johann Friedrich was from the German Protestant minority in Hungary, but had moved to East Prussia where he worked as a painter.[3] The youthful T. S. Bayer was an excellent student at the University of Königsberg, studying Latin, Greek and Hebrew.[4] He was a Rector of the Königsberg Cathedral from 1721 to 1726,[2] and also worked as a librarian at the Königsberg Public Library.[1]

Bayer collection

He had a library of more than 200 manuscripts, Chinese and other Oriental books, including:

After his death in Saint Petersburg his widow handed over his books and papers to the academy authorities, receiving the rest of her husband's pay due that year.[5] The library was later sold to a Lutheran pastor in London, Heinrich Walter Gerdes. William Hunter later purchased the collection from Gerdes' widow. It finally reached the University of Glasgow in 1807 with a brief stay in London with Dr Matthew Baillie, Hunter's nephew.[6][7]

His works

  • Historia regni Graecorum bactriani [A History of the Kingdom of the Bactrian Greeks].[8]
  • Manuscript in Latin and Chinese.[9]
  • De Eclipsi Sinica published in 1718.[1]
  • Museum sinicum, a two-volume compendium of materials on the Chinese language published in 1730.[10][11]
  • Works on the history of Russia, including De Varagis (1729) and Origines russicae (1736).[12]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "De Eclipsi Sinica, frontispiece". sciencephoto.com. ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  2. 1 2 "Manuscripts - Name Details - Name: Theophilus Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer". special.lib.gla.ac.uk. University of Glasgow. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  3. ↑ Lundbaek, Knud T. S. Bayer(1694-1738) Pioneer Sinologist London 1986 p.12 ISBN 0700701893
  4. ↑ Lundbaek, Knud T. S. Bayer(1694-1738) Pioneer Sinologist London 1986 p.13 ISBN 0700701893
  5. ↑ Lundbaek, Knud T. S. Bayer(1694-1738) Pioneer Sinologist London 1986 p.209 ISBN 0700701893
  6. ↑ "Bayer Collection". gla.ac.uk. University of Glasgow. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  7. ↑ "GB 0247 MS Hunter B - Collection". special.lib.gla.ac.uk. University of Glasgow. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  8. ↑ "A Russian Academician Documents Ancient Neighbors". russia.nypl.org. The New York Public Library. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  9. ↑ "Globus Coelestis Sinicus Explicatus". gla.ac.uk. University of Glasgow. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  10. ↑ "THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARY 1991 - T. S. Bayer published at St. Petersburg in 1730 his two-volume Museum sinicum". uchicago.edu.
  11. ↑ Christie?s. "BAYER, Theophilus (Gottlieb) Siegfried (1694-1738). 'Museum Sinicum, in quo Sinicae Linguae et Litteratura ratio explicator... Petropoli, Ex Typographia Academiae Imperatoriae Anno 1730'". christies.com.
  12. ↑ Serhii Plokhy, Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), chapter 1.
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