#MC14
1884
Octavo (ca. 22x14 cm). 12 pp. Brown ink on six folded cream paper leaves. Fold marks, two pages slightly soiled, otherwise a very good letter written in legible hand.
The letter was written when Pietschmann was the university librarian in Breslau, later he also served as the librarian in the universities of Marburg, Göttingen (where he was also a Professor of Egyptology and ancient Oriental history), Greifswald, and the Royal Library in Berlin. Eduard Meyer was a professor of ancient history at Breslau in 1885, at Halle in 1889, and at Berlin in 1902. He lectured at Harvard in 1909. Honorary degrees were given him by Oxford, St. Andrews, Freiburg, and Chicago universities. His major work is Geschichte des Altertums (1884-1902)” (Wikipedia). Wilhelm Spitta was a German linguist who for the first time described the grammar of the Egyptian colloquial in his book “Grammatik des arabischen Vulgärdialects von Aegypten” (1880).The obituary: MEYER, E. Wilhelm Spitta, Director der viceköniglichen Bibliothek in Kairo: Nekrolog. Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, [1883]. Offprint from the “Centralblatt f. Bibiliothekswesen.”Octavo. 7 pp. Original publisher’s wrappers. Inscribed by the author on verso of the front wrapper. Wrappers slightly soiled and with minor tears and losses on the corners, but overall a very good copy.
Important primary document illustrating German Oriental and ancient history studies in the latter half of the 19th century. This extensive letter by a prominent German Orientalist and Egyptologist Richard Pietschmann is addressed to his colleague and friend Eduard Meyer (1855-1930), a German historian, a specialist in ancient history. In the letter Pietschmann thanks Meyer for the obituary “you have done for our poor Spitta” and discussed several works of German Orientalists and historians – Wilhelm Spitta (1853-83), Meyer himself, Gaston Maspero (1846-1916), and Wolfgang Helbig (1839-1915).
