Theophilus Siegfried Bayer

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]

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

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. "De Eclipsi Sinica, frontispiece". sciencephoto.com. ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY. Retrieved January 29, 2012.
  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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