Johann Caspar von Orelli
Johann Caspar von Orelli ( born February 13, 1787 Zurich, † January 6, 1849 in Zurich ) was a Swiss philologist Classic.
Life
From Orelli came from a noble family from Ticino, who had found refuge during the Reformation in Zurich. His cousin, Johann Conrad Orelli (1770-1826) was the author of several works on the late Greek literature. He studied at the Carolinum in Zurich theology. Then he stayed for a short period at Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in Yverdon. Pestalozzi was impressed by the young Orelli. From 1807 to 1814 he worked as a minister in the Reformed church of Bergamo, where he acquired a taste for Italian literature, leading to the publication of contributions to the history of Italian poetry (1810 ) and Biography (1812 ) by Vitorino da Feltre, his ideal a teacher led.
In 1814 he became a teacher of Modern Languages and History at the cantonal school in Chur, 1819 Professor of Rhetoric and Hermeneutics at Carolinum in Zurich, in 1833 Professor at the New University of Zurich, whose foundation is strong due to his efforts. His attention at this time was primarily classical literature and antiquities. He had already published an edition of the Anti dose of Isocrates, with critical remarks and comments had been made based on known manuscripts of Ambrosian and Laurentian Library, by Andreas Mustoxydis from Corfu whose full text.
His editions of Plato (1839-1841, including the ancient scholia, in collaboration with AW Winckelmann ) and Tacitus (1846-1848) also deserve mention.
He was considered a very liberal man both in terms of policy and religion, an enthusiastic promoter of popular education and a very stimulating teacher. He showed great interest in the Greek struggle for independence, and fought for the appointment of the well-known David Friedrich Strauss to the chair of dogmatic theology in Zurich, which led to the riots of September 6, 1839 and the fall of the Liberal government. With Johann Heinrich Conrad Bremi and Melchior Hirzel he founded, not least on their own initiative and under the influence of ideas Bremlis a Greek club in Zurich, who had prescribed the philhellenic idea. The club was very active and had far-reaching contacts.
In 1834 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.