Johann Jakob Breitinger

Johann Jakob Breitinger ( born March 1, 1701 Zurich, † December 14, 1776 ibid ) was a Swiss philologist and author.

Life

Johann Jakob Breitinger studied theology and philology and first earned recognition from 1730 by a new edition of the Septuagint. From 1731, he works as a professor of Hebrew and later the Greek language at the high school in Zurich. Breitinger was known above all as an employee of his friend Johann Jakob Bodmer. In their common works on Church history is not always to be distinguished from whom came the most suggestions. The main part of the historical collection Thesaurus historicae Helveticae ( 1735), however, can be attributed Breitinger.

Breitinger's main work critische poetry of 1740 was a rejection of the traditional poetic principle of imitation of nature in favor of creative imagination - it had great influence on the German literary theory and the burgeoning cult of genius. In this context, the literature was also historically significant dispute Bodmer and Breitinger with Johann Christoph Gottsched.

Works

• Critical essay on the nature, the intentions and the Gebrauche the parables, 1740
• Critische poetry, 1740
• Defense of the Swiss Muse Mr DA Haller, 1744