455G Daniel George Morhof 1639-1691
Danielis Georgi[i] Morhofi[i] Polyhistor Literarivs Philosophicvs Et Practicvs : Maximam Partem Opvs Posthvmvm, Accvrate revisum, emendatum, ex Autoris Annotationibus …, & mss. aliis, … auctum, … suppletum … duabusque praefationibus, sive diatribis isagogicis prolixioribus, T. I atque II. praefixis, quarum prior Morhofi vitam et scripta partim edita, partim inedita atque affecta, polyhist. item historiam, et eruditorum de illis judicia exhibet
Lubecae: Sumtibus Petri Böckmanni,1714 $2,500
Quarto 1 v.1: πi2(-πi2) )(4(-)(4) a-c4 d2 A-K4 2A-K4 L-6T4; v.2-3: A-5K4./ V. 1 has an engraved frontispiece portrait of the author signed: “D. Lémküs fec.”Vols. 2-3 have caption title only and are paged continuously First published in Lübeck in 1688-1692; 2nd edition in 1695; this is a revision of the 2nd edition. –Cf. Ferguson, v. II, p. 108n. This is a very clean copy internally. It is bound in a very nice full original vellum binding
Of his numerous writings only the Polyhistor continues to be of value to the literary historian as a bibliographical work displaying judgment as well as knowledge. The first seven books (Polyhistor Literarius) appeared in 1688-1698 ; the publication of the two remaining parts (P. I’hilosophicus and P. Practicus) was completed by Moller in 1707“
>>>This work was the crib for university professors in Protestant Germany through the 1750 and should be a basic text for all studying the history of science, literature and philosophy. Mohof when to England and met Boyle – was a great admirer of the Royal Society – and promoted those he called the Novatores – His method for a philosopher who was reading both ancient authors and contemporary ones was the eclectic method advocated by Christan Thomasius. This eclectic tradition was anti-platonic and quite different from the eclecticism of Cousin” Constance Blackwell
“Daniel George Morhof, a German scholar, born at Wismar in 1639, became a professor of poetry and eloquence at Kiel in 1665, and obtained the chair of history at that place in 1673. He published, besides many other works in prose and verse, a valuable contribution to literary history, entitled ‘Polyhistor, sive de Notitia Auctorum et Rerum Commentarii,’ (3 vols., 1688-1692) Died in 1691. See his Autobiography, ‘Vita propria ab Anno 1639 ad 1671,’ 1699; J. Moller, ‘De Vita, Meritis Scriptisque D.G. Morhofi,’ 1710; Niceron, ‘Memoires.’” (Thomas’ Pronouncing Dictionary) Daniel George Morhof of Wismar left a professorship at Rostock to be one of the first professors at the newly-founded university of Kiel (1665-90).
His Polyhistor, literarius, philosophicus, et practicus, is a great encyclopaedic work divided into three parts. The early part alone was printed two years before the author’s death. The whole was edited by Moller in 1704, and by the encyclopaedic author, J. A. Fabricius of Hamburg, in 1731 and 1747. We are here concerned with the Polyhistor literarius alone. 
This is a vast survey of classical learning, divided into seven books, (1) bibliothecarius, on the history of literature, on bibliography, and on libraries; (2) methodicus, on the best method of studying Greek and Latin; (3) irapao-Keuao-TiKos, on making notes and abstracts of the authors studied, together with the first draft of a dictionary of metaphors, and lists of topics for laudatory poems etc.; (4) grammaticus, on language and literature; (5) criticus, on writers on criticism and antiquities; (6) oratorius, on rhetoricians and orators ancient and modern; and (7) poeticus, on ancient and modern writers on the art of poetry, and ancient Greek and modern Latin poets, the ancient Latin poets having already been reviewed in (4). In this great work Morhof has embodied his teaching as a professor at Kiel; he reviews the books in every department of learning in an approximately chronological order; supplies a brief but judicious notice of each; and, by his copious erudition, makes amends for certain defects in the distribution of his subject. In his minor works he defended Livy from the charge of Patavinitas (1685), and also wrote on purity of Latin style (ed. I725)*.Sandys
Ferguson, J. Bibliotheca chemica,; v. II, p. 108n; Gibson, R.W. Francis Bacon,; 500
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