Johann Matthias Gesner

• 1. A Boy In A Poor Dwelling

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  Johann Matthias Gesner was born on the 9th of April 1691 at Roth an der Rednitz. His father Johann Samuel Gesner died in 1704 and left the family with very little money. The boy's mother Maria Magdalena remarried a man named Johann Zuckermantel who proved to be supportive. Zuckermantel noticed the young boy's gifts and prepared him for the Ansbach Gymnasium. School costs exceeded what the family could afford so public resources covered the expenses. Gesner lived in a special dwelling designed for poor students during his school years. Georg Nikolaus Köhler served as rector of the Gymnasium and gave the boy special attention. Köhler loaned Greek texts to Gesner and devised exercises where the student reconstructed intelligible texts from fragments. Gesner later recalled these school years as the most pleasant time of his life.

• 2. Rejection And Academic Rivalry

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  Gesner studied metaphysics Semitic languages and classical literature as a theology student at the University of Jena. He worked under Johann Franz Buddeus who befriended him and allowed the student to live in his own house. Despite this support he was passed over for a position in Jena. In 1715 he became librarian and vice-principal at Weimar. He later became rector of the gymnasium at Ansbach in 1729 after being dismissed as librarian there. The faculty at the University of Leipzig refused Gesner teaching privileges when he took office in 1730. This refusal created conflict between the scholar and the university administration. He eventually moved to Göttingen where he became Professor of Poetry and Eloquence in 1734. He also served as librarian while continuing to publish works on classical languages and literature.

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• 3. A Canon Dedicated To A Friend

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  In 1715 Gesner became good friends with Johann Sebastian Bach during their time together in Weimar. Bach later dedicated his Canon a 2 perpetuus BWV 1075 to Gesner as proof of their bond. This musical canon stands as evidence of the deep friendship between the two men. The dedication occurred before Gesner left Weimar for other positions. Their relationship highlights how scholars and musicians interacted within German intellectual circles of the early eighteenth century. Bach's dedication remains one of the few surviving personal connections between the composer and a classical philologist. The work itself demonstrates the shared cultural values that bound these figures together despite their different fields of expertise.

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• 4. The Society For German Letters

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  Gesner founded the Deutsche Gesellschaft in 1738 after becoming familiar with similar organizations in Leipzig. The society was devoted to the advancement of German literature during the Enlightenment era. Paul Otto documented this organization in Volume 1 published by C. Haushalter in 1898. The group sought to elevate German language usage alongside Latin and Greek studies. It represented a shift toward national literary identity at a time when classical languages dominated academic discourse. Gesner continued publishing works on classical languages while also publicizing the university. His leadership helped establish a platform for German writers to gain recognition beyond traditional humanist boundaries.

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• 5. A Dictionary That Shaped Critics

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  Baumgarten quoted passages from Horace Virgil Catullus Juvenalis and Cicero in his Aesthetics published in 1750. Many of those passages came directly from Gesner's Novus Linguae et Eruditionis Romanae Thesaurus released in 1747. Lessing noted in the Preface to Laocoön that Baumgarten acknowledged being indebted to Gesner's dictionary for most examples. Baumgarten stated he owed a large portion of the examples in his work to Gesner's lexicon. This influence extended to contemporary scholars like Baumgarten and Lessing who relied on his research. The th esaurus became a foundational reference for eighteenth-century aesthetic theory and classical scholarship. Its impact ensured Gesner's legacy endured long after his death on the 3rd of August 1761.

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