Bergler, Stephen

, was born at Hermanstadt, the capital cf Transylvania, about 16SO, and leaving his country in pursuit of employment, engaged with Fritsch, the opulent and spirited bookseller of Leipsic, as corrector of the press, but his turbulent and unsocial character having occasioned a dispute between him and Fritsch, he went to Amsterdam, where his intimate knowledge of Greek recom-r mended him to the superintendance of Wetstein’s edition of Homer, 1702, 2 vols. 12mo, and the magnificent edition of the Onomasticon of Pollux, 2 vols. fol. 1706. Bergler afterwards went to Hamburgh, where he assisted Fabric! us in his Bibl. Grceca, and his edition of Sextus Ernpiricus, | Leipsic, 1718, folio. Returning then to Leipsic, he transcribed an ancient scholiast on Homer, published a new edition of Alciphron, with excellent notes, 1715, 8vo, dnd made some progress in an edition of Herodotus, in a new translation of Herodian, more literal than that of Politian, and in an edition of Aristophanes, which was published by the younger Burmann in 1760, 2 vols. 4to. Amidst all these employments, he contributed several excellent papers to the Leipsic “Acta Eruditorum.” It is to him likewise that we owe the Latin translation of the four books of Genesius on the Byzantine history, which is inserted in vol. XXIII. of that collection, published at Venice in 1733, but is not in the fine Louvre edition. For Fritsch, to whom he seems to have been reconciled, he translated a Greek work of Alexander Maurocordato, hospodar of Walachia, which was published, with the original text, under the title “Liber de officiis,” Leipsic, 1722, 4to, and London, 1724, 12mo. For this he was so liberally rewarded by John Nicolas, prince of Walachia, and son to the author, that he determined to ^uit Leipsic, and attach himself to his patron. He went accordingly to Walachia, where the prince had a capital library of manuscripts, collected at a vast expence. Bergler found there the introduction and first three chapters of Eusebius’s “Evangelical Demonstration,” hitherto undiscovered, and sent a copy of them to Fabricius, by whom they were printed in his “Delectus argumentorum,” Hamburgh, 1725, 4to. On the death of the prince, however, Bergler being without support, went to Constantinople, where he died in 1746, after having, it is said, embraced Mahometanism. He was a most accomplished scholar in Greek and Latin, and an accurate editor; but his unsteady turn and unsocial disposition procured him many enemies, aud even among his friends he was rather tolerated than admired. ¹