Bidermann, John Theophilus

, a very learned and voluminous German writer, was born at Naumberg, April 5, 1705, and studied at Wittemberg, where he was admitted to his master’s degree in 1717, and soon after made librarian to the city. In 1732 he returned to Naumberg, ancl was appointed co-rector of the public school, in which office he continued for nine years, and in 1741, on the death of John George Scutz, was promoted to be rector. In 1747, the place of rector of the school of Friedburg becoming vacant, he was invited to | fill it, and accordingly, with the coiTsent of his patrons at Nauinberg, he removed thither, and added greatly to the reputation of' the school. He died there in 1772, leaving a vast number of works in Latin and German, published during his literary career, some of which involved him in controversies with his contemporaries, carried on in the German journals with a considerable degree of animosity. Harles enumerates above an hundred and fifty articles of his publication, separately, or in the literary journals, on subjects of sacred criticism, philology, the arts, poetical criticism, and some works of whim and imagination; the following selection will probably afford a sufficient specimen 1. “De insolentia titulorum librariorum,” Naumberg, 1743. 2. “De religione eruditorum,” ibid. 1744. 3. “Metelemata philologica,” ibid. 1746, with a continuation, 1748 50. 4. “Cur homines montani male audiant?” ibid. 1748. 5. “De Latinitate maccaronica,” ibid. 6. “De Isopsephis,” ibid. 7. “Fabulosa de septem dormientibus historia,” ibid. 1752. 8.“DearteObliviscendi,”ibid. 1752. 9.“De primis rei metallicae inventoribus,” ibid. 1763. 10. “De antiquitate sodinarum metallicarum,” ibid. 1764. 11.“Acta scholastica,” 1741, &c. 8 vols. a collection of programmes and academical dissertations, continued afterwards under the title of “Nova acta scholastica.” 12. “Selecta scholastica,” 1744 46, 2 vols. 13. “Otia litteraria,” Freiburgh, 1751. In a dissertation which he published in 1749, “De vita musica ad Plauti Mostellarium,” act III. sc. 2. v. 40, he has collected all that the ancients and moderns have advanced against music and musicians but, as this was founded on mistaking the sense of Plautus, it ocsasioned a long literary contest, in which Bidermann did not appear to the best advantage. Harles, indeed, allows that his judgment did not always keep pace with his learning. ¹