Gruner, John Frederick

, an eminent divine and critical scholar, was born at Cobourg in 1723, where his father was aulic counsellor to the duke of Saxe-Cobourg. He was educated in his infancy at home under private tutors. In his thirteenth year he was sent to Weisenborn, and placed under the care of John Faccius, an eminent classical scholar, and after a year’s residence here went to the university of Casimir, where he enjoyed the instructions and lectures of Berger, Albrecht, and other eminent professors. In 1742 he removed to Jena, where he pursued his studies with great diligence and success, and took his degrees in philosophy, In 1764 he was invited to be professor of theology at Halle, and died there in 1778. His talents are represented to have been very various, and his diligence indefatigable. He published a new edition of “Cselius Sedulius,” with various commentaries, “An Introduction to Roman Antiquities,” “Miscellanea Sacra,” “Various critical Remarks on the Classics,” new editions of Eutropius, printed at Cobourg in 1752, and reprinted with additions, 1768, and of Velleius Paterculus, Cobourg, 1762, &c. ¹