Morhof, Daniel Georg
MORHOF, DANIEL GEORG (1639-1691), German man o letters, was born at Wismar on the 6th of February 1639. He first studied jurisprudence and then littrae humaniores at th university of Rostock, where his elegant Latin versification procured for him in 1660 the chair of poetry. In 1665 he wen to the new university of Kiel as professor of eloquence am poetry; this chair he exchanged for that of history in 1673. H died at Lttbeck on the 3<Dth of July 1691. Of his numerou writings the most important are Unterricht von der deutschei Sprache und Poesie (1682; 3rd ed., 1718), the first attempt ir Germany at a systematic survey of European literature, an Polyhistor, sive de auctorum notitia el rerum commentarii (Liibeck 688, not completed till 1707; 4th ed., 1747), a kind of encycloaedia of the knowledge and learning of his time. See Eymer, Morhof und sein Polyhistor (in the Xenia Austriaca, 'ienna, 1893) ; and biography by R. v. Liliencron in Allgem. Deutsche Biographic (1885).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
