Adolf Kirchhoff

Johann Wilhelm Adolf Kirchhoff was a German classical scholar and epigraphist.

Biography

The son of historical painter Johann Jakob Kirchhoff, he was born in Berlin, and educated there. He then taught in various colleges until, in 1865, he was appointed professor of classical philology at the University of Berlin, where he remained for the rest of his life. Kirchhoff's scientific studies covered a wide range in linguistics, antiquities, and Greek epigraphy. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1888.

Writings

Die Homerische Odyssee, putting forward an entirely new theory as to the composition of the Odyssey
edition of Plotinus
edition of Euripides, the first critical edition based on a careful collation of all the manuscripts
edition of Aeschylus
Hesiod
Xenophon, Respublica Atheniensium
Über die Entstehungszeit des Herodotischen Geschichtswerkes
Thukydides und sein Urkundenmaterial.

The following works are the result of his epigraphical and palaeographical studies:

Die Umbrischen Sprachdenkmäler
Das Stadtrecht von Bantia, on the tablet discovered in 1790 at Oppido near Banzi, containing a plebiscite relating to the municipal affairs of the ancient Bantia
Das Gotische Runenalphabet
Die Fränkischen Runen
Studien zur Geschichte des Griechischen Alphabets.

The second part of volume iv. of the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum and volume i. of the Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum with supplements thereto are edited by him. From 1860 to 1902, he was in charge of the Inscriptiones Graecae. He edited Hermes.