Christian Frederick Matthaei

Christian Frederick Matthaei (4 March 1744 – 26 September 1811) was a German palaeographer, classical philologist, and professor at the universities of Wittenberg and Moscow.

Life Matthaei was born in 1744 in the Electorate of Saxony village of Gröst, west of Leipzig. After studying theology, philosophy, and classical philology in Leipzig with Johann Jakob Reiske and Johann August Ernesti, he left for Moscow in 1772, where he spent twelve years as a high school teacher and then as a professor of classical philology at Moscow University. The Anglican bishop Thomas Middleton described him as "the most accurate scholar who ever edited the N.T."

According to Oscar von Gebhardt, the author of a detailed discussion of his life and work published in 1898, Matthaei stole many Greek manuscripts during his work in the libraries of Moscow. While he kept some of these for himself, others he sold or gave away to libraries or friends in Germany and Holland.

Works

Βίκτωρος πρεσβυτέρου Αντιοχείας καὶ ἄλλων τινῶν ἁγίων πατέρων ἐξήγησις εἰς τὸ κατὰ Μάρκον ἅγιον εὐαγγέλιον ex codibus Mosquensibus (Moscow, 1775). Lectiones Mosquenses (Leipzig, 1779). D. Pavli Epistolae ad Thessalonicenses et Ad Timotheum Graece et Latine (Riga, 1785). D. Pauli Epistola I. et II. ad Corinthios, Graece et Latine (Riga, 1783). Joannis Apocalypsis Graece et Latine (Riga, 1785). Vetustum ecclesiae Graecae, Constantinopolitanae, ut videtur, Evangeliarum bibliothecae Serenissimi Ducis Saxo-Gothani (Leipzig, 1791). XIII epistolarum Pauli codex Graecus cum versione latina veteri vulgo Antehieronymiana olim Boernerianus nunc bibliothecae electoralis Dresdensis (Meissen, 1791). Novum Testamentum Graece et Latine (Riga, 1782–1788). Novum Testamentum Graece (Wittenberg, 1803–1807).