Johann Philipp Palthen

Johann Philipp Palthen (26 June 1672 – 26 May 1710) was a Western Pomeranian historian and philologist.

Life Palthen was born in Wolgast, a port in what was then Swedish Pomerania. His father was Johann Palthen, a senior official at the court, and his mother, born Dorothea Hoppe, also came from one of the town's leading families. The boy attended the Gymnasium (school) in Greifswald, moving on to Greifswald University where he studied between 1688 and 1691. Palthen was also able to accompany Mayer during an extensive tour that took in the Netherlands, Denmark and the Swedish mainland.

During his stay at Oxford, in 1698, Palthen got hold of a copy of Tatian's Gospel harmony, based on a manuscript of an Old High German translation attributed to Franciscus Junius. He managed to obtain financial backing from (effectively the Swedish viceroy in Swedish Pommerania) to have the work printed at Greifswald in 1706. As well as his lectures, Palthen devoted his scholarly endeavours at Greifswald to German history, Natural and State Law and the work of Hugo Grotius. He also devoted time and meticulous care to the collection and archiving of numerous "Res Gestae" and other source documents which, because of his work three centuries ago, survive today in archival collections in Greifswald, Stralsund and Putbus.