Theophilus (Gottlieb) Siegfried Bayer (1694–1738) was a German classical scholar with specialization in Sinology. He was a Sinologist and professor of Greek and Roman Antiquities at St Petersburg Academy of Sciences between 1726 and 1737.
Personal details
Bayer was a native of Königsberg, then in the Duchy of Prussia. His father Johann Friedrich was from the German Protestant minority in Hungary, but had moved to the Duchy of Prussia, where he worked as a painter.Lundbaek, Knud T. S. Bayer(1694-1738) Pioneer Sinologist London 1986 p.12 The youthful T. S. Bayer was an excellent student at the University of Königsberg, studying Latin, Greek and Hebrew.Lundbaek, Knud T. S. Bayer(1694-1738) Pioneer Sinologist London 1986 p.13 He was a Rector of the Königsberg Cathedral from 1721 to 1726, and also worked as a librarian at the Königsberg Public Library.
Bayer collection He had a library of more than 200 manuscripts, Chinese and other Oriental books, including: Telugu and Tamil Palm-leaf manuscripts Oriental history and philology-related notes Correspondence with Jesuits in Peking.
After his death in Saint Petersburg his widow handed over his books and papers to the academy authorities, receiving the rest of her husband's pay due that year.Lundbaek, Knud T. S. Bayer(1694-1738) Pioneer Sinologist London 1986 p.209 The library was later sold to a Lutheran pastor in London, Heinrich Walter Gerdes. William Hunter later purchased the collection from Gerdes' widow. It finally reached the University of Glasgow in 1807 with a brief stay in London with Dr Matthew Baillie, Hunter's nephew.
Works
Historia regni Graecorum bactriani [A History of the Kingdom of the Bactrian Greeks]. Manuscript in Latin and Chinese. De Eclipsi Sinica published in 1718. Museum Sinicum, a two-volume compendium of materials on the Chinese language published in 1730 (Google Books: volume 1, volume 2). Works on the history of Russia, including De Varagis (1729) and Origines russicae (1736).Serhii Plokhy, Ukraine and Russia: Representations of the Past (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), chapter 1.
References
Sources
External links Transferring linguistic knowledge from Asia to Europe. T. S. Bayer’s reception of Indian missionary grammars. T.S. Bayer, 1694-1738 : pioneer sinologist - Author: Knud Lundbæk Manuscripts - Collections relating to Theophilus Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer at University of Glasgow Visitors from Guangxhou, China - The tour was rounded off with a visit to Special Collections to view a display of Chinese material which included part of the collection of Theophilus Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738), sinologist.