PHILIPP KARL

BUTTMANN (1764—1829)  , German philologist, was born at Frankfort-on-Main in 1764 . He was educated in his native town and at the university of Gottingen . In 1789 he obtained an appointment in the library at Berlin, and for some years he edited Speners Journal . In 1796 he became professor at the Joachimsthal Gymnasium in Berlin, a post which he held for twelve years . In 18o6 he was admitted to the Academy of Sciences, and in 1811 was made secretary of the Historico-Philological Section . He died in 1829 . Buttmann's writings gave a great impetus to the scientific study of the Greek language . His Griechische Grammatik (1792) went through many editions, and was translated into English . His Lexilogus, a valuable study on some words of difficulty occurring principally in the poems of Homer and Hesiod, was published in 1818-1825, and was translated into English . Buttmann's other works were Ausfuhrliche griechische Sprachlehre (2 vols., 1819—1827); Mythologus, a collection of essays (1828—1829); and editions of some classical authors, the most important being Demosthenes in Midiam (1823) and the continuation of Spalding's Quintilian . Plant of Ranunculus bulbosus, showing determinate inflorescence .