BOXBERGER, Robert. Gotha 28.5.1836 — Stadtsulza near Weimar 30.3.1890. German Literate interested in Sanskrit. Son of a fireplace-maker, gymnasium in Erfurt, then studied 1855-58 philology at Jena (i.al. under Schleicher). In 1858-76 and 1878-85 teacher at the Erfurt Realschule (Gymnasium) and 1868-76 librarian of ther royal library there, 1876-78 in Dresden as a private scholar. From 1885 in Posen as a senior teacher (Oberlehrer), retired 1888 and settled in his home region. Spent his last years in the village of Stadtsulza. Unmarried.
Boxberger was known of his work on German literature, on authors like Lessing, Schiller, Rückert, Klopstock, and Wieland. He was much better in textual history than in biography. According to Schröder, he was “bei gewissen Schwächen seiner Lebensführung” nevertheless an assidious scholar and popular as a teacher. He knew Sanskrit, and compiled a metrical translation of the Bhagavadgītā from the original language.
Publications: Diss. “Probe einer Übersetzung der Bhagavadgitá, des Liedes der Gottheit, eines philosophischen Gedichtes der Inder, aus dem Sanskrit”, publ. in Programm der Realschule zu Erfurt 1863.
– Bhagavadgîtâ oder: Das Lied der Gottheit, metrisch übersetzt. 72 p. B. 1870; neubearbeitet und hrsg. von H. v. Glasenapp. Reclam Bücherei. St. 1955.
– Several works on German literature, i.al. Rückert-Studien. 10+315 p. Gotha 1878; edited from Rückert’s papers: Einige Übersetzungen Friedrich Rückert’s aus dem Mahâbhârata. Hrsg. von R. Boxberger. 31 p. n.pl. n.d. (c. 1880).
– “Rückerts Stellung zur Weltliteratur”, W. Fischer (ed.), Friedrich Rückert im Spiegel seiner Zeitgenossen und der Nachwelt. Aufsätze aus der Zeit zwischen 1827 und 1986. Wb. 1988, 111-124.
Sources: J. Kiefer, Akademie zu Erfurt, Jahrbuch 2011, 25f.; E. Schröder, A.D.B. 47, 1903, 155f.; Glasenapp in his introduction to the Bhg.; German Wikipedia.
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