GARDTHAUSEN, VICTOR EMIL. - Born in Copenhagen on 26 Aug. 1843, died in Leipzig on 25 Dec. 1925. He taught ancient history at the University of Leipzig from 1877 to 1921, and a historical monograph is his major and best work: August und seine Zeit (3 vols., Leipzig 1891-1904).
But he was also a distinguished palaeographer: his manual of Greek palaeography (Griechische Palaeographia, 1st ed., Leipzig 1879; 2nd ed., 2 vols., ibid. 1911-13) is still today among the fundamental reference works for this discipline, albeit with the defects due to his not profound knowledge of the Byzantine texts contained in the manuscripts that he studied in the libraries of Italy, Spain, Russia, at Patmos and on Sinai. Among the works he left behind, mention should also be made of: Annunzi Marcellini Rerum Gestorum libri qui supersunt (Leipzig 1874-75); Catalogus codicum Graecorum Sinaiticarum (Oxford 1886); Katalog der griechischen Handschriften der Universitets-Bibliothek an Leipzig (ibid. 1898); Sammlungen und Kataloge griechischer Handschriften, in Byzantinisches Archiv, 3 (1903); Die griechischen Schreiber des Mittelalters und Renaissance (Leipzig 1909), in collaboration with his pupil Marie Vogel; Das Buchsamen im Altertum und im byzantinischen Mittelalter (ibid. 1911); Die Schrift, Unterschriften und Chronologie im Altertum und im byzantinischen Mittelalter (ibid. 1913); Das alte Monogram (ibid. 1924).
BIBL. Obituary by A. H. [eisenberg], in Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 26 (1926), p. 251. Mario Burzschchi