GATTERER, JOHANN CHRISTOPH. — German historian and diplomat, b. at Lichtenau near Nürnberg on 13 July 1727, d. at Göttingen on 3 April 1799. At the University of Göttingen, where he taught from 1759, he founded a historical institute equipped with the oldest palaeography cabinet. In his teaching and writings he championed the approach to historical research that drew on all auxiliary disciplines, for which he also compiled highly useful manuals: heraldry (Göttingen 1774), chronology (Nuremberg 1775), genealogy (ibid. 1788) and diplomatics.
To the last of these he devoted three studies of particular interest: *Elementa artis diplomaticae universalis* (Göttingen 1765), in which, treating of scripts, he introduced a curious classification modelled on that adopted by Linnaeus in the natural sciences; *Abris der Diplomatik* (ibid. 1798); *Praktische Diplomatik* (ibid. 1799). Among his historical works worthy of mention are: *Handbuch der Universalhistorie* (ibid. 1761 ff.); *Die Weltgeschichte in ihrem ganzen Umfang* (ibid. 1785–87); *Versuch einer allgemeinen Weltgeschichte* (Nuremberg 1792).