JAFFÉ, PHILIPP. - Distinguished historian and critic, b. at Schwersenz (Posen) on 17 Feb. 1819, d. by suicide at Wittenberge on 3 Apr. 1870.
He studied in Berlin under the guidance of Ranke, publishing his first studies in 1843 (Lothar von Sachsen) and in 1846 (Konrad III). He was a collaborator of Pertz in the MGH for vols. XII and XVII-XIX of the Scriptores, where he published among other things a group of Italian annals of the 12th-13th centuries; from 1862 he was extraordinary professor in Berlin and undertook the Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum (6 vols., 1864-73); his catalogue of the manuscripts of the cathedral of Cologne was completed by W. Wattenbach (1874).
Of Jewish family, his origin and his polemical character, which had become particularly excitable in his last years, were a cause of bitterness to him; thwarted in his historical career, he took a degree in medicine, without however practising it; he converted to Protestantism in 1868.
He was one of the most prolific seekers of medieval historical sources; to him is owed the first systematic collection of pontifical acts prior to the year 1198 (only those published), published in brief summary and in chronological order (Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita Ecclesia ad annum p. Chr. n. MCXCVIII, Berlin 1851); the work, still fundamental for the study of ecclesiastical history, had a second edition enlarged and corrected by S. Löwenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner and P. Ewald (2 vols., 1885-88).