Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.
NIEBUHR, BARTHOLD GEORG. – Protestant, historian and diplomat, b. in Copenhagen on 27 Aug. 1776, d. in Bonn on 2 Jan. 1831. Founder of the philological critical method in history, he studied Roman history up to the Punic Wars.
A scholar of broad horizons, greatly equipped by his experience and political ideas, in his Römische Geschichte, of which he published two volumes (1811–12; 2nd ed. 1827–28; a third volume appeared posthumously
(phot. Vatican Library)
NIELLO – Gold cross with niello decoration (6th century) – Biblioteca Vaticana, Museo Sacro.
(photo Sansoni) NIELLO – Nativity of Jesus. Niello belonging to the medieval covering of the acheiropoieton (14th century) – Rome, Sancta Sanctorum.(published in 1832), is distinguished both for his criticism of Livy and for his fortunate insight into the political and social conditions in the first centuries of the Roman state. N. was the first to recognize the importance of tradition as a source for the study of Roman history, and was thus able to reconstruct more than one historical event. Modern Romanistic scholarship owes him the invaluable discovery of the Veronese palimpsest of Gaius’s Institutiones (v.).
Appointed in 1815 extraordinary envoy to the Holy See for negotiations concerning the boundaries of the dioceses, he was able to begin them in 1820 and conclude them in 1821. Thus, two archbishoprics (Cologne and Gnesna-Posnania) and six bishoprics (Trier, Münster, Paderborn, Kulm, Varmia, and Breslau) were established or re-established. From 1823 until his death, he lectured on ancient history at Bonn.
BIBL.: A. Momigliano, s. V. in Enc. Ital., XXIV, pp. 799–801, with bibliography; H. Brück, Gesch. der kathol. Kirche in Deutschland im neunzehnten Jahrh., II, Mainz 1889, especially pp. 46–75 (on the negotiations in Rome); E. Fueter, Storia della storiografia moderna, Italian translation, II, Naples 1944, pp. 138–64; H. von Srbik, Geist und Gesch. vom deutschen Humanismus bis zur Gegenwart, I, Munich-Salzburg 1950, pp. 210–19. Silvio Furlani
Cite this article
“NIEBUHR, BARTHOLD GEORG.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. VIII (1952), p. 1095. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/niebuhr-barthold-georg.
