the range of the appeal in Chopin is far wider, nor has the national movement inaugurated by Grieg shown promise of great development. He is rather to be regarded as the pioneer of a musical mission which has been perfectly carried out by himself alone.
See La Mara, Edvard Grieg (Leipzig, 1898).
GRIESBACH, JOHANN JAKOB (1745–1812), German biblical
critic, was born at Butzbach, a small town of Hesse-Darmstadt,
where his father, Konrad Kaspar (1705–1777), was pastor, on
the 4th of January 1745. He was educated at Frankfort-on-the-Main,
and at the universities of Tübingen, Leipzig and Halle,
where he became one of J. S. Semler’s most ardent disciples.
It was Semler who induced him to turn his attention to the
textual criticism of the New Testament. At the close of his
undergraduate career he undertook a literary tour through
Germany, Holland, France and England. On his return to
Halle, he acted for some time as Privatdozent, but in 1773 was
appointed to a professorial chair; in 1775 he was translated to
Jena, where the rest of his life was spent (though he received calls
to other universities). He died on the 24th of March 1812.
Griesbach’s fame rests upon his work in New Testament criticism,
in which he inaugurated a new epoch.
His critical edition of the New Testament first appeared at Halle, in three volumes, in 1774–1775. The first volume contained the first three Gospels, synoptically arranged; the second, the Epistles and the book of Revelation. All the historical books were reprinted in one volume in 1777, the synoptical arrangement of the Gospels having been abandoned as inconvenient. Of the second edition, considerably enlarged and improved, the first volume appeared in 1796 and the second in 1806 (Halle and London). Of a third edition, edited by David Schulz, only the first volume, containing the four Gospels, appeared (1827).
For the construction of his critical text Griesbach took as his basis the Elzevir edition. Where he differed from it he placed the Elzevir reading on the inner margin along with other readings he thought worthy of special consideration (these last, however, being printed in smaller type). To all the readings on this margin he attached special marks indicating the precise degree of probability in his opinion attaching to each. In weighing these probabilities he proceeded upon a particular theory which in its leading features he had derived from J. A. Bengel and J. S. Semler, dividing all the MSS. into three main groups—the Alexandrian, the Western and the Byzantine (see Bible: New Testament, “Textual Criticism”). A reading supported by only one recension he considered as having only one witness in its favour; those readings which were supported by all the three recensions, or even by two of them, especially if these two were the Alexandrian and the Western, he unhesitatingly accepted as genuine. Only when each of the three recensions gives a different reading does he proceed to discuss the question on other grounds. See his Symbolae criticae ad supplendas et corrigendas variarum N.T. lectionum collectiones (Halle, 1785, 1793), and his Commentarius criticus in textum Graecum N.T., which extends to the end of Mark, and discusses the more important various readings with great care and thoroughness (Jena, 1794 ff.). Among the other works of Griesbach (which are comparatively unimportant) may be mentioned his university thesis De codicibus quatuor evangelistarum Origenianis (Halle, 1771) and a work upon systematic theology (Anleitung zur Kenntniss der populären Dogmatik, Jena, 1779). His Opuscula, consisting chiefly of university “Programs” and addresses, were edited by Gabler (2 vols., Jena, 1824).
See the article in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie, and the Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.
GRIESBACH, a watering-place in the grand duchy of Baden, in the valley of the Rench, 1550 ft. above the sea, 6 m. W. from Freudenstadt in Württemberg. It is celebrated for its saline chalybeate waters (twelve springs), which are specific in cases of anaemia, feminine disorders and diseases of the nervous system, and were used in the 16th century. The annual number of visitors is nearly 2000. Pop. (1900) 800. From 1665 to 1805 Griesbach was part of the bishopric of Strassburg.
See Haberer, Die Renchbäder Petersthal und Griesbach (Würzburg, 1866).
GRIFFE (French for “claw”), an architectural term for the spur, an ornament carved at the angle of the square base of columns.
GRIFFENFELDT, PEDER, Count (Peder Schumacher) (1635–1699), Danish statesman, was born at Copenhagen on the 24th of August 1635, of a wealthy trading family connected with the leading civic, clerical and learned circles in the Danish capital. His tutor, Jens Vorde, who prepared him in his eleventh year for the university, praises his extraordinary gifts, his mastery of the classical languages and his almost disquieting diligence. The brilliant way in which he sustained his preliminary examination won him the friendship of the examiner, Bishop Jasper Brokman, at whose palace he first met Frederick III. The king was struck with the lad’s bright grey eyes and pleasant humorous face; and Brokman, proud of his pupil, made him translate a chapter from a Hebrew Bible first into Latin and then into Danish, for the entertainment of the scholarly monarch. In 1654 young Schumacher went abroad for eight years, to complete his education. From Germany he proceeded to the Netherlands, staying at Leiden, Utrecht and Amsterdam, and passing in 1657 to Queen’s College, Oxford, where he lived three years. The epoch-making events which occurred in England, while he was at Oxford, profoundly interested him, and coinciding with the Revolution in Denmark, which threw open a career to the middle classes, convinced him that his proper sphere was politics. In the autumn of 1660 Schumacher visited Paris, shortly after Mazarin’s death, when the young Louis XIV. first seized the reins of power. Schumacher seems to have been profoundly impressed by the administrative superiority of a strong centralised monarchy in the hands of an energetic monarch who knew his own mind; and, in politics, as in manners, France ever afterwards was his model. The last year of his travels was spent in Spain, where he obtained a thorough knowledge of the Castilian language and literature. His travels, however, if they enriched his mind, relaxed his character, and he brought home easy morals as well as exquisite manners.
On his return to Copenhagen, in 1662, Schumacher found the monarchy established on the ruins of the aristocracy, and eager to buy the services of every man of the middle classes who had superior talents to offer. Determined to make his way in this “new Promised Land,” the young adventurer contrived to secure the protection of Kristoffer Gabel, the king’s confidant, and in 1663 was appointed the royal librarian. A romantic friendship with the king’s bastard, Count Ulric Frederick Gyldenlöve, consolidated his position. In 1665 Schumacher obtained his first political post as the king’s secretary, and the same year composed the memorable Kongelov (see Denmark: History). He was now a personage at court, where he won all hearts by his amiability and gaiety; and in political matters also his influence was beginning to be felt.
On the death of Frederick III. (February 9th, 1670) Schumacher was the most trusted of all the royal counsellors. He alone was aware of the existence of the new throne of walrus ivory embellished with three silver life-size lions, and of the new regalia, both of which treasures he had, by the king’s command, concealed in a vault beneath the royal castle. Frederick III. had also confided to him a sealed packet containing the Kongelov, which was to be delivered to his successor alone. Schumacher had been recommended to his son by Frederick III. on his death-bed. “Make him a great man, but do it slowly!” said Frederick, who thoroughly understood the characters of his son and of his minister. Christian V. was, moreover, deeply impressed by the confidence which his father had ever shown to Schumacher. When, on the 9th of February 1670, Schumacher delivered the Kongelov to Christian V., the king bade all those about him withdraw, and after being closeted a good hour with Schumacher, appointed him his “Obergeheimesekreter.” His promotion was now almost disquietingly rapid. In May 1670 he received the titles of excellency and privy councillor; in July of the same year he was ennobled under the name of Griffenfeldt, deriving his title from the gold griffin with outspread wings which surmounted his escutcheon; in November 1673 he was created a count, a knight of the Elephant and, finally, imperial chancellor. In the course of the next few months he gathered into his hands every branch of the government: he had reached the apogee of his short-lived greatness.
But if his offices were manifold, so also were his talents. Seldom has any man united so many and such various gifts in his own person and carried them so easily—a playful wit, a vivid imagination, oratorical and literary eloquence and, above all, a profound knowledge of human nature both male and female,
