The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Kopp, Joseph Eutychius

KOPP, Joseph Eutychius, Swiss antiquarian: b. Beromünster, canton of Lucerne, 23 April 1793; d. Lucerne, 25 Oct. 1866. He studied theology and philology in Lucerne and Freiburg, and in 1819 was appointed professor of Greek in the lyceum of the former town. While serving in the legislative body of the republic, he was led as a “conservative Catholic” into such bitter controversy with the Jesuits, that in 1845 he was compelled to retire into private life and undertook a tour by way of Vienna to Rome, for the purpose of examining such archives as might throw light upon the history of his native country. He was elected corresponding member of the academies of Berlin and Vienna. Self-taught as he was, he became the Niebuhr of Swiss history, and proved how her true annals had been obscured by such legends as those of William Tell, etc. Among his chief publications are ‘Geschichte der Eidgenössischen Bünde’ (1862): ‘Geschichtsblätter aus des Schweiz’ (1856); ‘Dramatische Gedichte’ (1866).