Gesner

A German classical scholar, born at Roth, April 9th, 1691. He studied philology at the University of Jena, and after receiving his degree became librarian at Weimar (1715), afterwards filling the offices of Rector of the Gymnasium at Ansbach (1729), and Rector of the Thomas School at Leipzig (1730). At the Thomas School he had for his colleagues Ernesti and Johann Sebastian Bach. When the University of Göttingen was founded, he was called to the chair of Rhetoric in that institution, acting also as librarian. He died at Göttingen, August 3d, 1761.

His published works include an edition of the Philopatris ascribed to Lucian (1714), of the Scriptores Rei Rusticae (2d ed. 1773), of Quintilian (1738), of Claudian (1759), of the younger Pliny (2d ed. 1770), of Horace (2d ed. 1772), and of the Orphic Hymns; besides a Novus Linguae et Eruditionis Romanae Thesaurus. See Ernesti, Opuscula Oratoria (1762); and Göttinger Professoren (1872).