Karl Witte

Johann Heinrich Friedrich Karl Witte (July 1, 1800 in Lochau (now part of Schkopau) – March 6, 1883 in Halle) was a German jurist and scholar of Dante Alighieri.

Karl Witte.

Biography

Witte was the son of pastor Karl Heinrich Gottfried Witte (1767–1845) who encouraged a fairly intense program of learning. When Karl Witte was nine, he spoke German, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and on April 10, 1814, at the age of 13, he became a doctor of philosophy at the University of Giessen in Germany.[1] As a result, Witte was listed in The Guinness Book of World Records as the "youngest doctorate", a record that still stands; however, The Guinness Book of World Records lists his age as 12.[2]

Witte was the subject of a book written by his father: The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of the Child. This book attracted criticism and soon fell into oblivion in Germany.

He achieved his reputation as a Dante scholar in 1823 with his essay "The Art of Misunderstanding Dante".[3]

References
  1. Witte, Karl Heinrich Gottfried (1914). Bruce, H. Addington (ed.). The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of the Child. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. pp. xvii, 312. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  2. Wolf, Buck (October 23, 2009). "10 Unbreakable Guinness Records". AOL News. Archived from the original on September 1, 2013. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
  3. Riordan, Roger (March 11, 1899). "Four Recent Books: Verse by Thomas Hardy, Essays on Dante, The Chinese Classics, and a Bismarck Book" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved September 1, 2013.
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