1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Brucker, Johann Jakob

BRUCKER, JOHANN JAKOB (1696–1770), German historian of philosophy, was born at Augsburg. He was destined for the church, and graduated at the university of Jena in 1718. He returned to Augsburg in 1720, but became parish minister of Kaufbeuren in 1723. In 1731 he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences at Berlin, and was invited to Augsburg as pastor and senior minister of the church of St Ulrich. His chief work, Historia Critica Philosophiae, appeared at Leipzig (5 vols., 1742–1744). Its success was such that a new edition was published in six volumes (1766–1767; English translation by W. Enfield, 1791). It is by this work alone that Brucker is now known. Its merit consists entirely in the ample collection of materials. He also wrote Tentamen Introductionis in Historiam Doctrinae de Ideis, afterwards completed and republished under the title of Historia Philosophicae Doctrinae de Ideis (Augsburg, 1723); Otium Vindelicum (1731); Kurze Fragen aus der philosophischen Historie (7 vols., Ulm, 1731–1736), a history of philosophy in question and answer, containing many details, especially in the department of literary history, which he omitted in his chief work; Pinacotheca Scriptorum nostra aetate literis illustrium, &c. (Augsburg, 1741–1755); Ehrentempel der deutschen Gelehrsamkeit (Augsburg, 1747–1749); Institutiones Historiae Philosophicae (Leipzig, 1747 and 1756; 3rd ed. with a continuation by F. G. B. Born (1743–1807) of Leipzig, in 1790); Miscellanea Historiae Philosophicae Literariae Criticae olim sparsim edita (Augsburg, 1748); Erste Anfangsgrunde der philosophischen Geschichte (Ulm, 1751). He superintended an edition of Luther’s translation of the Old and New Testament, with a commentary extracted from the writings of the English theologians (Leipzig, 1758–1770, completed by W. A. Teller). He died at Augsburg in 1770.