ERSCH, Johann Samuel (1766-1828), the founder of German bibliography, was born at Gross Glogau, in Prussian Silesia, June 23, 1766. In 1785 he entered the university of Halle with the view of studying theology, but very soon his whole attention became engrossed with history, bibliography, and geography. At Halle he made the acquaintance of Fabri, professor of geography; and when the latter was made professor of history and statistics at Jena, Erseh accompanied him thither, and aided him in the preparation of several works. He also devoted a large portion of his time to the acquisition of modern languages, and became a thorough proficient in French, Italian, English, Swedish, and Danish, and in their respective literatures. In 1788 he published the Verzeichniss aller anonymischen Schriften, as a supplement to the 4th edition of Meusel’s Gelehrtes Deutschland. The researches required for this work suggested to him the preparation of a Repertorium uber die Allgemeinen Deutschen Journale und andere periodische Sammlungen für Erdbeschreibung, Geschichte, und die damit verwandten Wissenschaften (Lemgo, 1790-92). The fame which this publication acquired him led to his being engaged by Schütz and Hufeland to prepare, in connexion with their Institut der allgemeinen Literaturzeitung, an Allgemeines Repertorium der Literatur, published in 8 vols. (Jena and Weimar, 1793-1809), which condensed the literary productions of 15 years (1785-1800), and included an account not merely of the books published during that period, but also of articles in periodicals and magazines, and even of the criticisms to which each book had been subjected. While engaged in this great work he also projected La France littéraire, which was published at Hamburg in 5 vols., from 1797 to 1806. Jn 1795 he ...