GRUBER, Johann Gottfried (1774-1851), a learned German author, was born at Naumburg on the Saale, 29th November 1774. He received his education at the town school of Naumburg and the university of Leipsic, after which he resided successively at Göttingen, Leipsic, Jena, and Weimιr, occupying himself partly in teaching and partly in various literary enterprises, and enjoying in Weimar the friendship of Herder, Wieland, and Goethe. In 1811 he was appointed professor at the university of Wittenberg, and after the division of Saxony he was sent by the senate to Berlin in connexion with the negotiations for the union of the university of Wittenberg to that of Halle. After the union was effected he became in 1815 professor of philosophy at Halle. On the death of Hufeland he was associated with Erseh in the editorship of the great work Allgemeine Encyklopadie der Wissenschaften und Künste; and after the death of Erseh he continued the first section from vol. xviii. to vol. liv. He also succeeded Ersch in the editorship of the Allgemeine Literaturzeitung. He died 7th August 1851.

Gnιber was the author of a large number of works, the principal of which are Charakteristik Herders, in conjunction with Danz, Leipsic, 1805; Geschichte des Menschlichen Geschlechts, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1806; Wörterbuch der Altclassischen Mythologie, 3 vols., Weimar, 1810-15; Wielands Leben, 2 parts, Weimar, 1815-16; and Klopstocks Leben, Weimar, 1832. A completed biography of Wieland was prefixed to Gruber’s edition of Wieland’s Sämmtliche Werke, Leipsic, 1818-28.