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Publius Helvius Ad Pertinax

pertz, stein and germany

PERTINAX, PUBLIUS HELVIUS (A.D. Ro man emperor, the son of a charcoal-burner, was born at Alba Pompeia in Liguria. From being a teacher of grammar he rose through many important offices, both civil and military, to the consulate, which he held twice. Chosen, at an advanced age and against his will, on Jan. 1, 193, to succeed Commodus, he was him self assassinated in a mutiny of the soldiers, on March 28, 193. PERTZ, GEORG HEINRICH (1795-1876), German his torian, was born at Hanover on March 28, 1795, and studied at GOttingen. Baron Stein engaged him in 182o to edit the Caro lingian chroniclers for the newly-founded Historical Society of Germany. After a prolonged tour through Germany and Italy in search of material Pertz was placed (1823) in charge of the publication of Monumenta Germaniae historica, texts of all the more important historical writers on German affairs down to the year I zoo, as well as of laws, imperial and regal archives, and other valuable documents, such as letters, falling within this period. In 1823 he had been made secretary of the archives, and in 1827 principal keeper of the royal library at Hanover; from 1832 to 1837 he edited the Hannoverische Zeitung, and more than once sat as a representative in the Hanoverian second cham ber. In 1842 he was called as chief librarian to Berlin, where he

shortly afterwards was made a privy councillor and a member of the Academy of Sciences. He resigned all his appointments in 1874, and on Oct. 7, 1876, died at Munich.

The

Monumenta began to appear in 1826, and at the date of his resignation 24 volumes folio (Scriptores, Leges, Diplomata) had appeared. This work for the first time made possible the existence of the modern school of scientific historians of mediaeval Germany. In connection with the Monumenta Pertz also began the publication of a selection of sources in octavo form, the Scriptores rerum german icarum in usum scholarum; among his other works are an edition of Leibnitz, and a life of Stein (Leben des Ministers Freiherrn vom Stein (6 vols., 1849-1855) ; also, in an abridged form, Aus Steins Leben (2 vols., 1856) .