FABRICIUS, Joannes Albertus, one of the most learned, laborious, and useful of bibliographers, was born at Leipzig, November 11th, 1668. He lost his mother in 1674, and five years afterwards his father, Werner Fabricius, director of music in the church of St Paul at Leipzig, and author of several works, particularly Delicia Harmonica, published in 1657. Joannes Albertus himself commenced his studies under his father, who on his deathbed recommended him to the care of Valentine Alberti. He studied during five years
Fabricius, under Wenceslas Buhl, and afterwards for some time under J. S. Herrichen; and in 1684 he was sent to Quedlinburg, there to continue his studies under Samuel Schmidt. Having returned to Leipzig in 1686, he was the same year admitted bachelor in philosophy; and in the beginning of 1688 he took the degree of master in the same faculty. He then applied himself to the study of medicine, which, however, he relinquished for that of theology; and having gone to Hamburg in 1693, he proposed to travel abroad, when the unexpected tidings that the expense of his education had absorbed his whole patrimony, and even left him in debt to his trustee, forced him to abandon his project. He therefore remained at Hamburg, where J. F. Mayer employed him in the capacity of librarian. In 1696 he accompanied his patron to Sweden; and, on his return to Hamburg, not long afterwards, he competed for the chair of logic and philosophy. The suffrages being equally divided between Fabricius and Sebastian Edzardi, one of his opponents, the appointment was decided by lot in favour of Edzardi; but in 1699 Fabricius succeeded Vincent Placcius in the chair of rhetoric and ethics, after which he took the degree of doctor in theology at Kiel. In 1701, J. F. Mayer, having established himself at Greifswald, caused the chair of theology in that city to be offered to Fabricius, who, however, refused it on account of his health. But in 1708 he accepted the professorship of theology, logic, and metaphysics, and was preparing to enter on his new office, when the senate of Hamburg induced him to remain, by adding to his charge as professor that of rector of the school of St John, then held by his father-in-law, Schultz. Schultz died in 1709, but Fabricius retained the rectorship two years longer. In 1719 the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel made him so advantageous an offer, that Fabricius was on the point of accepting it; but this time also the magistrates, by a seasonable increase of salary, prevailed on him to remain amongst them. An attempt was subsequently made to draw him to Wittenberg. But Fabricius refused to listen to the proposals which were made to him, and remained at Hamburg, where he died April 30th, 1736.
Besides the time which he had devoted to the duties of his office, Fabricius spent a considerable portion in maintaining an extensive correspondence, and in receiving the visits of foreigners; but he was so laborious that he was nevertheless the author of a great number of works, the list of which, according to Nicéron and Reimer, includes as many as a hundred and twenty-eight. It will be sufficient here, however, to indicate the most remarkable of these, which are, 1. Scriptorum recentium Decas, Hamburg, 1688, in 4to; 2. Decas Decadum, sive Plagiarorum et Pseudonymorum centuria, 1689, in 4to; 3. Bibliotheca Latina, sive notitia Auctorum veterum Latinorum quorumque scripta ad nos pervenerunt, Hamburg, 1697, in 8vo, a work which was republished in an improved and amended form by J. A. Ernesti, Leipzig, 1773, in 3 vols. 8vo.; 4. Bibliotheca Graeca, sive notitia Scriptorum veterum Graecorum quorumque monumenta integra aut fragmenta edita extant, tum plerumque e manuscriptis, ac deperditis, Hamburg, 1705-1728, in 14 vols. 4to, a work which has justly been denominated monumentum antiquae eruditiois thesaurus; 5. Centuria Fabriciorum scriptis clarorum qui jam dictum suum obierunt, 1705, in 8vo, and a second Century in 1727; 6. Bibliotheca Antiquaria sive Introductio in notitiam Scriptorum qui antiquitates Helveticas, Graecas, Romanas, et Christianas scriptis illustrarunt, 1713 and 1726, in 4to; 7. Centifolium Lutheranum, sive notitia litteraria Scriptorum omnium generis de B. D. Lutheri, 1728 and 1730, in 8vo; 8. Conspectus Thesauri Litterarii in Italia, promissam habens praeter alia notitiam Diariorum Italiae litterarum thesaurorumque ac corporum historicorum et academiarum, 1730, in 8vo; 9. Delectus argumentorum et syllabus Scriptorum qui veritatem religionis Christianae adversus athenos, Epicureos, deistas seu naturalistas, idolatras, Judaeos et Muhammedanos incubrationibus suis asseruerunt, 1721, in 4to; 10. Salutaris lux Evangelii toti orbi per divinas gratias exoriens, sive notitia historico-ekronologica, litteraria ac geographica propagatorum per orbem totum Christianorum sacrorum, 1731, in 4to; 11. Hydrotheology, in German, 1734, in 4to; 12. Bibliotheca Latina media et infima Latinitatis, 1734-1756, in 5 vols. 8vo. The principal works edited by Fabricius were, 1. Vincentii Placcii theatrum anonymorum et pseudonymorum, Hamburg, in two vols. fol.; 2. Joannis Mabillonii iter Germanicum, et Joannis Launeli de Scholis celebribus a Carolo Magno et post Caro-
lum Magnum in occidente instauratis liber, 1717, in 8vo; 3. Anselmi Bandurii Bibliotheca Nummaria, 1719, in 4to; 4. Danielis Georgii Morhofi Polyhistor litterarius, philosophicus, ac practicus, cum accessionibus Joannis Frikii et Joannis Mollerii, 1732, in two vols. 4to; 5. Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica, 1718, in fol.; 6. Codex apocryphus Novi Testamenti collectus, castigatus, testimonisque, censura et animadversionibus illustratus, 1703, in two vols. 8vo; 7. Codex pseudographus Veteris Testamenti collectus, castigatus, testimonisque, censura et animadversionibus illustratus, 1713 and 1722, in two vols. 8vo.
Fabricius, Johann Christ, the most celebrated entomologist of the eighteenth century, was born at Tundern, in the duchy of Sleswick, in 1742. After having completed his studies, at the age of twenty he repaired to the university of Upsal, to attend the prelections of Linnæus. How long he remained there is uncertain; but no pupil was ever more indebted to the lessons of his master than Fabricius. All his works on entomology, which have secured to him a well-merited reputation, indicate the precepts, the method, and even the forms of Linnæus, applied to the development of a single new idea, not more fortunate in conception than fruitful in its consequences. Far from disguising the obligations which he owed to his master, Fabricius delighted to expatiate on the happy moments which he had passed in the society of Linnæus; and the grateful scholar has transmitted to us those biographical details, which are not only the most interesting in themselves, but at the same time best fitted to give us an insight into the character of the great naturalist. It was in studying under this master that Fabricius conceived the idea of his system, and formed the project of his labours on insects. The first insect's mouth which he dissected was that of a cockchafer (Scarabaeus stridulus); he showed it to Linnæus, with the description he had made of it, and proposed to him to employ the organs of the mouth in order to establish the characters of insects, in the new edition of the Systema Naturae which Linnæus was then preparing. The latter encouraged his pupil to pursue this course, but refused to enter on it himself, because, as he said, he was too old to change his method. Forced to choose a profession, Fabricius studied medicine, and at the age of twenty-five took the degree of doctor in physic; but being soon afterwards appointed professor of natural history in the university of Kiel, he devoted himself entirely to his favourite pursuits, and in 1775 published his system of entomology. This work gave a new aspect to the science. Swammerdam and Ray had classed insects according to their metamorphoses; Lister, Linnæus, and Geoffroy, carrying out a suggestion of Aristotle, according to the organs of motion; and some entomologists, as Réaumur, Scopoli, and even Linnæus himself, had employed the nutritive organs in order to characterize distinctively certain genera. But before the time of Fabricius no one had thought of making these the basis of a general classification. This idea was at once new and bold, and the author evolved it with singular ability. In a second work, which he published two years afterwards, he developed the characters of the classes and genera, showing in the preface the advantages of his method, and at the same time excusing its inconveniences. Lastly, in 1778, he published Entomological Philosophy, in imitation of the Botanical Philosophy of Linnæus; and from this period till his death, that is during the space of more than thirty years, he was incessantly occupied in extending his system, which he reproduced under different forms in the various works which, from time to time, he gave to the world. But in proportion as the number of species increased, the characters of the genera, and even of the classes, became more and more uncertain and arbitrary; and with reference to this fundamental point, his later writings are perhaps inferior to those which preceded them. The basis which he had assumed was excellent; but it could only conduct him to a natural method, not, as he supposed, to a system; and this misconception led him to neglect other considerations which would
have furnished more exact means of classification. Fabricius had a very extensive knowledge of botany, and of the other branches of natural history. He had been appointed counsellor of state to the king of Denmark, and professor of rural and political economy; in which capacity he published, in German and in Danish, several useful works, though much less celebrated than those which appeared from his pen on the subject of entomology. Fabricius died in 1807, at the age of sixty-five, of a melancholic affection, produced, as is alleged, by the bombardment of Copenhagen.
The following is a list of his works:—1. Systema Entomologia, Flensburg, 1775, in 8vo; 2. Genera Insectorum, Kiel, 1776, in 8vo; 3. Philosophia Entomologica, Hamburg, 1778, in 8vo; 4. Species Insectorum, ibid., 1778, in 2 vols. 8vo; 5. Mantissa Insectorum, Copenhagen, 1787, in 2 vols. 8vo; 6. Novæ Insectorum Genera, in Mem. of the Soc. of Nat. Hist., Copenhagen; 7. Entomologia Systematica, Copenhagen, 1792–1795, in 7 vols. 8vo; 8. Supplementum Entomologia Systematica, ibid., 1798, in 8vo; 9. Systema Eleutheratorum, Kiel, 1801, in 2 vols. 8vo, with an index; 10. Systema Rhynchotorum, Brunswick, 1803, in 8vo; 11. Systema Picatorum, ibid., 1804, in 8vo; 12. Systema Antilatorum, ibid., 1805, in 8vo; 13. Description of the Tipula Sericea in the Berlin Mem., tome v.; 14. De Systematibus Entomologicis, in the same collection; 15. Considerations sur l'ordre général de la Nature, Hamburg, 1781, in 8vo; 16. Traité de la Culture des Plantes à l'usage des cultivateurs; 17. Observations sur l'engourdissement des Animaux durant l'hiver, inserted in the Mag. de Physique, tom. ix., 79; 18. Résultat des Leçons sur l'Histoire Naturelle, Kiel, 1804, in 8vo; 19. Sur l'accroissement de la Population, particulièrement en Danemark; 20. Éléments d'Économie Politique à l'usage des étudiants, Flensburg, 1775, in 8vo; 21. Renouvellements Historiques sur le Commerce du Danemark; 22. Hovri bestaater Borgendyd bevaret; In what consists civic virtue? Copenhagen, 1786, in 8vo; 23. Sur les Finances et la Dette en Danemark; 24. Recueil d'Écrits sur l'Administration, Kiel, 1786, and 1790, in 2 vols. 8vo; 25. Sur les Académies, particulièrement en Danemark, Copenhagen, 1796, in 8vo; 26. Voyage en Norvège, Hamburg, 1799, in 8vo; 27. Lettres sur Londres, Leipzig, 1784, in 8vo; 28. Lettres au sujet d'un voyage fait en Russie; 29. Remarques Minéralogiques et Technologiques; 30. Remarques sur le Danemark, written in English, and published by Pinkerton in his Modern Geography, 1807.