Friedrich Münter

Fried(e)rich Christian Carl Heinrich Münter (14 October 1761 – 9 April 1830) was a German-Danish scholar, professor of theology at the University of Copenhagen, orientalist, church historian, archaeologist, Danish bishop of Zealand, and freemason. He was a brother of Sophie Christiane Friederike Brun.

Life

Friedrich Münter was born on October 14, 1761 in Gotha, a son of Balthasar Münter, a clergyman. His father moved with his family to Copenhagen in 1765 to become vicar at St. Peter's Church. Here Friedrich was privately tutored at the vicarage. There he enjoyed the company of many of his father's renowned acquaintances including the archaeologist Carsten Niebuhr, professor of theology Johann Andreas Cramer, and the poets Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and Heinrich Wilhelm von Gerstenberg.

In 1781 he began a study at the University of Göttingen. In 1784 he was the first Protestant to receive a doctorate of philosophy at the University of Fulda.

Afterwards, the King Christian VII of Denmark sent him to Italy and Sicily to continue his education. In Rome he had contact with Stefano Borgia, who later became cardinal. There he learned the Coptic language. In 1787 he returned to Copenhagen and became a professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Münter collated and described manuscripts housed in notable Italian libraries, e.g. he collated Codex Nanianus for the first time and he sent some extracts from this codex to Andreas Birch. Birch used these extracts in his edition of the text of the four Gospels in Greek.

Münter's main work is "Religion der Karthager" (Copenhagen, 1816). The second edition (1821) was expanded and included new research.

Other works include "Sendschreiben an Kreuzer über Sardische Idole" (Copenhagen, 1822), "Der Tempel der himmlichen Göttin zu Paphos" (Copenhagen, 1824), and "Religion der Babylonier" (Copenhagen, 1827). Some small archaeological works of Münter were included in his "Antiquarische Abhandlungen" (Copenhagen, 1816).

On numismatics Münter wrote: "De Numo plumbео Zenobia reginae Orientis" (Petersburg, 1823) and "Ueber die Münzen der Vandalischen Könige von Karthago" ("Antiquarische Abhandlungen", p. 301).