Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Epigrapher · Scholar

Richard Meister

1848–1912 · Germany

Leipzig philologist (1848-1912) who read Cypriot syllabic inscriptions found by others, from Kouklia and Rantidi to the Cesnola collection, and is not recorded as digging on the island.

Biography

Richard Meister, a Leipzig philologist who lived from 1848 to 1912, read Cypriot syllabic inscriptions that others had found or collected1. His Die griechischen Dialekte II of 1889 carried the Cypriot texts, and Myres in 1914 and Mitford for Kourion in 1971 were still citing it5,6. He is not recorded as digging in Cyprus.

In February 1890 he read ICS 11 from Kouklia, first as a dedication to Apollo and then as an epitaph, after Wilhelm Dörpfeld and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter had found it2. That October he criticised the Poli texts published by the Munro expedition in the Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift, and the Journal of Hellenic Studies printed a reply signed H. A. T.4. In May 1910 Ohnefalsch-Richter sent a circular about Rantidi to Dörpfeld, Meister and Euting. Meister had already published Rantidi stones from squeezes and photographs, and on 21 October 1910 he asked Ohnefalsch-Richter for photographs of the inscribed "Pierides bowl"2,3. That year he also published a Cypro-Syllabic clay tablet that belonged to Sir Henry Bulwer7.

He went to New York to study the inscriptions of the Cesnola collection. Masson dates the visit to 1910, while Myres places it shortly before Meister's death1,5. His notes reached John Linton Myres through his son Ludwig and went into Myres's Handbook of 1914, though Mitford thought Myres relied on Meister too heavily for the syllabic texts5,6.

Life and work

  1. 1889
    Published Die griechischen Dialekte II (Eleisch, Arkadisch, Kyprisch), including the Cypriot syllabic inscriptions; cited by Munro, Myres and Ohnefalsch-Richter for Poli, Voni and Cyprus Museum texts.

    Myres 1914Mitford 1971, p. 19

  2. February 1890
    Read the Kouklia syllabic stone ICS 11 first from a copy, as naming Apollo, then corrected to an epitaph of Onasis once the stone reached the Berlin museum. Ohnefalsch-Richter, in a 1890 notice quoted by Buchholz, names Dörpfeld and R. Meister as making the 'Apollo cult' discovery.

    KoukliaMasson 1985, pp. 19-20Buchholz 1989, p. 14

  3. 25 October 1890
    Reviewed Munro's 1889 Poli syllabic inscriptions in the Berliner Philologische Wochenschrift; Munro replied in JHS 12 (1891), contesting readings of the Onasagoras block, K. 45 and a vase inscription.

    Munro et al. 1891

  4. 10 May 1910
    Addressee, with Dörpfeld and Euting, of Ohnefalsch-Richter's handwritten circular letter (Limassol, 10 May 1910) about the Rantidi site, given to Koritzky. Ohnefalsch-Richter writes that Meister had already made known the Rantidi stones from photographs, squeezes, drawings and descriptions.

    LimassolMasson 1985, pp. 22-24

  5. 1910
    Published the Cypro-Syllabic clay tablet then in Sir Henry Bulwer's possession (Meister 1910, 'Kyprische Sakralinschrift', Sitzungsberichte Berlin Akad. 9).

    Kiely & Merrillees 2012

  6. 1910
    Visited New York to study the Cypriote syllabic inscriptions in the Cesnola Collection of the Metropolitan Museum; a 1910 museum letter says only a brief account was needed in the Guide since Meister was studying them exhaustively for the Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum (IG XV, later abandoned).

    New YorkMasson 1996, p. 14Mitford 1971, p. 33

  7. 1914
    His final readings of the Metropolitan Museum's Cypriote inscriptions, placed at the Museum's disposal by his son Ludwig Meister, were used in Myres's Handbook of the Cesnola Collection; Mitford judges that Myres relied unduly on Meister for the syllabic texts.

    New YorkMyres 1914Mitford 1971, p. 33

Connections

8 people
Ludwig MeisterJohn Arthur Ruskin MunroMax Ohnefalsch-RichterJohn Linton MyresHenry Ernest Gascoyne Bul…Wilhelm DörpfeldKleanthis PieridesJustus SiegismundRichard Meister
FamilyDisputesScholarshipColleagues

Family

Disputes & the law

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

Sources

  1. 1.Olivier Masson (1996). “La dispersion des antiquités chypriotes: les deux collections Cesnola”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 25, 3-32. Online
  2. 2.O. Masson (1985). “Les visites de Max Ohnefalsch-Richter à Kouklia (Ancienne-Paphos), 1890 et 1910”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 3, 19-28. Online
  3. 3.H.-G. Buchholz (1989). “Max Ohnefalsch-Richter als Archäologe auf Zypern”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 11-12, 3-27.
  4. 4.J. A. R. Munro, H. A. Tubbs, W. Wroth (1891). “Excavations in Cyprus, 1890: Third Season's Work: Salamis”. Journal of Hellenic Studies 12, 59-198. Online
  5. 5.J. L. Myres (1914). Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
  6. 6.T. B. Mitford (1971). The Inscriptions of Kourion. Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society.
  7. 7.T. Kiely, R. S. Merrillees (2012). “The archaeological interests of Samuel Brown, government engineer, and his circle of acquaintances in late nineteenth-century Cyprus”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42, 245-272. Online
  8. 8.R. Meister (1889). Die griechischen Dialekte, II (Eleisch, Arkadisch, Kyprisch). Göttingen.
  9. 9.R. Meister (1890). Zum eleischen, arkadischen und kyprischen Dialecte. Leipzig.
  10. 10.R. Meister (1910). “Kyprische Sakralinschrift”. Sitzungsberichte der königlich-preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, 148-164.