Jacob Geel

Who was Jacob Geel?

Jacob Geel was a Dutch scholar, critic and librarian.

He was born in Amsterdam. In 1823 he was appointed as a librarian, and in 1833 as university librarian and honorary professor at Leiden University, where he remained until his death. Geel materially contributed to the development of classical studies in the Netherlands. He was the author of editions of Theocritus, of the Vatican fragments of Polybius, of the Omiutractatus of Dio Chrysostom and of numerous essays in the Rheinisches Museum and Bibliotheca critica nova, of which he was one of the founders. He also compiled a valuable catalogue of the manuscripts in Leiden University Library, wrote a history of the Greek sophists, and translated various German works into Dutch.