Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen

Who was Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen?

Johann Christoph Wichmannshausen was a 17th-century German philologist. He received his Master's degree from the University of Leipzig in 1685. His dissertation, titled Disputationem Moralem De Divortiis Secundum Jus Naturae, was written under the direction of his father in law and advisor Otto Mencke. He was from 1692 until the time of his death a professor of Near Eastern languages and university librarian at the University of Wittenberg, and gave courses there in Philosophy and Hebrew.

Among the books he published are De extinctione ordinis Templariorum, 1687 and many short works on aspects of the Old Testament.

Today, Wichmannshausen is best known as part of a line of scientific genealogy stretching from Mencke to Gauss and to many other mathematicians. As of 2007, the Mathematics Genealogy Project lists 36826 of his academic descendants.