Ranke, Ernst Konstantin

RANKE, rān´ke, ERNST KONSTANTIN: German Lutheran; b. at Wiehe (27 m. w.s.w. of Merseburg), Saxony, Sept. 10, 1814; d. at Marburg July 30, 1888. He was educated at the universities of Leipsic (1834–35), Berlin (1835–36), and Bonn (1836–37), and after being a private tutor for three years was called to the pastorate of Buchan in Upper Franconia, where he began to collect materials for his studies on the ancient pericopes of the Roman Catholic Church and the Latin translations of the Bible prior to Jerome. In 1850 he was called to Marburg as professor of church history and New-Testament exegesis, holding this position until his death. Ranke was an exceptionally gifted paleographist, his most important contribution here being his Codex Fuldensis Novi Testamenti Latine (Marburg, 1868), in which he showed that this manuscript, next to the Codex Amiatinus, was the chief witness for the New Testament of Jerome. He likewise rendered valuable service by his two editions of the oldest Marburg hymnal—Marburger Gesangbuch von 1549 mit verwandten Liederdrucken (Marburg, 1866, 1878). He was, at the same time, an admirable Latin poet, his models being the humanists, especially Konrad Celtes and Hugo Grotius, and his best work being shown in his Horæ lyricæ (Vienna, 1873) and Rhythmica (1881). He also made a metrical translation of Tobit (Baireuth, 1847) and of selected poems of Paulus Melissus (Zurich, 1875), while his independent poems included his Lieder aus grosser Zeit (Marburg, 1872) and Die Schlacht am Teutoburger Walde (1876). Besides the works of Ranke already noted, mention may be made of the following: Das kirchliche Perikopensystem aus den ältesten Urkunden der römisehen Liturgie dargelegt and erläutert (Berlin, 1847); Fragmenta versionis Latinæ Antehieronymianæ prophetarum, etc., a codice Fuldensi (4 parts, Marburg, 1856–68); Par palimpsestorum Wirceburgensium, antiquissimæ Veteris Testamenti versionis Latinæ fragmenta (Vienna, 1871); Cuecensia evangelii Lucani fragmenta Latina (Marburg, 1872); Chorgesänge zum Preis der heiligen Elisabeth aus mittelalterlichen Antiphonarien (Leipsic, 1883); and 390Antiquissimæ Veteris Testamenti versionis Latinæ fragmenta Stutgardiana (Marburg, 1888).

(G. Heinrici.)

Bibliography: E. Hitzig, Ernst Constantin Ranke . . .Lebensbild, Leipsic, 1906; Chronik der Universität Marburg, 1888–89, pp. 8–14; F. H. Ranks, Jugenderinnerungen, Stuttgart, 1886; G. Heinrici, Worte der Erinnerung . . . von E. K. Ranke, Marburg, 1888.