Jacob Benjamin Fisher

Jacob Benjamin Fisher

Jakob Benjamin Fischer

https://bbld.de/0000000087764732 ; https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/pnd142222453.html ; https://lv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakobs_Benjamins_Fi%C5%A1ers

Jacob Benjamin FISCHER (1731-1793) is a German Baltic natural scientist, collector and apothecary in Riga. In 1777 and 1778 Fisher was a member of Johann Gottfried Herder's Latvian Folk Song Collection Campaign. The folk songs, some of which were translated into German, collected by Heinrich Bauman, Johann Christoph Brotze and Gustav Bergmann, as well as possibly those collected by himself were sent to J.G. Herder through August Wilhelm Hupel, and Johann Gottfried Herder added those to his collections of folksongs of different nations. The correspondence between Heinrich Baumann and Jacob Benjamin Fisher is stored in the Latvian State Historical Archives: LVVA 4038, 2a, 304l.

Jacob Benjamin Fisher's father was Riga apothecary Jacob Johann Fischer (? -1751), the brother of physician and writer Johann Bernhard Fisher (1685-1772), mother - Gertrude, born Ebel.
Jacob Benjamin Fisher married Johanna Dorothea Fellmann (1736-1816) of Danzig on October 13, 1765

"My dearest friend, I have not yet thanked you for the songs you have sent. Now I do so with the feeling of all the help and kindness you have given me. I hope you will not reproach me for being a little late. God knows, I often do not understand how to manage everything. I will share your kind efforts with Superintendent [Johann Gottfried] Herder. "
Fragment of a letter from August Wilhelm Hupel to Fisher, February 6, 1778. Quoted in: Beata Paškevica Latviešu tautasdziesmu teksti, to pierakstītāji un sūtītāji J.G.Herderam "Tautasdziesmu" izdevuma vajadzībām. in: Vienotība un atšķirība: Johana Gotfrīda Herdera filozofija. Ed. R. Bičevskis. Riga 2017, p.


"Fisher was a zealous collector; above all, he owned a collection of several thousand engravings, now the property of the City Library, as well as a collection of autographs, currently owned by our Society. He also collected manuscripts, natural items and he had a good library, the item list of which was printed at the site of the auction in 1793 in Rujiena. "
[Fischer war ein Mann von regem Sammeleifer; er besass ausserdem eine mehrere Tausende zählende Sammlung von Kupferstichen Gelehrter, gleichfalls Eigenthum der Stadtbibliothek, ferner Autographen Sammlung, gegenwärtig unserer Gesellschaft angehörig. Daneben sammelte er livländische Handschriften, auch Naturalien, und hatte eine gute Bibliothek, deren Verzeichniss, zum Zweck der Versteigerung am hiesigen Ort, 1793 zu Rujen gedruckt wurde, in: August Buchholtz. Zur Ikonographie der Ostseeprovinzen. Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft für Geschichte...aus dem Jahre 1876, Riga, 1877, p.66 -67].

Baltic natural and cultural history research

1762: Bedenken über die Versteinerungen und deren Erzeugung, besonders derer in Livland [Description of Vidzeme rocks and fossils, based on the author's own observations, incl. In Katlakalns, Lielstraupe and possibly in Gravenheide]

1777: Versuch einer liefländischen Naturgeschichte im Grundriß [A study on the nature of Vidzeme and its development history, expanded and supplemented, published as a separate edition in Leipzig in 1778 and Königsberg in 1791]

1782: Beyträge und Berichtigungen zu Hrn. F.K.Gadebusch livländischer Bibliothek [Additions to the Gadebusch Reference Book on Baltic German Writing]

1789: Geschichte der Loge zum Schwerdt in Riga von ihrem Anfange bis jetzto aus dem Archiv und den Protokollen zusammengetragen wie auch Geschichte der Erziehungsanstalt z. St.Johannis dieser Loge und maurerischen Personalien des weyl.Hochw.Brs.Balthasar von Bergmann [Freemasonry's "At the Sword" and John's School History, Manuscript: LVVA, f. 4038, apr. 2, 1393]