Michael Huber (writer)

Little is known about Huber's youth.[1] He was born on 27 September 1727 in Loitersdorf, part of Frontenhausen in Bavaria, as an extramarital child.[2][3] His father was called Vitus Huber and his mother was called Barbara Lützelkirchen.[2][3][lower-alpha 1] Huber emigrated to France at an unknown time,[1] not earlier than 1742,[3], moving to Paris possibly around 1750.[2][lower-alpha 2] It is unclear how he was educated and how he came to Paris, but it is assumed he worked as a language teacher and that his financial situation was unstable.[5][6][7]

In the late 1750s, Huber became a contributor to the Journal étranger, a journal introducing French readers to foreign literature.[8] In 1759, his French translation of Der Tod Abels by Salomon Gessner as La Mort d'Abel ('The Death of Abel') appeared and was very successful.[9][10] This translation was a collaboration with the French statesman Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, who was interested in German literature, learned German from Huber and became an important supporter for him.[9][11] The introduction was entirely written by Turgot, as were some other parts, but the work was published in Huber's name only.[12] Huber may not have been sufficiently well-versed in French at the time to produce a translation of this quality. Through this translation, Gessner became the best known German-language poet in Europe.[13] Further translations into Italian and English were based on Huber's French.[14]

Michael Huber, painting by Ernst Gottlob after an original by Anton Graff

Huber was acquainted with several of the Encyclopédistes, including Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Baron d'Holbach.[9][10] His contacts also included others who worked for the Journal étranger such as Friedrich Melchior, Baron von Grimm.[9][10] The German-born engraver Johann Georg Wille was his closest friend, and much of what is known about Huber's time in Paris comes from Wille's diaries.[15][16]

Huber published further translations of Gessner's works: in 1762 the Idylles et poëmes champêtres and in 1764 Daphnis et le premier navigateur.[10] In 1766, he published a four volume anthology of German poetry in French, Choix de poésies allemandes,[10] which was described by the German romanist Hanns Heiß as his most important work.[17] Huber attempted to overcome French prejudices against an uncivilised German culture by showing the dignity of German poetry.[18] The individual pieces were arranged by genre, not by author, so some authors appeared in several different places.[19] Huber gave a novel separation of German literary history into four distinct eras:[7] the earliest begins with the bards mentioned in Tacitus' Germania and contains as first poem one of Otfrid of Weissenburg.[20] The second era is that of Minnesang and of the Meistersinger, and Huber includes among many others Sebastian Brant and discusses Martin Luther[20] The third era starts with Martin Opitz and the fourth era with Albrecht von Haller.[7] Huber's introduction was translated into German and is considered a precursor of theoretical scholarship into German literary history.[2][7]

At an unknown date, but before 1759, Huber married the Parisian Anna-Louise l'Epine.[2][21] They had six or seven children, but all except the youngest child died in infancy.[2][21] The only surviving son was Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, who was born in 1764 and baptised "Louis Ferdinand" in the Catholic Church of Saint André des Arcs.[6][22]

Haugk's house in Leipzig

In 1766, on the recommendation of his friends Christian Felix Weiße and Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, Huber became the successor of Eleazar de Mauvillon as French language teacher at the University of Leipzig.[7] As he was Catholic, he did not receive an official Chair of the Protestant university, but he was in favour with the Catholic court of the Electorate of Saxony and supported by Duchess Maria Antonia of Bavaria, the dowager Electress, and the regent, Prince Francis Xavier of Saxony. He was given the title of professor and received his salary of 300 Reichsthaler from the private funds of the Elector.[23][24] When Huber and his family arrived in Leipzig, his wife spoke no German.[25] To be able to afford the rent of 225 Reichsthaler for an apartment in Haugk's house in Petersstraße, Huber's wife had to offer catering to students for money.[26] Huber continued to translate but also became a well-known art expert and collector of copper engravings.[2] From 1775, Huber lived in the Leipzig house that the Elector used as residence while visiting the city, and his wife was promised a future pension.[26] He had many cultivated friends and was well connected in society. His contacts included Christian Felix Weiße, Adam Friedrich Oeser, Christian Fürchtegott Gellert and Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn.[27]

In his later years, Huber became an art historian.[28] He translated Johann Joachim Winckelmann's 1764 History of Art in Antiquity from German into French, expanded the work and included a biography of the author; it appeared in three volumes in 1781.[2][29] It plays an important role in Winckelmann's reception in France.[30] Huber had a collection of copper engravings and used it for teaching; the young Goethe was one of his students.[28] He edited several catalogues of engravings and wrote a related nine-volume work that was translated from his French manuscript and published as Handbuch für Kunstliebhaber und Sammler über die vornehmsten Kupferstecher und ihre Werke: vom Anfange dieser Kunst bis auf gegenwärtige Zeit ('Handbook for art lovers and collectors about the most noble copper engravers and their works: from the beginning of this art to the present time') from 1796 to 1804.[2][28] A general theory of art was included in the work.[28]

Huber's wife died in 1800.[31] After her death, he decided to visit his son, who lived with his wife Therese Huber and his children and step-children in Stuttgart,[31] where he arrived on 20 May 1801 together with his housekeeper Christiane.[32] He fell ill and was only able to return on 4 August, when his daughter-in-law accompanied him and Christiane on the journey back to Leipzig.[31][32] In Leipzig, he recovered and returned to work, but was frail for his final years until his death on 15 April 1804.[31]

Huber was an important mediator between German and French literary circles.[33] He has been described as a precursor of German literary scholarship.[2] Goethe mentioned him in his autobiography, stating "Huber, a print collector, and a well-experienced connoisseur, had furthermore the gratefully acknowledged merit of having determined to make the worth of German literature known to the French."[34]