Georg Amadeus Carl Friedrich Naumann - Life

Life

Naumann was born at Dresden, the son of a distinguished musician and composer. He received his early education at Pforta, studied at Freiberg under Werner, and afterwards at Leipzig and Jena. He graduated at Jena, and was occupied in 1823 in teaching in that town and in 1824 at Leipzig. In 1826 he succeeded Mohs as professor of crystallography, in 1835 he became professor also of geognosy at Freiberg; and in 1842 he was appointed professor of mineralogy and geognosy in the university of Leipzig. At Freiberg he was charged with the preparation of a geological map of Saxony, which he carried out with the aid of Bernhard von Cotta in 1846.

Naumann was a man of encyclopedic knowledge, lucid and fluent as a teacher. Early in life (1821-1822) he traveled in Norway, and his observations on that country, and his subsequent publications on crystallography, mineralogy and geology established his reputation. He was awarded the Wollaston Medal by the Geological Society of London in 1868, and he died at Leipzig.

He published Beitrage zur Kenntniss Norwegens (2 vols., 1824); Lelirbuch der Mineralogie (1828); Lehrbuch der reinen und ange wandten Krystallographie (2 vols. and atlas, 1830); Elemente der Mineralogie (1846; ed. 9, 1874; the 10th ed. by F. Zirkel, 1877); and Lehrbuch der Geognosie (2 vols. and atlas, 1849-1854, ed. 2, 1858-1872).