Ihre, Johann Von

Ihre, Johann von a Swedish philologian, was born March 3, 1707, at Lund, and educated at the universities of Upsala, Greifswald, Jena, and Halle. At the last-named high school he afterwards lectured for a time on the Oriental languages, then traveled extensively in Germany, Holland, England, and France, and on his return to his native country was appointed librarian at Upsala University. In 1737 he was appointed professor of poetry, and the year following professor of rhetoric, which he remained for forty years. He died Nov. 26, 1780. He distinguished himself greatly by his thorough investigations into the philological merits of his mother tongue, and by his labors on the Gothic version of Ulfilas, the results of which are left us in Scripta versionem Ulphilanam et lieng. Maeso-gothicam illustrentia, which were collected and edited by A. F. Büsching (Berl. 1773, 4to). This collection (which is very rare, as only 131 copies were printed) contains,

1. Ulphilas illustratus, a series of critical observations on the readings of the Codex Argenteus, with a preface, in which he attempts to prove 'that the letters of the Codex were produced by an encaustic process, the surface of the parchment having been covered with wax, on which silver-leaf was laid, and the form of the letter stamped thereon with a hot iron;"

2. Fragmenta vers. Ulph., containing the portions of the Epistle to the Romans published by Knittel, with annotations;

"3. Dissertatio de originibuss Ling. Lat. et Gr. inter Mesogothos reperiundis;

4. De verbis Moesogoth; Analecta Ulphil., i, de Cod. Argent. et litt. Goth., 2, de nominibus subst. et adject. Maesogoth.;

5. De Ling. Cod. Arg.;

6. Specimen Gloss. Ulphil., cume praejationibus. An Appendix to the work contains tracts by other writers. He wrote also De usu LXX interpretum in N.T. (Upsal. 1730): — De usu accentuum Hebraeorum (ibid. 1733). See Kitto, Cyclopaedia Bib. Lit. 2, 377; Jocher, Gelehrt. Lex., Adelung's Add. 2, 2270 sq.

I. H. S.

is an inscription or monogram which has probably been used by the Christian Church from an early date among the sacred symbols on church furniture, and in painted windows of the house of God, but its use has by no means been confined to ecclesiastical buildings. On tombs, roofs, and walls of houses, on books, and on other possessions of Christians, this monogram has been, and is even now, frequently impressed, especially among the adherents of the Roman, Greek, and Anglican churches. The interpretations which have been given of this mystic title are threefold. One is that they are the initials of the words "In Hoc Signo," borrowed from the luminous cross which it is said was miraculously displayed in the sky before Constantine and his army. Others make them the initials of the words "Jesus Hominusm Salvator," especially the Jesuits, who use it for their badge and motto in the form I.H.S; and still another, that they are the first three letters of the Greek ΙΗΣΟΥΣ, Jesus. This last opinion has been espoused by the late "Cambridge Camden Society" in a work which they published on this subject: Argument for the Greek Origin of the Monogram L H. S. (London, 1841). The earliest Christian emblems found also seem to confirm this opinion, as they are in every case written in the Greek language, and "the celebrated monogram inscribed by Constantine's order on the labarum, or standard of the cross, was undoubtedly Greek." Eusebius (Eccles. Hist.), in describing the famous standard, says, "A long spear, overlaid with gold, formed the figure of the cross by means of a piece laid transversely over it. On the top of the whole was fixed a crown, formed by the intertexture of gold and precious stones; and on this two letters indicating the name of Christ symbolized the Savior's title by means of its first characters, the letter P being intersected by a X exactly in its center; and these letters the emperor was in the habit of Wearing on his helmet at a later period." In regard to the shape of the letter S being Roman, and not (reek, The Church, a paper of the Church of England in Canada, says, "It might easily have become corrupted (i.e. the Greek Σ into a Latin S) —it would not, indeed, have been intelligible except to a few of the best scholars unless it were corrupted-and so could scarcely have escaped transmutation when the knowledge of the Greek tongue, which we are certified was the case, perished, or very nearly so, during the Middle Ages in the Western Church." — Staunton, Eccl. Dict. p. 382; Blunt, Eccles. Dict. 1, 375. SEE LABARUM.