Autograph letter signed.

4to. 3 pp. on bifolium with integral address panel. A Latin letter addressed to his friend, the classical scholar Christian Gottfried Sch tz, on a question of ancient pedagogical literature: "Quaeritur de mathemate paedagogico-literario". - Niemeyer is intent on tracking down a reference he has found to an (apparently lost) work of Cato the Elder, On the Education of Children. Niemeyer cites references to this spurious work in the writings of Macrobius and Italian humanist Maffeo Vegio. His frustration in the hunt for what he would consider a valuable contribution to ancient discourse on pedagogy is apparent in the exasperated formulation of his questions to Sch tz: "Unde, quaeso, haec hausit Vegius? Num saeculo quo floruit XV adhuc extitit Catonis scriptum? An in Stobaeo aliquo romano (mihi quidem ignoto) fragmentum reperit?" ("Where, I ask you, has Vegio got this from? Did Cato's text really still exist in his (Vegio's) time? Or did he find a fragment somewhere in a Roman Stobaeus (very much unknown to me!)?"). Niemeyer finishes by calling on Sch tz's expertise for assistance: "Ad tuum, doctissime Sch tzi, in divinando acumen confugio" ("I thus take refuge, most learned Sch tz, in your critical acumen"). - Six years earlier, Niemeyer had published a collection of ancient texts (with notes and German translations) on the theory of pedagogy which he had dedicated to Sch tz. His interest in the Greek and Roman didactic practice formed part of Niemeyer's wider project as an educationalist. Among the best-known products of his work in this field was the monumental "Grunds tze der Erziehung und des Unterrichts", which saw numerous editions and translations. In this Latin letter we thus are afforded a glimpse into the detailed historical and philological work that went into the development of Niemeyer's thought as a educational theorist. - The letter is heavily spotted with browning and foxing throughout. There is a small tear (with evidence of later repair) from seal opening on the counter-leaf. Evidence of later collectors on the first folio. - Cf. Niemeyer, Grunds tze der Erziehung und des Unterrichts f r Eltern, Hauslehrer und Erzieher (Halle, 1796.); Niemeyer, Originalstellen griechischer und r mischer Classiker ber die Theorie der Erziehung und des Unterrichts (Halle & Berlin, 1813).