{{short description|German jurist and scholar of Dante Alighieri}} thumb|upright|Karl Witte. '''Johann Heinrich Friedrich Karl Witte''' (July{{nbsp}}1, 1800{{snd}}March{{nbsp}}6, 1883) was a German jurist and scholar of Dante Alighieri.
==Biography== Karl Witte was born in Lochau, now part of Schkopau. He was the son of pastor Karl Heinrich Gottfried Witte (1767–1845) who encouraged a fairly intense program of learning. When Karl Witte was nine, he spoke German, French, Italian, Latin, and Greek, and on April 10, 1814, at the age of 13, he became a doctor of philosophy at the University of Giessen in Germany.<ref>{{cite book|last=Witte|first=Karl Heinrich Gottfried|title=The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of the Child|year=1914|publisher=Thomas Y. Crowell Company|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/stream/educationkarlwi00wiengoog|editor=Bruce, H. Addington|accessdate=September 1, 2013|pages=xvii, 312}}</ref> As a result, Witte was listed in ''The Guinness Book of World Records'' as the "youngest doctorate", a record that still stands; however, ''The Guinness Book of World Records'' lists his age as 12.<ref>{{cite web|last=Wolf|first=Buck|title=10 Unbreakable Guinness Records|url=http://www.aolnews.com/2009/10/23/ten-unbreakable-guinness-records/|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130901190008/http://www.aolnews.com/2009/10/23/ten-unbreakable-guinness-records/|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 1, 2013|publisher=AOL News|accessdate=September 1, 2013|date=October 23, 2009}}</ref>
Witte was the subject of a book written by his father: ''The Education of Karl Witte: Or, The Training of the Child''{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}. This book attracted criticism and soon fell into oblivion in Germany{{citation needed|date=November 2025}}.
He achieved his reputation as a Dante scholar in 1823 with his essay "The Art of Misunderstanding Dante".<ref>{{cite news|last=Riordan|first=Roger|title=Four Recent Books: Verse by Thomas Hardy, Essays on Dante, The Chinese Classics, and a Bismarck Book|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/03/11/100437311.pdf|accessdate=September 1, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|date=March 11, 1899}}</ref>
Witte died in Halle.
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=26365}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Karl Witte}} * "The Art of Misunderstanding Dante" in {{Google books|VUUasKZ6mxMC|Essays on Dante|page=19}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Witte, Johann Heinrich Friedrich Karl}} Category:1800 births Category:1883 deaths Category:Leipzig University alumni Category:German Byzantinists Category:German jurists Category:19th-century German philosophers Category:Italian–German translators Category:19th-century German translators Category:Dante scholars Category:Translators of Dante Alighieri