BEKKER, IALILANUEL, a distinguished philologist, was born at Berlin in 1785, and died 7th June 1871. He completed his classical education at the university of Halle under the famous F. A. Wolf, who was accustomed to speak of him as his most promising pupil. In 1810 he was appointed to a professorship in the university of Berlin. For several years, between 1810 and 1821, he travelled in France, Italy, England, and parts of Germany, examining classical manuscripts and gathering materials for his great editorial labours. Some detached fruits of his researches were given in the Anecdota Grceca, 3 vols., 1814-21; but the full result of his unwearied industry and ability is to be found in the enormous array of classical works edited by him. The most famous are Plato, 10 vols.,1814-21 ; Oratores Attici, 7 vols., 1823 ; Aristoteles (the Berlin edition), 4 vols., 1831-36; Thucydides, 3 vols., 1821 ; Aristophanes, 3 vols., 1825; Sextus Empiricus, 1842. He also edited 24 volumes of the Byzantine historians. Bekker confined himself entirely to textual recension and criticism, and contributed little to the extension of general scholarship. He was well read in the old French literature, particularly that of Provence, and contributed many papers on it to the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy.

BEL. See BAAL.